Idaho Lawmaker Urges Voters To Approve Ballot Measure Restricting Their Own Ability To Legalize Marijuana

An Idaho lawmaker is urging voters to approve a measure on the November ballot that would restrict their own ability to legalize marijuana in the future.

Sen. C. Scott Grow (R), who sponsored the proposed constitutional amendment to make it so that only lawmakers could legalize cannabis or other controlled substances, said the measure is a way to push back against the marijuana industry, which he claims is trying to make money off of addiction.

“The reason that people push this—the marijuana lobby, whomever—is because there’s money to be made, particularly when people become addicted,” the lawmaker told Local News 8. “They can make it look chic, make it look wonderful, say it solves all ills. But the end game is money to be made by people that are purveyors of drugs, including marijuana.”

Activists in Idaho tried to place a separate initiative on the ballot this year to legalize medical cannabis, but they failed to submit enough valid signatures to qualify the measure.

Meanwhile, the state’s Legislative Council recently approved ballot language for the cannabis restriction measure. It reads:

“In Idaho, a law may be passed by either of two methods. The first and more common method is for the Legislature to pass a law. The second, less common method allows the people themselves to pass a law through ballot initiative. This proposed constitutional amendment would give the Legislature exclusive authority to legalize marijuana, narcotics, or other psychoactive substances in the State of Idaho.”

Grow said in the recent interview that the measure is in line with principles articulated in the state’s Constitution.

“Here’s what the Constitution says, Article III, Section 24 declares, ‘The first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people and the purity of the home. The Legislature should further all wise and well-directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality,’” he said. “That’s what we’re doing.”

The Natural Medical Alliance of Idaho (NMAI), the campaign that worked unsuccessfully to put a medical cannabis legalization measure before voters this year, has pushed back against the secretary of state’s determination about its signature submissions—including his decision to refer allegations of possible illegal petitioning conduct to law enforcement.

Aside from the proposed constitutional amendment to restrict future voter initiatives on marijuana and other drugs, Idaho lawmakers have also pushed back against reform in other ways. Both the Senate and House of Representatives passed a resolution this session urging voters to “reject” the medical marijuana petition.

The measure, sponsored by the Senate State Affairs Committee, claims that cannabis legalization in other states has led to a host of harms, including “increased cartel activity, development of black market marijuana production, human trafficking, and increased crime rates” as well as “increased rates of serious health issues,” environmental harms and “safety concerns on job sites.”

It argues that the marijuana initiative would not only increase costs to the state but that its list of approved medical conditions is “so broad that almost anyone could qualify.”

“The Idaho Medical Cannabis Act lacks safeguards to such an extent that it would effectively legalize widespread recreational use of marijuana,” the resolution claims. “The legalization of marijuana would have devastating impacts on Idaho children and their families… The Legislature urges the citizens of Idaho to reject any effort to bring the Idaho Medical Cannabis Act to the ballot.”

A statement of purpose filed with the legislation says it “addresses the devastating impact that legalizing marijuana has had on other states” and “identifies the significant problems” with the ballot initiative.

Contrary to the claims made about marijuana reform in the legislative resolution, advocates often point to data showing that legalizing and regulating cannabis diminishes the size of the illegal market and has not led to increases in youth use.

Meanwhile, NMAI recently released an analysis showing that Idaho could see more than $100 million worth of medical marijuana sold on an annual basis and up to $28 million in new yearly revenue for state coffers if voters approved the legalization initiative.

The Idaho Medical Cannabis Act, which NMAI unveiled last October, would have provided patients with qualifying conditions access to marijuana from a limited number of dispensaries and provided a regulatory framework for the market.

Here are the main provisions of the Idaho Medical Cannabis Act:

• Health practitioners would have been able to recommend medical cannabis to patients with conditions that included, but were not limited to, cancer, anxiety and acute pain.
• Medical marijuana patients or their designated caregiver could have purchased up to 113 grams of smokeable cannabis, or 20 grams of THC extract for vaping, per month.
• The state would have started by issuing three vertically integrated cannabis business licenses, after which point it could have licensed up to six total.
• Marijuana would have been reclassified under state law as a Schedule II, rather than Schedule I, controlled substance.
• State and local law enforcement would have been barred from assisting in federal drug enforcement activities related to the state-legal cannabis program.
• There would have been anti-discrimination protections for those who use or sell marijuana in compliance from state law, preventing adverse actions by employers, landlords and educational institutions.
• It does not appear that there would have been any equity-centered reforms, nor would the initiative have provided for a home grow option.

The campaign in February also released the results of a statewide poll showing that 83 percent of likely voters back medical cannabis legalization, including 74 percent of Republicans, 95 percent of Democrats and 92 percent of independents.

Asked how they would vote if the current medical cannabis legalization does appear on the November ballot, 76 percent of respondents said “yes.” Of that cohort, 50 percent said they would “definitively” vote yes, and just 21 percent said they’d vote “no.”

After the medical cannabis initiative was unveiled last year, a separate campaign that launched in 2024, Kind Idaho, told supporters that it would be suspending its own signature gathering for a ballot initiative to legalize the personal possession and cultivation of marijuana by adults.

Kind Idaho previously introduced medical marijuana ballot measures intended to go before voters in both the 2022 and 2024 elections, but the efforts proved unsuccessful.

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Legislators separately held a hearing last year to discuss a bill to enact medical cannabis legalization legislatively, but there hasn’t been meaningful action on the issue in the months since.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) last year signed legislation setting a $300 mandatory minimum fine for marijuana possession. A prior version of the proposal, which did not pass, would have set a $420 mandatory minimum fine for possessing cannabis.