Recreational marijuana backers can gather signatures for North Dakota ballot initiative

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota ballot initiative group can gather signatures to put a proposal legalizing recreational marijuana to a statewide vote in the fall, the state’s top election o cial said ursday, in the latest legalization effort in the conservative state.

e New Economic Frontier needs to submit 15,582 valid signatures to Secretary of State Michael Howe by July 8 to make the November general election ballot. Otherwise, the group has one year to gather enough signatures to make the next statewide election.

e 20-page statutory measure would legalize recreational marijuana for people 21 and older to use at their homes and, if permi ed, on others’ private property. e measure also outlines numerous production and processing regulations, prohibited uses — such as in public or in vehicles — and home cultivation of plants.

Leading the initiative is Steve Bakken, a Burleigh County commissioner and former Bismarck mayor who said he has never smoked marijuana and never will. He said law enforcement resources “should be directed someplace a li le more e ectual,” such as combating fentanyl and other illicit drugs. He said the group also wants to head o the potential of a poorly cra ed initiative.

“If we don’t do something now, we’re going to wind up ge ing something that is untenable to work with,” Bakken said, adding that he expects the group can gather enough signatures by the July deadline.

Criminal defense a orney Mark Friese, a former Bismarck police o cer, also is among the measure’s backers. He said North Dakota is poised to become an island as neighboring states and Canada have legalized marijuana or have similar e orts. Law enforcement resources also are “a big part,” Friese said.

“We spend too many resources, we spend too much money, we criminalize behavior that’s more benign than alcohol consumption, and we have a mental health and true drug crisis going on in our communities, and we’re diverting law enforcement resources away from methamphetamine and fentanyl to make marijuana arrests,” Friese said. “It’s just illogical.”

e measure would set maximum purchase and possession amounts of 1 ounce of dried leaves or owers, 4 grams of a cannabinoid concentrate, 1,500 mg of total THC in the form of a cannabis product and 300 mg of an edible product. e measure would allow cannabis solutions, capsules, transdermal patches, concentrates, topical and edible products.

Marijuana use by people under 21 is a low-level misdemeanor in the state. Recreational use by anyone older is not a crime.