With cannabis policy reform having been enacted via legislation or ballot initiative in more than half of the United States, it’s getting increasingly difficult for the remaining states to continue to cling to prohibitionist laws of the past.
The Idaho Cannabis Coalition (ICC) kicked off a new campaign this week to bring medical cannabis to the state, filing a petition with the Secretary of State on Tuesday to put the issue before voters on the November 2020 ballot.
The subject of medical cannabis is a personal issue for ICC spokesperson, Russ Belville, whose 77-year-old father, John, suffers from peripheral neuropathy, which can cause stinging, burning nerve pain.
Without legal access to medical cannabis, John’s doctors have put him on a regimen of opioid painkillers and other pills to treat the side effects.
Belville says that his dad’s kidneys have been weakened by the illness and are functioning at one-fourth their capacity under the pharmaceutical drugs.
“I’ve been working on the issue of marijuana law reform since 2005,” writes Belville. “But despite every gain made in state after state to protect people using cannabis from criminal prosecution, I’ve always been vexed by the steadfast refusal of my home state, Idaho, to relent on its prohibition of even medical marijuana.”
Belville says that where a person lives shouldn’t subject them to undue suffering, and that Idaho shouldn’t be any different than other states that have passed medical cannabis laws.
He says the people of Idaho are ready to allow sick and disabled people to possess and use a non-toxic medicinal plant, and that he refuses to let another election cycle pass without voters being given a chance to have a say in the issue.
Upon the Secretary of State’s approval of the petition, the Coalition will begin circulating it throughout the state and making it available online to download, print, and sign.
