“We strongly believe in the rights of Missouri voters to directly bring about good public policy through a process that has served the state well for decades.”
Thursday began with some Republican lawmakers slamming the medicinal marijuana industry of the state. They accused it of corruption during a debate in the Missouri House about whether to make it more difficult to modify the state’s constitution.
On legislation Thursday, Missouri House stated that a two-thirds majority would be needed to modify the state Constitution – this was on a mostly party-line vote of 98-53. Currently, a simple majority vote is required.
The signatures needed to make the constitutional amendment would also increase.
The legislation is yet to be approved by the Missouri Senate. It would then come up for vote via ballot on the eighth or eleventh month of the year.
However, the most controversial debate did not focus on the bill’s main provisions. The focus was on a change to delay the implementation of the bill till January 2023.
Rep. Adam Schwadron of Republican State, St. Charles changed this date because of the request of the people who wanted the “recreational marijuana amendment” to be placed on the ballot in the month of November 2022.
“It was some people who are currently working on recreational marijuana,” he said when asked about who had approached him.
This frustrates Rep Jered Taylor who chairs the oversight committee of the house that worked through most of 2020 examining discrepancies in the marijuana program of Missouri.
Industry leaders and state regulators have both refuted corruption claims regarding the process of marijuana licensing, pointing out that the licenses issue by Missouri are more than what many states have done so far. They also say that putting a cap on the licensing will stop the excess from ending up in the black market.