Idaho Legislative Council Approves Ballot Language for Amendment Giving Legislature Sole Power to Legalize Marijuana
- Idaho voters will decide in November whether to amend the state constitution to restrict marijuana legalization authority solely to the Legislature, preventing citizen initiatives on the matter.
- The proposed House Joint Resolution 4 was approved for the ballot by the Idaho Legislature’s Legislative Council and would require a simple majority for adoption.
- The amendment aims to ensure decisions about marijuana and other psychoactive substances are made through the legislative process, with opponents arguing it removes voters’ power and is unnecessary.
- Separately, Idaho voters may also consider the Idaho Medical Cannabis Act in November, with the possibility that both medical marijuana legalization and the restriction amendment could appear on the same ballot.
Idaho State Capitol.
Idaho voters will decide this November whether to amend the state constitution to prevent marijuana legalization from being enacted through the citizen initiative process.
The Idaho Legislature’s Legislative Council today approved ballot language for House Joint Resolution 4, a proposed constitutional amendment that would give only the Legislature the authority to legalize marijuana, narcotics or other psychoactive substances.
The amendment will appear on the state’s November 3 general election ballot. A simple majority vote would be required for approval.
If passed, the proposal would bar voters from using Idaho’s initiative process to independently approve laws legalizing marijuana or other covered substances. Any such change would instead need to go through the Legislature.
The ballot statement in support of the amendment argues that decisions involving marijuana and other substances should be handled through the legislative process, where public hearings can be held and lawmakers can be held accountable for their votes.
The opposition statement says the amendment would remove power from voters by eliminating their ability to pass drug legalization laws through ballot initiatives. It also argues the proposal is unnecessary because the Legislature already has the ability to amend or repeal voter-approved laws.
The vote comes as Idaho voters are also likely to decide this November whether to legalize medical marijuana. In May, supporters of the Idaho Medical Cannabis Act submitted more than 150,000 signatures across all 44 counties, more than double the number required to qualify for the ballot. Those signatures must be verified by counties before the measure is officially placed on the ballot.
Idaho remains one of the few states without a medical marijuana program, adult-use legalization or decriminalization law. If both measures qualify for the ballot, voters could be asked during the same election whether to legalize medical marijuana while also deciding whether to restrict future marijuana legalization efforts to the Legislature.