Marijuana advocates need ‘second wind’ to complete Wyoming petitions | Wyoming News

Organizers have until January to collect more than 41,000 signatures from Wyoming voters on each petition.

One is an attempt at decriminalizing marijuana — basically, removing criminal charges and penalties for possessing and using it. The other, if passed, would make the drug legal for medical use.

When the petitions’ 18-month collection window closes, the signatures go to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office to be verified against voter logs. That makes sure everyone who signed actually lives in Wyoming, and is registered to vote.

While signatures are still being collected by volunteers around the state, their momentum has begun to slow. The 40% of signatures collected as of mid-July is up only slightly from the estimated 30% collected by February. But still, with several counties already completed, organizers are hopeful they’ll meet their goal.

“I definitely run into people who are like, ‘Oh, here you are again, I already signed,’” said Bennett Sondeno, executive director of marijuana advocacy group Wyoming NORML.

“And then there’s, ‘I had no idea this was happening!’ It’s hard to reach everybody.”

The petition has to be signed on paper, in person, though most of the promotion has been online or on NORML’s social media.

Carriers have been lugging stacks of clipboards to fairs, festivals and other events around Wyoming all summer, and even going door-to-door in some places.

“I’m hopeful that we can push through in the good weather and be done so that we’re just crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s between then and the end of the year,” Sondeno said.

What organizers could really use is money, Sondeno said. That would help NORML hire professional petitioners who can spend all their time hunting down signatures, something the petitions’ sponsor, the Libertarian Party, is already doing in some parts of the state.

Sam Watt, who owns a hemp shop with three locations around the state, said Thursday he’s spending about $6,000 of his own money each month between radio ads on local stations and paying shop employees to carry petitions at least once a week. Each time they go out, Watt said, they usually bring back around 100 to 125 signatures.

“It’s a chunk of change,” Watt said. “But this is our window. If we don’t do something about it, then we can’t blame anybody but ourselves.”

The radio ads encourage people to sign the petition to give the effort a “second wind.”

Watt’s shop, Platte Hemp Co., has also become a hub for the petitions. Some people come in, sign them, and turn around and leave, Watt said. His customers, many of whom use products including CBD and Delta 8 for medicinal purposes, also seem supportive.

Natrona County is “well over” its signature goal, Watt said. Still, he plans to collect signatures at Beartrap Summer Festival on Casper Mountain, which Platte Hemp is sponsoring.

The requirements for ballot initiatives to actually get on a ballot are more demanding in Wyoming than in most other states, organizers say. The state hasn’t successfully passed a ballot initiative since 1991.

The amount of signatures you need is equal to 15% of everyone who voted in the last election — an even higher number now thanks to the high turnout for 2020’s presidential vote. It comes out to about 41,000.

You also need to hit that 15% threshold of voters in at least 16 of Wyoming’s 23 counties — meaning organizers can pad the total by overloading on signatures in Natrona County, for example, but they still have to put in the work in smaller, more rural counties.

Organizers estimated that as of last week, around 20,000 signatures have been collected. Not all have been verified against voter logs.

The medical use petition is slightly more popular among Wyoming residents, petition carriers said. At the start of the year, it had around 5% more signatures than the petition for decriminalization.

“It’s kinda a no-brainer, when you’ve got medical doctors and you’ve got county attorneys saying this needs to happen,” said Frank Latta, an organizer who once served in the state legislature and as mayor of Gillette. “It’s a pretty easy sell.”

Of course, Wyoming lawmakers could still pass legislation loosening restrictions on marijuana without needing to undergo an arduous petition. But all recent attempts, aside from a 2019 law allowing hemp possession and growth, have failed. Hemp does not provide a high like marijuana, but it has a number of commercial uses.

Proponents have lobbied for medical use and legalization bills by emphasizing how much tax money the state could stand to earn from legal weed sales, and arguing that those dollars are now going to Colorado and Montana, where marijuana is legal.

But those against legalization say they have concerns over the health effects of marijuana, specifically the potential for abuse. Regulating the industry would also be costly, opponents say, though marijuana advocates say regulation and enforcement — in addition to retail, growing and processing facilities — would create jobs.

“They’re using absolute Reefer Madness tactics,” Sondeno said. “I mean, it’s just going to be here. To keep fighting it like it’s evil … is just wrong.”

Thirty-seven states have already legalized marijuana for medical use, and 19 allow recreational use as well.

Wyoming is slowly becoming an island in the Mountain West, where most states have moved to allow at least medical marijuana. Montana opened recreational sales at the beginning of the year, and has already posted sales tax revenue in the multi-millions.

The most recent survey on the issue showed that more than half of Wyoming residents support legalizing marijuana and 85% support medical use.

On Thursday, federal legislation was introduced that would decriminalize the drug across the U.S. and give states the go-ahead to make their own laws without fear of federal intervention. Though it’s unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate, it could influence other bills in the future.