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Amendment 3
Exactly What It Will and Will Not Do !
by Dan Viets , J . D ., Missouri NORML Coordinator
Adult-Use Initiative
Missourians have the opportunity with Amendment 3 to legalize Missouri ’ s non-medical adult-use , cultivation and sales of marijuana on November 8 . Amendment 3 is on the ballot because hundreds of thousands of Missourians signed petitions circulated by the Legal Missouri 2022 campaign . The following is a breakdown of Exactly What Amendment 3 Will and Will Not Do . We hope this helps provide some education about the Amendment before you head to the voting booth .
; It will end the great majority of the more than 20,000 arrests and prosecutions in our state each year .
; It will expunge hundreds of thousands of marijuana arrests and convictions from Missourians ’ records automatically , without any action by the defendants being required .
; It will be especially beneficial to Black Missourians , who are arrested at a rate of 2.6 times more than White Missourians , despite the fact that the two groups use marijuana at almost exactly the same rate . Marijuana prohibition exists because of racism .
; Amendment 3 will go a long way toward fixing the problems caused by marijuana prohibition .
_ It is not the last word on marijuana law in Missouri . _ It is not perfect .
Everyone has his or her own idea of what the perfect marijuana law would be . If we allow “ perfect ” to be the “ enemy of the good ,” we will never see legalization in this state . Amendment 3 will be on the ballot only because an alliance of activists such as NORML and other reform organizations worked closely with the medical marijuana industry to gather the signatures needed . Several million dollars are required to
pay petitioners to put an initiative like Amendment 3 on the ballot . If Amendment 3 fails , it is not likely there is anyone else who is going to donate that money to put another initiative on the ballot .
Some folks seem to think that the Missouri General Assembly will legalize marijuana for us . I have personally been going to the Missouri General Assembly for nearly 50 years , asking them to do exactly that . I have testified hundreds of times at legislative hearings .
There is almost no chance that the Missouri legislature will legalize marijuana for us . The legislative process is such that any controversial bill will very likely be amended extensively . It is very difficult to get legislation through the Missouri General Assembly . There is no realistic chance that any legalization bill will pass the Missouri legislature in the foreseeable future .
On the other hand , the legislature does routinely place proposed Constitutional amendments on the ballot . If there are serious problems with Amendment 3 , the Missouri legislature can certainly propose amendments to it by placing them before the voters at the next election . In fact , the Missouri legislature placed three proposed Constitutional amendments on this November ’ s ballot . It will be far easier to persuade the legislature to propose amendments to Amendment 3 after it passes than it would be to get the legislature to legalize on its own .
Amendment 3 contains many provisions that will benefit cannabis consumers . Many of those provisions are there because of the help NORML and its Chapter leaders from around the state of Missouri who played a major role in writing of Amendment 3 .
In addition , to legalizing responsible adult use of marijuana ,