Supporters of a voter initiative campaign that seeks to legalize medical marijuana in Idaho say the effort remains on track.
That’s despite a state judge’s recent ruling that thousands of signatures were submitted too late to count.
The signatures arrived at the Minidoka County Clerk’s office at 5:05 p.m. May 1 – minutes after the close of business and the statutory filing deadline – when a contractor for the pro-MMJ campaign Natural Medicine Alliance of Idaho tried to drop them off, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.
County Clerk Tonya Page declined to count them, citing security footage that showed the contractor arriving in the parking lot after hours, according to the newspaper.
Is medical marijuana legal in Idaho?
The pro-cannabis campaign sued to force the county to validate the signatures. But District Judge Reed Cotten rejected the claim in a June 18 ruling, finding the petitions were turned in after the deadline, the Capital Sun reported.
Despite the loss, organizers remain optimistic. The group collected about 150,000 signatures statewide and spent roughly $2 million on paid signature gatherers, according to the Capital Sun.
“We got a very significant number of signatures over the required amount,” Natural Medicine Alliance spokesperson Amanda Watson told the Idaho Capital Sun.
“And based on those numbers, we do feel confident.”
Idaho is one of the few states where there is no legal cannabis access of any kind. Lawmakers there last year considered a bill that would restrict legalization to the Legislature and not a ballot initiative.
Will Idaho legalize medical cannabis?
To qualify for the ballot in Idaho, organizers must gather valid signatures from 6% of registered voters statewide as well as 6% of voters in at least 18 of the state’s 35 legislative districts.
The late filing is not the only hurdle.
The Idaho Secretary of State’s office told the Natural Medicine Alliance that it must verify whether some of its signature gatherers were Idaho residents.
Under state law, circulators must live in Idaho and be at least 18 years old. Signatures collected by anyone who doesn’t meet those qualifications will not count.
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Secretary of State Phil McGrane had urged the group to submit signatures early, warning that a last-minute flood would strain county clerks already managing the May primary.
Counties were set to finish verification on Tuesday after which the state will conduct its final tally.
Signature-gathering issues have thwarted other statewide cannabis legalization campaigns.
Possibly the most notable example is Florida, where state law enforcement went as far as to arrest paid signature gatherers for a marijuana multistate operator-funded adult-use legalization effort.
New medical cannabis markets recently opened in Kentucky and in Alabama, while a cultivator in Nebraska was recently cleared to plant the first medical cannabis crop.
