In less than two weeks, voters in Missouri will decide on an amendment to legalize recreational pot in the state, a prospect that has some established medical cannabis businesses eyeing expansion.

The St. Louis Business Journal has a report out this week on the ballot proposal, known as Amendment 3, which is “projected to create a significantly larger market for the companies that have already emerged as major players in the state’s legal medical marijuana market.”

The outlet highlighted “Proper Cannabis, a St. Louis-based medical dispensary that opened a $20 million facility in Rock Hill last year, operates three dispensaries in the St. Louis region,” which has recently expanded “its existing facility by 25,000 to 30,000 square feet in preparation for a drastic increase in demand.”

“It’s both exciting and needed,” Proper Cannabis CEO John Pennington told the Business Journal. “What you have in Missouri is two to three times the number of people who are likely already consuming, who will now have safe, compliant and enjoyable places to shop with reliable quality products and medicine.” 

Medical cannabis opened for business in Missouri in the fall of 2020 after voters there passed a measure legalizing the treatment in 2018. 

A year after the medical marijuana program launched, the state reported that the industry had grown to more than 140 dispensaries employing about 5,000 people.

The St. Louis Business Journal also reported on “BeLeaf Medical, an Earth City-based medical cannabis firm, made a notable change as it prepares for the possibility of a market expansion into recreational cannabis.”

According to the outlet, the company recently hired Jason Nelson as its new CEO. Nelson “joined the company three and a half months ago from Chicago-based Cresco Labs, where he was the cannabis firm’s senior vice president of horticulture,” and where he “helped the company expand into 10 states, including five that made the transition from medical to recreational sales.”

Amendment 3 officially qualified for the Missouri ballot in August, when Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said that the group behind the proposal, Legal Missouri 2022, had submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures.

“Our statewide coalition of activists, business owners, medical marijuana patients and criminal justice reform advocates has worked tirelessly to reach this point, and deserves all the credit,” Legal Missouri campaign manager John Payne said in a statement at the time. “Our campaign volunteers collected 100,000 signatures, on top of paid signature collection. That outpouring of grassroots support among Missourians who want to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis made all the difference. We look forward to engaging with voters across the state in the coming weeks and months. Missourians are more than ready to end the senseless and costly prohibition of marijuana.”

If it is approved by voters, Amendment 3 will allow “Missourians 21 years and older to possess, purchase, consume and cultivate marijuana,” and “Missourians with nonviolent marijuana-related offenses to automatically expunge their criminal records.”

The initiative would also create a legal marijuana market that would impose a six percent sales tax on weed.

“Beyond covering administrative expenses and the costs to process automatic expungements, any remaining surplus will be split equally between veterans’ healthcare, drug addiction treatment, and Missouri’s underfunded public defender system,” Legal Missouri explains on its website.

In addition, it would allow local governments in Missouri to levy their own sales taxes of up to three percent. According to the group, state officials “project additional annual revenue of at least $40.8 million and additional local government revenues of at least $13.8 million.”

The amendment’s prospects are difficult to gauge, with polling on the proposal all over the map.

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A coalition of groups opposed to drug reform efforts has filed a lawsuit to block an initiative to legalize recreational pot from the Missouri ballot, arguing the measure did not meet constitutional requirements and failed to receive enough petition signatures. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft certified the initiative, which would legalize marijuana for adults and permit commercial cannabis activity, earlier this month.

John Payne, a spokesman for Legal Missouri, the group sponsoring the legalization effort, said that it is the only initiative that had the public support necessary to collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

“This lawsuit lacks merit and in less than three months Missouri will be the 20th state to regulate, tax and legalize cannabis,” said Payne.

The lawsuit was filed on August 19 on behalf of Joy Sweeney, a resident of Jefferson City, Missouri, who serves as the deputy director of training, technical assistance and community outreach for Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, a coalition of community groups that aims to prevent substance use and abuse. The legal action is also supported by Protect Our Kids PAC, a Colorado-based super PAC started earlier this year to oppose drug policy reform efforts.

