The Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, R, responded to activists’ ballot measure for limited recreational cannabis possession earlier this week. The Idaho Citizens Coalition for Cannabis turned in an initial ballot measure for recreational cannabis possession at the beginning of June. They hoped the Secretary of State and the Attorney General would approve it so they could begin collecting voter signatures.
The Coalition ended up accepting almost all of the recommended changes from the Attorney General. They plan to thoroughly revise the measure and resubmit it for consideration.
“We didn’t have to take any of the suggestions—but some of them were really good suggestions and we did make those changes,” Russ Belville told Marijuana Moment last week. He is a longtime reform advocate spearheading the recreational cannabis possession measure.
Measure
Under the proposed Personal Adult Marijuana Decriminalization Act (PAMDA), citizens 21 and over can possess up to three ounces of raw cannabis on them at a private residence. Any public possession would remain criminal. Home growth would also be illegal under PAMDA.
However, transporting a personal amount of cannabis from a location that sells it legally is allowed. This provision is incredibly important because all surrounding states to Idaho — Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington — have legalized both medical and recreational cannabis for citizens. Idaho citizens have said they travel across state borders to purchase cannabis legally for both medical and recreational purposes.
Two revisions have been announced publicly since the Attorney General responded to the measure. First, the measure cleared up confusion surrounding the police. They CANNOT determine any driving impairment based on THC metabolites present in the bloodstream. Several states have issued concerns about this. However, recent research shows that cannabis does not impair driving as much as moderate alcohol use and even some legal prescription medications.
Concerns
The biggest concern Attorney General Wasden brought up is “social sharing.” He said it would allow multiple cannabis transactions to happen as long as each transaction remained under three ounces.
Russ Belville responded. “My reaction was, ‘yes—yes, it would,’” Belville said. “And the way I’m defending that…is that’s what people do now. They go in on an ounce, someone drives to Ontario to buy it, they bring it back, they keep their share and they give their other shares away to whoever went in on it. We want to make sure that’s legal.”
Restrictions
Activists face challenges moving forward. In April Governor Brad Little, R, signed S1110 requiring six percent of voter signatures to come from all 35 districts to qualify the measure for the ballot beyond the minimum number of signatures. Previously, the required threshold was for half the districts, around 18.
With this added challenge of getting signatures from all 35 districts, it could significantly delay or even prevent PAMDA from making it to the 2022 ballot. Consequently, the restrictive measure is being contested in the state’s Supreme Court from two different lawsuits.
Future
The Idaho Citizens Coalition for Cannabis has until May 1, 2022 to collect over 65,000 voter signatures. The Coalition hopes to gain more than that though. Some signatures could be thrown out for various reasons. If the ballot then falls below 65,000 signatures, it will not make it onto the 2022 ballot. That’s what happened in Nebraska last year. Because of this, both ballot measures for medical and recreational cannabis legalization on the 2020 ballot became removed. Idaho activists don’t want to repeat that.
PAMDA is not alone in Idaho reform efforts. In addition, Kind Idaho, another cannabis activist organization, launched a medical cannabis legalization ballot measure back in February. They also have until May 1, 2022 to collect over 65,000 signatures. As more information becomes available we will update you with the latest.
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