Proponents of Idaho medical marijuana ballot initiative abandon effort

Idaho trails far behind other states in legalizing medical marijuana, and it appears unlikely that will change anytime soon.

A group trying to raise enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot has given up, according to The Spokesman-Review.

Tesla Gillespie told the newspaper that her group, the Idaho Medical Marijuana Association, “wasn’t sufficiently united, organized, or funded to collect enough signatures.”

The group needed at least 56,000 signatures by Monday’s deadline.

Gillespie, a massage therapist and former certified nursing assistant, told the newspaper she didn’t know how many signatures had been collected before the group decided to quit.

Gillespie didn’t immediately respond to Marijuana Business Daily‘s request for comment.

Idaho lawmakers passed a bill in 2015 that would have protected seriously ill people from being convicted for possessing CBD with low amounts of THC, but even that narrowly defined bill was vetoed by Gov. Butch Otter.

Another CBD bill was killed by lawmakers in March.