North Dakota Cannabis Legalization Issue Struck Down

Despite favorable poll numbers, North Dakota’s Issue 3, an adult-use cannabis legalization ballot measure, failed Nov. 6. Voters shot the issue down by a wide margin of 60 to 40.

The measure would have immediately decriminalized cannabis for adults 21 and older, and the ballot language included a directive to seal all past records of cannabis-related crimes in the state. “This model is 100-percent plug-and-play,” David Owen, chairman of Legalize ND, told Cannabis Business Times earlier this year.

Voters, who approved a medical marijuana law in 2016, did not support the mission and intent of Legalize ND.

"I’m very pleased that the people of North Dakota have rejected this wild measure that was so poorly drafted," Bob Wefald, chair of North Dakotans against the Legalization of Recreational Marijuana, told the Bismarck Tribune. "It was such an overreach; it would’ve been a disaster for the state of North Dakota had it passed." (Wefald also told the newspaper that he’s open to supporting a a more limited decriminalization policy in the future.)

North Dakota failed to join Michigan in that state’s successful attempt to bring cannabis reform into the geographic heart of the country. 

Top photo courtesy of Adobe Stock