Idaho cannabis advocates are working to place medical and decriminalization measures on the 2022 ballot in what Russ Belville, spokesperson for the Idaho Citizens Coalition for Cannabis, calls “the most hostile state” toward policy reform.

Belville’s organization is in the process of collecting the 64,946 signatures required to place the Personal Adult Marijuana Decriminalization Act of 2022 (PAMDA) on Idaho’s 2022 ballot. The initiative aims to end arrests for the personal possession of 3 ounces of cannabis or less in private by adults 21 and older.

PAMDA would not create a commercial adult-use cannabis industry in the state and maintains the criminality of cannabis possession, use and sales in public, as well as all cannabis cultivation and driving under the influence.

The Idaho Citizens Coalition for Cannabis has partnered with Kind Idaho, which is also working to collect 64,946 signatures to place the Idaho Medical Marijuana Act for 2022 (IMMA) on next year’s ballot.

IMMA would legalize the possession of up to 4 ounces of cannabis for medical purposes, as well as the home cultivation of up to six plants for patients with a “hardship waiver.” The measure would also create a system of dispensaries to sell medical cannabis to qualified patients.

Belville and other advocates operated under the Idaho Cannabis Coalition in the past to place a medical cannabis legalization measure that was identical to IMMA on Idaho’s 2020 ballot, but their efforts stalled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We collected about 40,000 signatures, and then the coronavirus came, and we had lockdowns and couldn’t collect any more, and we lost our request to be able to continue with electronic signature gathering,” Belville told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.

Now, the organizers behind IMMA and PAMDA have until May 1, 2022, to gather enough signatures to get their measures before voters in the November election.

‘The Most Anti-Marijuana Legislature in America’