Petitions Approved To Attempt To Get Legal Marijuana On Ballot

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFGO) – Secretary of State Al Jaeger has approved a petition to place a measure on the ballot to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota.

The committee sponsoring the petition, New Approach North Dakota, will have one year to gather signatures and submit the petition to the Secretary of State.

The proposed measure would allow any person over the age of 21 to use limited amounts of marijuana and purchase products from registered establishments in North Dakota.

The committee must submit petitions containing valid signatures of qualified North Dakota voters equal to at least 2% of the population of the state. The population is determined by the federal census in effect and certified at the time the petitions are submitted.

The minimum number of qualified signatures needed is 15,582.

If the petitions are submitted with the required signatures, the measure will go to a vote in the June 2024 election unless circumstances allow for an earlier vote. That would require the petitions be submitted by midnight on July 11, 2022, a special election, or a combination of the two.

A similar effort failed in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic hampered the group’s signature-gathering.