Utah GOP guts voter-approved medical marijuana initiative after lobbying from Mormon church
Utah voters passed a medical marijuana law the Mormon church didn’t like. So GOP legislators rewrote it as ordered
IGOR DERYSH DECEMBER 14, 2018 11:30PM (UTC)
Republican state legislators in Utah replaced a medical marijuana initiative that voters voted into law with their own bill that has far stricter limitations on medical cannabis after lobbying from the Mormon church, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Voters approved Proposition 2 in November, making Utah one of 32 states to legalize medical marijuana. On the first day that the law went into effect, lawmakers in the state legislature voted along party lines to override voters and replace the law with a “compromise” that appeases the law’s opponents, including the Mormon church.
The “compromise” bill reduces the 40 medical dispensaries permitted by Prop. 2 to only seven “pharmacies.” Most of the distribution will be state-run.
While Prop 2 legalized THC-infused edibles, the compromise bill bans most edibles except for gelatin cubes. The legislation also removed most autoimmune diseases from the list of illnesses that qualified for cannabis treatment.
After the legislation was signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert, two pro-marijuana groups that worked to pass the ballot initiative filed a lawsuit against the the state, arguing that the legislature violated the Utah constitution by overriding the will of the voters and that the Church of Latter-day Saints' involvement in the overhaul violated another part of the state’s constitution.
"Anything that defeats the right of the people to pass their own legislation under our constitution should be declared unconstitutional. Otherwise it’s totally illusory," Rocky Anderson, an attorney for the group TRUCE, told KSTU.
https://www.salon.com/2018/12/14/utah-gop-guts-voter-approved-medical-marijuana-initiative-after-lobbying-from-mormon-church/
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