Time’s up, stoners. Please hand in your petitions now.

By Paul Danish

For months, marijuana activists have been circulating petitions to put recreational and medical marijuana initiatives on various states’ ballots.

Deadlines for handing in initiative petitions tend to fall in June and July, and as a result, activists in Arizona, Nebraska and Montana submitted their petitions recently. Here’s how they made out:

Arizona

In 2016, Arizona voters defeated a recreational marijuana ballot initiative, in part because of disagreements between rival pro-legalization factions. This year, supporters united behind Smart & Safe Arizona’s proposal, which needed 237,645 valid signatures to make it onto the ballot. Last week (on July 1), they turned in that many plus an additional 182,000, which works out to a total of more than — wait for it — 420,000. Sounds like they were trying to say, “We came to play.”

The initiative would legalize recreational pot for those 21 and older. They could possess up to an ounce of marijuana at a time and cultivate up to six plants. Marijuana sales would be taxed at 16%. People with prior pot convictions could petition the courts to have them expunged.

A poll taken in early June found that 66% of those surveyed either definitely or probably intended to vote for the initiative.

Fun fact: If the initiative passes, Arizona would be the first state with legal recreational marijuana to share a common border with Colorado. Well after a fashion, anyway. The northeast tip of Arizona and the southwest tip of Colorado touch (along with the southeast tip of Utah and the northwest tip of New Mexico) at Four Corners. Think of the Arizona-Colorado “line” as Colorado’s shortest state border.

Nebraska

Nebraska activists circulating a medical marijuana initiative petition needed 121,669 valid signatures to get on the November ballot, including 5% of the voters in a minimum of 38 counties. On July 2, they handed in petitions containing more than 182,000 names.

“We are confident that we’ve met the requirements for ballot qualification, and after seeing the outpouring of support for our petition, we’re even more confident that Nebraska voters will approve this initiative in November,” said State Senator Anna Wishart (D), co-chair of the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana campaign committee in a press release.

If passed, the initiative would allow doctors to recommend marijuana to patients with debilitating conditions. Those patients would be allowed to possess, buy and “discreetly” cultivate marijuana for personal use.

The signature-gathering campaign involved a lot of drama. For a while it was suspended due to the pandemic, but was re-launched in May with social distancing protocols, and one-use pens, in place. While most of the signatures were collected by paid canvassers, 33,000 were gotten by volunteers, included 14,000 in the last two and a half weeks of the drive.

The campaign also registered more than 5,000 new voters.

Montana

A couple of weeks ago, Montana activists turned in signatures for two initiatives, one for a statutory initiative to legalize recreational marijuana, and the second a constitutional amendment stating that one had to be 21 or older to participate in a legal marijuana business. (Currently the state constitution would allow 18-year-olds to participate.)

The statutory initiative needed roughly 25,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot. Supporters handed in roughly 52,000 names. The constitutional amendment needed about 51,000 signatures. It got about 80,000.

“We’ve overcome a global pandemic, wildfires, floods, hail, snow and hurricane force winds,” said Pepper Petersen, a spokesperson for New Approach Montana. “Our campaign implemented strict health protocols and worked around the clock so that Montana voters could sign our petitions safely and qualify these popular initiatives for the November ballot.”

Toward the end of the petition drive, the campaign snagged the endorsement of the Montana Democratic Party.

Given the number of signatures collected in all three states, odds are good that voters in Arizona, Nebraska and Montana will be voting on marijuana legalization initiatives this fall.

So will voters in South Dakota, where separate recreational and medical marijuana legalization initiatives were successfully petitioned onto the state ballot earlier this year.

Mississippi activists also succeeded in getting a medical marijuana initiative onto that state’s ballot months ago.

And New Jersey voters will cast their ballots for a recreational marijuana question that was put on the ballot by the state’s legislature.

Supporters of all the initiatives should keep in mind that getting on the ballot is the easy part. The hard part is getting the voters to approve the measures, especially if there’s organized opposition. Getting on the ballot is like winning the right to get in the ring with a 500-pound gorilla. Still, it’s a big step in the right direction.