A Missouri campaign has filed a series of 2026 ballot initiatives that aim to unify hemp and marijuana regulations by creating parity between the two cannabis industries with a revised licensing system and legislative mandates to amend current laws.
Missourians for a Single Market submitted four versions of the proposal with the secretary of state’s office on Tuesday. While the crux of the measures are the same, there are differences with respect to policies around taxes and regulatory authority over THC-infused beverages, for example.
The marijuana legalization law that voters passed in 2022 enshrined regulations in the state Constitution, limiting the legislature’s ability to make certain adjustments. The coalition behind the new initiatives is aiming to strike much of that language and instead give a constitutional mandate for lawmakers to develop statutory rules themselves.
Now that the measures are filed with the secretary of state’s office, there will be a 50-day review process after which officials can certify the language and clear advocates for signature gathering.
Once the campaign decides which version of the Single Market Amendment to pursue, the plan is to gather about 300,000 signatures from registered voters, beginning this fall. About 180,000 must be valid to secure ballot placement, with specific requirements for signature thresholds from the state’s congressional districts.
But that process could be complicated if the legislature moves forward with a pair of proposals that are being considered during an ongoing special session. One would revise Missouri’s congressional district map in a way that advantages Republicans and the other would require initiatives to get majority support in every congressional district across the state in order to be enacted.
Also, not everyone in the cannabis space is on board with the new reform proposal, with at least one Missouri marijuana industry association arguing that it would amount to a “repeal” of the voter-approve legalization law, while primarily benefitting the hemp market.
“Opposition from marijuana monopoly interests has blocked the pathway for reasonable legislation to regulate hemp,” Eapen Thampy, lead petitioner for the new effort, said in a press release on Tuesday. “Meanwhile thousands of businesses and their employees face persistent political jeopardy as the marijuana industry corruptly influences the levers of government. The Single Market Amendment seeks to end the monopoly and create a free and regulated market without favoritism.”
The measures say lawmakers “shall not create limits on the number of licenses issued, geographic restrictions stronger than those for the sale of alcohol or tobacco, or individual/entity licensing requirements stricter than those for retail establishments selling tobacco or alcohol.” They additionally specify that licensing fees for cannabis retail businesses could not exceed those for retail liquor sales.
There also would no longer be a purchase or possession limit for marijuana or hemp.
Among the initiatives’ provisions is one particularly unique policy that would make it so people could not only grow their own cannabis at their private residence, but also sell the product directly to other adult consumers or to retailers through a regulated pathway that involves testing.
“We want to expand and protect the ability of the individual adults to grow their own cannabis and process it for their own use,” Thampy told Marijuana Moment last month.
“Part of this is ensuring that hemp is regulated and protected, and marijuana is brought down to the free market level in terms of who can produce and sell it fairly,” he said.
Other notable provisions in the initiatives include those that would allow adults to self-certify as medical marijuana patients, provide a pathway for expungements for those with convictions for possession, sale or distribution of cannabis before August 28, 2027 and mandate retroactive state-level tax relief for cannabis businesses that have been deprived of their ability to deduct federal taxes under the Internal Revenue Service code known as 280E.
The four initiatives that were filed on Tuesday share the same fundamental goal, but there are unique differences.
For example, two of the measures would impose an 11 percent tax on marijuana and hemp for the first 10 years of implementation. Those tax dollars would be collected by the Department of Revenue to cover administrative costs and then the remainder would go to a veterans health fund. After that, cannabis would be taxed “using a per-dose equivalency model, not exceeding taxes applied to alcohol, based on independent scientific standards and public health data, reflecting comparable psychoactive effects to alcohol.”
The other two initiatives use the alcohol parity taxing model immediately after enactment.
Two versions would task lawmakers with enacting regulations for hemp THC beverages that model existing rules for alcohol.
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Andrew Mullins, executive director of the MoCannTrade, told Marijuana Moment in June that the forthcoming initiative would effectively “repeal Missouri’s twice voter-approved cannabis legalization” laws, referring to the passage of medical and adult-use reform measures.
“Missouri’s licensed, regulated marijuana industry generated $241 million in state and local tax revenues last year alone and is roundly regarded as one of the most impactful in the entire country,” he said at the time.
Drastically changing the state’s cannabis policy “would be a spectacular failure, especially since it’s funded by bad actors who are currently selling unregulated cannabis made overseas to Missouri children in gas stations and smoke shops,” Mullins argued. “Missourians aren’t about to take hundreds of millions away from local communities, veterans and our justice system, all in hopes that politicians will eventually replace it with something down the road. The voters of the Show-Me-State are far too smart for that bait and switch.”
Meanwhile, Missouri’s hemp market has been facing increased pressure from the state as officials attempt to crack down on businesses selling intoxicating cannabis products such as THCA outside of the marijuana program. The state attorney general sent over a dozen cease-and-desist orders to such businesses in June, threatening potential legal action for non-compliant businesses.
Lawmakers have contemplated multiple approaches, with different details on what kinds of products would be allowed and what limits would be set on THC levels in the products.
In February, legislation allowing low-dose intoxicating hemp beverages to continue to be sold in grocery and liquor stores was reported favorably by committees in both the House and Senate but was not enacted into law.
Read the text of the Missouri marijuana ballot initiatives below:
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