Recreational marijuana sales now legal in Missouri

AVI HOLZMAN SENIOR NEWS EDITOR

Last week, as a part of Amendment 3, which Missourians voted in favor of last November, the recreational sale of marijuana became legal in the state of Missouri.

The amendment expunges criminal records of individuals arrested for possession of marijuana, prohibits law enforcement from searching a vehicle purely on the suspicion that the substance is in a vehicle, and makes the sale of recreational marijuana via dispensaries legal. You must be 21 to legally purchase marijuana and cannot be in possession of more than three ounces of the substance at any one time.

As opposed to legalizing marajuana through a law, the Missouri state legislature let the decision fall upon the people of Missouri in the form of a constitutional amendment. Peter Joy, a Professor of Law and Director of the Criminal

Justice Clinic at Washington University Law, explained that constitutional amendments are much harder to overturn than laws. WashU students and faculty members reacted to the news in a variety of ways, ranging from highly positive to skeptical. Senior Sophie Conroy, Executive Director of the WashU Political Review (WUPR), expressed that the amendment is written in a way that is unfair to those trying to get permits in order to open dispensaries.

Marijuana became medically legal in Missouri in November of 2018, after Missourians voted in favor of Amendment 2. Amendment 3 uses Ammendment 2’s legal precedent of dispensary permit distribution as a guide for how to give out permits in 2023 for those interested.

Conroy called the process “unfair,” as she said the vast majority of permits were given to white-owned businesses.

Sophomore William VanDyke echoed Conroy’s

DATAMATCH from page 1

Senior Ethan Liss-Roy explained that while he has been unable to use Datamatch the past three Valentine’s Days, he is open to doing it this year.

“Freshman year, I guess I was just kind of intimidated,” he said. “I was also a little worried about data security. Sophomore spring, I took the semester off, and junior spring I was abroad, so I wasn’t here.”

While Liss-Roy said that he has not thought much about whether or not he will complete the survey this year, he stated that if he did use the service he would likely choose to receive both romantic and platonic matches. sentiment by explaining that “the benefits of the legal [marijuana] business are generally not accessible to those people who were selling marijuana when it was illegal.”

Public opinion on Datamatch has carefully toed the line between being a fun activity and a full-on joke.

“I think it’s been pretty common to do it just for fun,” Liss-Roy said.

For freshman Jaida Taveras, who was only recently made aware of the existence of Datamatch, it presents a fun opportunity to do an activity with peers. Taveras said that a lot of her friends in Lien, the dorm she lives in, are planning on taking the survey with one another.

Conroy ultimately voted in favor of Amendment 3 because it expunges the records of those incarcerated on simple marijuana possession charges. Joy also discussed how Amendment 3 will impact the way law enforcement can arrest people in relation to marijuana.

According to Joy, it is now illegal for an officer to pull over a vehicle just because they smell the odor of marijuana. Furthermore, police dogs formerly used to detect marijuana either have to be re-trained, or be transferred to the Transportation Security Administration so they can be used to detect marijuana at U.S. federal borders.

Joy hasn’t seen WashU, which follows federal regulations, release any statements about Missouri’s

“We’ll take it seriously in the sense that it could end up being cool,” Taveras said. “We have nothing to lose so why not take it a little seriously and also have fun with it.”

After Datamatch releases its results to participating students, matches will have the ability to message one another and even meet in person through an event called Datamatch Cafe, in the DUC Fun Room on Feb. 16, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. At the event, students can mingle and meet their matches to see if there is as much of a spark as the algorithm predicts.