Campaign Launched to Place Medical Marijuana on Utah Ballot in 2018
SALT LAKE CITY, UT Utah Patients Coalition has launched its 2018 ballot initiative campaign to establish a medical cannabis program for patients in Utah.
The proposed ballot initiative would allow patients to legally and safely access medical cannabis with the recommendation of their doctor.
It represents a conservative approach to medical cannabis policy by prohibiting home cultivation and prohibiting smoking medical cannabis.
For the past several years we have advocated for a medical cannabis policy that allows patients to seek medical treatment without breaking the law, but the state legislature has refused, said campaign spokesperson Christine Stenquist, who also leads the patient advocacy group TRUCE. Now it is time for Utah voters to decide.
The initiative limits the number of dispensaries and cultivators, allows local zoning for medical cannabis facilities, prohibits using medical cannabis in public view, maintains the illegality of driving while intoxicated, and closely mirrors the legislation passed by the Utah Senate in 2016.
The full text of the initiativehas been posted online, along with a summary of the proposals key points.
Utah voters support a medical cannabis ballot initiative by a strong margin. Utah Patients Coalition released polling results that found the following:
Utahns are compassionate, and medical cannabis is ultimately a question of compassion. Voters in our state support allowing sick Utahns to legally and safely access medical treatments that alleviate suffering, said campaign director DJ Schanz. The patients cannot wait any longer, so we are proposing a conservative medical cannabis initiative that Utahns across the political spectrum will approve at the ballot box next year.
Utah Patients Coalition is supported by a number of groups including: TRUCE, a Utah patient advocacy group; Libertas Institute, a Utah free market think tank; and the Marijuana Policy Project, the nations leading marijuana policy reform organization.
Under Utah law, a ballot ...