“Not only does the language deceive voters about the harms of legalization, it is in violation of state law and the Missouri Constitution,” Luke Niforatos, the CEO of Protect Our Kids PAC, said in a statement. “We hope the courts will rule on this issue expeditiously and spare Missouri’s children from targeting by Big Marijuana.”

JoDonn Chaney, a spokesman for the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, said the office had not been officially served with the suit and that he could not comment on the specifics of the legal action. But he added that the signature totals and certification process “speak for themselves.”

“The individuals responsible for submitting this (initiative petition) met the constitutional requirements as required by statute, therefore Secretary Ashcroft certified Amendment 3 to the ballot,” Chaney said. “The secretary followed the law and fulfilled his statutory duty and stands behind his certification.”

To qualify for the ballot in Missouri, initiative campaigns must collect enough signatures from registered voters to equal at least 8% of the votes cast in the 2020 gubernatorial election in a minimum of six of the state’s eight congressional districts. Those backing the lawsuit note that unofficial tabulations of the petition signatures conducted by local election officials last month showed the campaign was short by 2,275 signatures. But after backers of the petition requested a review of the total by the Secretary of State’s Office, officials determined that the campaign had collected enough signatures and Ashcroft certified the petition for the November ballot on August 9.

The legal action claims that Ashcroft “certified and counted signatures that were marked through by the local election authorities and, absent this action, the marijuana initiative petition would not have had a sufficient number of valid signatures in six of eight congressional districts.” The suit notes that signature counts and voter rolls requested under Missouri’s open records law have not been provided to the plaintiff.

The lawsuit also alleges that the marijuana legalization initiative fails to comply with requirements that ballot measures cover only one subject. Under the Missouri Constitution, initiative petitions that amend the state constitution, “shall not contain more than one amended and revised article of this constitution, or one new article which shall not contain more than one subject and matters properly connected therewith.”

The court filing for the suit claims that the initiative would not only legalize recreational marijuana but would also criminalize cannabis possession beyond a statutory limit, create a process for licensing marijuana cultivators, set tax guidelines, create a new position to oversee licensing “on a preferential basis,” and establish a system to expunge past marijuana convictions.

Under Missouri law, the lawsuit will be advanced to the court docket so it can be heard and decided in an expedited manner.

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It is still unclear whether a proposal to legalize cannabis use for adults will qualify for this year’s ballot in Missouri. But if it does, it’s a good bet to pass.

That is the takeaway of a new poll conducted and released late last month.

Sixty-two percent of Missouri voters said they believe marijuana for recreational use should be legal, according to the latest findings from SurveyUSA. Only 26% of those polled said that weed should remain illegal.

Huge majorities of Democrats and independents in the Show Me State support the end of cannabis prohibition, the survey found.

Seventy-eight percent of Dems said that recreational pot use should be legal, while 68% of Missouri independents said the same.

Republicans in the state were more divided on the question, with 47% of GOP voters in Missouri saying that recreational cannabis use should be legal and 40% saying it should remain illegal.

Huge majorities in every age group said they support legalization—except for those 65 and older.

Seventy-three percent of voters aged 18-34 said they are in favor of ending prohibition, while 70% of the 35-49 age group and 60% of those aged 50-64 said the same.

Among voters 65 and older, the split was identical to the divide among Republicans: 47% said they support legalization, while 40% said they do not.

The SurveyUSA poll was conducted July 24-27 and is based on interviews with 1,981 registered Missouri voters. It has a margin of error of 2.6%.

All told, the polling data is highly encouraging to advocates who are hoping that Missouri becomes the latest state to legalize recreational pot use this year.

But first, they must get the question before voters in the state.

That remains up in the air, as the Missouri secretary of state’s office continues to assess petitions submitted by a group aiming to get a legalization initiative on this year’s ballot.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said last month that it is too early to say whether organizers gathered the required number of signatures in order for an initiative to qualify.

Under Missouri state law, organizers must obtain signatures from 8% of registered voters in six of the eight congressional districts.

