WY Officials Approve Marijuana Ballot Initiatives to Collect Signatures

Wyoming activists have crossed another bridge in their hopes of getting two marijuana bills on the ballot for 2022 as the Wyoming Secretary of State approved the first 100 signatures for each bill.

At least that many valid signatures were needed on each bill to get the ball rolling on their proposals for decriminalizing cannabis and legalizing medical marijuana. The campaign by the activists, which is backed by the Libertarian Party as well as Wyoming NORML, is now cleared for a broader collection of signatures to get the measures on the ballot in 2022.

In a press release, Libertarian Party executive director Tyler Harris explained the benefits and the importance behind the campaign:

This effort, at its core, is about one simple thing — extending to the people of Wyoming the same basic rights that are already enjoyed by so many others to make these important choices or themselves.

The senior strategist of the campaign, Christine Stenquist, has said there are a combination of canvassers and volunteers who will be working to make sure they hit the mark with the amount of signatures needed. The total number is 41,776 valid signatures from registered voters for each measure. The signatures will need to be collected by February 14, 2022 to qualify for the ballot.

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Stenquist had this to say about the campaign's mission in an interview with Marijuana Moment:

We know what districts we need to hit. We know what counties. We know our numbers. We know even the people who are registered voters were likely to support us...It’s a very surgical campaign.

There are only 12 remaining states where marijuana is fully illegal and Wyoming is one of them. Marijuana is currently medically legal in 37 states and fully legal in 18 states. Despite the fact that Wyoming has failed to legalize marijuana in the past, more than half of Wyoming residents now say they fully support the legalization of it. In 2014, just 37 percent of its residents fully supported the legalization of marijuana.

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