JEFFERSON CITY • Proponents of legalizing marijuana for medical use say 2018 is the year for Missouri. Public opinion has shifted. Money is flowing. And canvassers dot street corners.

But we’ve heard this before.

After raising more than $1.3 million through June of last year, a group called New Approach Missouri — run by some of the state’s most well-known marijuana advocates — narrowly missed the ballot after election officials tossed thousands of the group’s signatures.

This year, New Approach is coming back with a new approach — validating signatures and collecting them earlier, said Jack Cardetti, the group’s spokesman. He said the group has collected about 100,000 of the approximately 170,000 signatures it needs to make the November 2018 ballot.

“Our goal is to make Missouri the 30th state that allows state-licensed physicians to recommend medical marijuana to patients with debilitating illnesses,” he said.

Cardetti said the signatures — and $172,000 raised last fundraising quarter — are evidence of momentum months away from the May 2018 signature-gathering deadline.

Two other groups also are attempting to make the ballot. Springfield attorney and physician Dr. Brad Bradshaw is proposing his own constitutional amendment. He is the sole backer of the push, and said that canvassers had collected 142,000 signatures.

“We’re getting close,” Bradshaw said last week, adding that the main purpose of his measure is to finance a medical research institute, with marijuana tax revenue used as the funding mechanism. [Read more at St. Louis Post-Dispatch]