On Friday, May 4, 2018, the New Approach Missouri (NAM) medical marijuana initiative campaign filed more than 372,400 signatures with the Office of the Missouri Secretary of State in Jefferson City.
This represents the first phase of NAM’s campaign to bring medical marijuana to the Show-Me state. Only 168,000 valid signatures are required in order to place the legalization of medical cannabis on the November 2018 ballot in Missouri.
The second phase will be a public information campaign to educate Missouri voters about NAM’s initiative once all the signatures are validated by election officials.
All polling has indicated that support for medical marijuana in Missouri is well above 60%. Only a simple majority of voters is required in order to amend the state’s Constitution.
Although one or possibly two other medical marijuana (MMJ) initiatives may be placed on the ballot, the NAM medical marijuana initiative will be first among the Constitutional amendments. If either of the two Constitutional amendments pass, the one with more votes will be enacted.
Fieldworks, a professional petitioning company hired by NAM supplemented signature gathering and ensured the validity of the registered voters who signed.
The initiative was originally launched by hundreds of volunteers who started canvassing more than a year an a half ago. These cannabis supporters and enthusiasts gathered more than 135,000 signatures which is unprecedented for a grass-roots medical marijuana legalization campaign.
The NAM MMJ initiative is unique in Missouri by allowing patient cultivation while the other two medical marijuana initiatives being circulated do not allow patient cultivation.
NAM’s initiative specifies a tax of 4% which will benefit the Missouri Veterans’ Health and Care Fund. The other Constitutional amendment initiative would impose the highest tax on medical marijuana in the country. That tax would go to support a medical research institute to be headed by an individual who is both a lawyer and a doctor, which, by the way, the petition author of that initiative holds both a J.D. and an M.D. degree. The institute head would hand pick its board of directors.
Missouri voters and patients now have a clear path to obtaining the most patient friendly medical marijuana initiative with large grass-roots support. You can support the second phase by donating to New Approach Missouri here: https://newapproachmissouri.nationbuilder.com/donate