Medical Marijuana Is on the Ballot in North Dakota

Half of U.S. states have enacted medical marijuana laws, and this November, North Dakota voters could join them.

What the Initiative Does

This initiative would legalize the use of medical marijuana as a treatment for certain debilitating medical conditions, such as cancer, AIDS, Hepatitis C, ALS, epilepsy and other diseases.

The Dept. of Health would be responsible for creating identification cards that would permit patients, caregivers, compassion centers and other facilities to participate in the medical marijuana program. It would also create and enforce procedures for monitoring, inventorying, dispensing, and growing marijuana.

Qualified patients would be able to receive up to three ounces of usable marijuana and caregivers could provide marijuana for as many as five patients. The law would authorize the Dept. of Health to punish violations, which could entail suspension or revocation of a person’s participation in the medical marijuana program or even referral for criminal prosecution.

This initiative will appear on North Dakota ballots on November 8 as "Initiated Statutory Measure 5."

In Favor

Legalizing marijuana for medical use is a compassionate way of providing people with debilitating illnesses with alternative treatments, so they don’t have to rely on pharmaceutical remedies that are less effective or have side effects.

Opposed

Medical marijuana is unnecessary and leads to abuse by expanding access to the drug. There are plenty of synthetic substitutes that the pharmaceutical industry produces which have essentially the same effect as weed.

In Depth

In 2012, it appeared that North Dakotans were going to have an opportunity to vote on medical marijuana, but that initiative was removed from the ballot after the Secretary of State ruled that hundreds of the signatures gathered were fraudulent.

Twenty-five states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have enacted their own medical marijuana programs.

North Dakota voters may have an opportunity to vote on recreational marijuana as well in the 2018 election. Proponents gathered signatures to get it on the ballot for 2016, but didn’t quite get enough in time. Those signatures could be carried over to the 2018 elections.

— Eric Revell