In May, the group Legal Missouri 2022 submitted more than 385,000 signatures to Ashcroft’s office, well above the requisite threshold. 

But local television station KFVS reported last month that, although the group had obtained the required number signatures in four congressional districts, the counts in the other four districts were less than certain.

Ashcroft’s office is expected to make a final decision on the initiative by August 9.

“I can’t say without any certainty whether it will make it or not. It is in no way certain that they will fail. This isn’t dead,” Ashcroft told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Organizers affiliated with Legal Missouri, meanwhile, continue to express optimism that voters will have an opportunity to weigh in on the initiative come November.

“The Legal Missouri 2022 campaign continues to work to ensure that every valid voter signature is counted properly, and is excited that Missouri voters will soon have their opportunity to decide for themselves,” the group’s campaign manager, John Payne, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last month.

“Our close review of voter signature totals submitted to the state by counties shows that we have more than enough signatures to qualify our citizens’ initiative for the November general election ballot — and that some counties, due to a reliance on temporary workers, mistakenly rejected thousands of valid voter signatures. To be clear, this is not to suggest or imply any wrongdoing on the part of counties,” Payne added.

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Amid growing speculation that activists may have fallen short in their bid to get a cannabis legalization question on this year’s ballot in Missouri, a top official in the state said this week that the outcome is far from sealed.

“I can’t say without any certainty whether it will make it or not. It is in no way certain that they will fail. This isn’t dead,” Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Ashcroft’s office is reviewing hundreds of thousands of signatures submitted by Legal Missouri 2022, the group vying to get the question on this year’s ballot. If it were to pass, the initiative would legalize cannabis for Missouri adults aged 21 and older and establish a state-regulated marijuana market. It would provide a path for individuals in the state previously convicted of nonviolent pot-related offenses to have their records expunged.

But first, it must qualify for the ballot, and to do that, organizers “need signatures from 8% of the registered voters in six of the state’s eight congressional districts,” according to the Post-Dispatch. (That amounts to about 170,000 signatures total.)

The Associated Press reported that Legal Missouri “collected nearly twice the required number of signatures by mid-April, and it turned in more than 385,000 signatures” in early May.

But signs of trouble emerged earlier this week. Local television station KFVS reported on Tuesday that organizers had gathered a sufficient number of signatures in four congressional districts, but the count in the other four could come down to the wire.

Ashcroft’s office will make a final call on whether the initiative qualifies by August 9.

In the meantime, those involved with Legal Missouri are holding out hope.

“The Legal Missouri 2022 campaign continues to work to ensure that every valid voter signature is counted properly, and is excited that Missouri voters will soon have their opportunity to decide for themselves,” the group’s campaign manager, John Payne, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“Our close review of voter signature totals submitted to the state by counties shows that we have more than enough signatures to qualify our citizens’ initiative for the November general election ballot — and that some counties, due to a reliance on temporary workers, mistakenly rejected thousands of valid voter signatures. To be clear, this is not to suggest or imply any wrongdoing on the part of counties,” Payne continued.

Ashcroft himself did not rule out that possibility.

“There have been times in the past, when we went back and checked, we’ve found enough signatures,” Ashcroft said, as quoted by the Post-Dispatch.

Payne and other supporters of the initiative believe that the state’s previous embrace of medical cannabis, and the subsequent launch of that program, bode well for its chances this November.

In 2018, a large majority of Missouri voters approved an initiative that legalized medical pot for qualifying patients.

“Missourians now have confidence in our state government’s ability to operate a new division of state government that would regulate marijuana,” Legal Missouri says on its website. “The Department of Health and Senior Services has effectively administered the new program and met all guidelines set out by the Missouri Constitution.”

In addition to legalizing marijuana for adults and setting the framework for a regulated market, the initiative would also extend the “amount of time that medical marijuana patient and caregiver ID cards are valid from one to three years while keeping that cost low ($25),” according to Legal Missouri’s website. It would also reduce the $100 fee for patients who grow their own cannabis by 50%.

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