KC lawmaker forms group encouraging people to vote against Missouri marijuana amendment
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Weed is on the ballot in Missouri. What to know about Amendment 3
On Election Day on Nov. 8, Missouri voters will have the opportunity to approve a state constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana. The amendment would create a licensing program for who can legally sell weed and would expunge the criminal records of people with past non-violent weed charges.
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State Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove, a Kansas City Democrat, on Tuesday announced the formation of a coalition working to persuade Missourians to vote against the Missouri constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana.
“The capitalism monster loves to exploit you, and that is what’s happening with this petition,” Bland Manlove said in a statement. “Myself and like-minded community partners realized people from politicians to Bob on the street didn’t know the details. We want to make it known.”
The new coalition, called Impactful Canna Reform Coalition, is one of the first organized efforts to sway voters against the Nov. 8 ballot question. It illustrates how the amendment has divided legalization advocates and state legislators. In a statement, the coalition criticized the amendment for not offering social equity provisions and for civil penalties included in the question.
The coalition, which is made up of Kansas City-based community organizers and business owners, said in a statement that because the ballot question would legalize recreational marijuana through the constitution, it would remove state lawmakers from the process and prevent legislators from overseeing its roll out. If voters approve the amendment, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services would oversee the program, just like the agency currently does for medical marijuana.
Along with Bland Manlove, the coalition includes Markwan Gordon and Rebecca Oakman the founders of the Kansas City-based WyldKard Lyfestyle Veteran Creative Lifestyle Brand which specializes in cooking and catering; Alycia Hightower, COO of The Natural High Company, a holistic wellness company; Makeda Peterson, a Kansas City community organizer and founder of Inyanga Herbal Remedies; Andrew McDowell, the co-founder of medical cannabis retail store The Funky Skunk; and Mac Mayberry with Major Pac, a Kansas City cannabis company.
The group said it also has concerns about civil penalties for marijuana use included in the petition — specifically a provision that allows for civil fines of up to $100 for smoking marijuana in public and a provision that allows possession limits. However, amendment supporters contend that the civil fine provision replaces criminal charges for public marijuana use with civil penalties.
A spokesperson for Legal Missouri 2022, the primary group supporting the amendment, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The new coalition also criticized the amendment’s expungement provision, which would allow Missourians who were previously charged with nonviolent marijuana offenses to have their criminal records automatically expunged. The group’s statement said the state’s poor rehabilitation programs would leave those who had their records expunged at risk of “repeating the mistakes that caused their run-ins with the law in the first place.”
Finally, the coalition said that the amendment would offer no social equity provisions for those who want to enter the recreational marijuana industry. Specifically, the group said the petition would not provide any new funding to create a direct pathway to ownership of a facility or additional educational or business training.
John Payne, the campaign manager for Legal Missouri 2022, the primary group supporting the amendment, sent The Star a statement from Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis NAACP, that pushed back on the coalition’s criticism.
“While we applaud Rep. Bland Manlove’s leadership on this issue, among others, in the Capitol, we do not believe that the Missouri General Assembly will be willing to pass a comprehensive marijuana legalization measure anytime in the near future,” the statement said. “The legislature has had years to act on this and has been either unwilling or unable to do so, and know from long experience that the politicians in Jefferson City are rarely allies in the fight for equity and justice.”
Pruitt’s statement touted provisions within the proposal that would create “micro-licenses” to allow small players to break into the market. Micro-licenses may foster the creation of a kind of craft pot industry, but there would be restrictions on who qualifies. Eventually, at least 18 micro-licenses in total would be issued per each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts.
“These licenses will be reserved for individuals and communities that have been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition, giving them equity in the new adult use marijuana market,” the statement said.
The ballot question has sharply divided legalization advocates and state legislators, with some proponents of legalization saying it would give Missouri’s current medical marijuana industry an unfair advantage in the new recreational market.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, whose office certified the amendment for the ballot and will oversee the upcoming election, told The Star Tuesday he did not support the ballot initiative. He said he believes that the majority of crime in the state is linked to drugs and mental health.
“It strikes me as almost ‘smoke it if you got it,’ and I just don’t think that’s a good thing,” said Ashcroft, a Republican. “I don’t mean to be too cavalier. I’m not an expert on marijuana. I mean, my hard drink of choice is a strawberry milkshake. I’m pretty boring. But I just don’t think that’s beneficial.”
The Star’s Jonathan Shorman contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 1:25 PM.
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