BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota ballot initiative group could collect signatures to put a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana on a statewide ballot this fall, the state’s top election official said Thursday, in the latest legalization effort in the conservative state .
The New Economic Frontier must submit 15,582 valid signatures to Secretary of State Michael Howe by July 8 to vote in the November general election. Otherwise, the group has a year to collect enough signatures for the next statewide election.
The 20-page legislative measure would legalize recreational marijuana for people 21 and older to use at home and, if permitted, on the private property of others. The measure also outlines numerous production and processing regulations, prohibited uses – such as in public or in vehicles – and growing plants at home.
Leading the initiative is Steve Bakken, Burleigh County commissioner and former mayor of Bismarck, who said he has never smoked marijuana and never will. He said law enforcement resources need to be “directed somewhere a little more effectively,” such as combating fentanyl and other illegal drugs. He said the group also wants to avert the potential of a poorly developed initiative.
“If we don’t act now, we’re going to end up with something that’s untenable to work with,” Bakken said, adding that he expects the group to collect enough signatures before the July deadline.
Criminal defense attorney Mark Friese, a former Bismarck police officer, is also among those backing the measure. He said North Dakota is on the verge of becoming an island because neighboring states and Canada have legalized marijuana or made similar efforts. Law enforcement resources also play “a big part,” Friese said.
“We are overspending, we are overspending, we are criminalizing behavior that is more benign than alcohol consumption, and we have a mental health and drug crisis going on in our communities, and we are diverting law enforcement resources from methamphetamine. and fentanyl to make marijuana arrests,” Friese said. “It’s just illogical.”
The measure would establish maximum purchase and possession quantities of 1 ounce of dried leaves or flowers, 4 grams of cannabinoid concentrate, 1,500 mg of total THC in the form of a cannabis product and 300 mg of an edible product. The measure would allow cannabis solutions, capsules, transdermal patches, concentrates, topical and edible products.
Marijuana use by people under the age of 21 is a low-level crime in the state. Recreational use by older people is not a crime. Penalties for possession range from a misdemeanor to various felonies depending on the amount of marijuana. Delivery of any amount of marijuana is a misdemeanor, which can be increased depending on certain factors, such as if the offense occurred within 300 feet of a school.
In 2023, 4,451 people statewide were charged with ingestion or possession of marijuana, according to North Dakota Courts data requested by The Associated Press.
North Dakota voters rejected previous legalization measures in 2018 and 2022. In 2021, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed bills to legalize and tax recreational marijuana, which the Republican-majority Senate rejected.
Republican Senator Janne Myrdal said she is “resolutely against” legalizing recreational marijuana, saying: “I just don’t believe in the legalization of illegal drugs.
“It’s kind of like, what else are we going to legalize?” Myrdal said. “Other countries have started to legalize all kinds of abuses and things that are negative for young people, negative for the human body in general. I think we’re going in the wrong direction if we say, ‘Oh well, people are going to do it anyway, so let’s just legalize it.’ As far as I’m concerned, that’s an incorrect argument.”
North Dakota voters approved medical marijuana in 2016. The state-run program has nearly 10,000 active patient charts.
In 2019, the state’s Pardon Advisory Board approved a new process to grant pardons for low-level marijuana offenses, helping Republican Gov. Doug Burgum grant 100 pardons, according to his office.
Twenty-four states have legalized marijuana for adults, most recently in Ohio on an initiative in November, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Other legalization efforts are underway in other states. Florida voters will decide on a ballot initiative in November. According to NORML, signature-gathering efforts for similar measures are underway in states such as Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.