Missouri Medical Marijuana Initiative Falls Short on Signatures for November Ballots

August 9, 2016
AggregatedNews
Missouri
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It looked like 2016 might finally be the year for medical marijuana to gain a legal foothold in Missouri.

Opinion polls suggested the state might finally be ready to join places like Colorado. New Approach Missouri, the group formed to bring a ballot initiative to voters in November, raked in an astonishing $1.3 million in contributions as of July 15. Even a Sinquefield — Luke Sinquefield, son of Rex and resident of Pacific Palisades, California — signed on in support.

But this morning, Secretary of State Jason Kander announced that he had rejected the group’s ballot-placement effort. They simply didn’t have enough signatures.

Under the law, a group trying to place an initiative on Missouri ballots must gather signatures from a certain percentage of voters in six of the state’s eight congressional districts. Kander says the pro-pot group only made the grade in five — enough to bar it from the ballot.

The shortfall in the state’s Second Congressional District, which includes St. Louis, St. Charles and Jefferson counties, appears to have surprised organizers. They gathered 40,745 signatures there, according to Kander — but only 32,337 were valid. That is just 2,200 signatures short. [Read more at Riverfront Times]

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