Missouri Hemp Groups Seek to Deregulate Cannabis via Ballot Initiative

Hemp business owners in Missouri are organizing an initiative petition to
deregulate cannabis in the state to allow for sales at stores that sell
alcohol and tobacco, the Missouri Independent reports. In a call on Monday
led by the hemp company American Shaman, advocates stated the goal of the
effort is to repeal the state’s constitutional amendment that legalized
cannabis in the state and replace it with language that directs state
lawmakers to create regulations for cannabis that are “no more burdensome
than what we already have for alcohol and tobacco,” industry lobbyist Eapen
Thampy said during the call.

“Part of the idea here is to remove that regulatory mandate in the Missouri
Constitution. We devolve regulatory authority back to the Missouri General
Assembly, the elected representative of the people where it belongs.” —
Thampy, during the call, via the Independent

The language of the petition is not yet finalized but Thampy indicated that
it would ensure cannabis remained legal while the new rules are adopted by
lawmakers, remove criminal offenses for possession over the legal limits,
and retain current tax rates on cannabis products.

The proposal comes amid a crackdown on hemp businesses in the state – last
month, state Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) sent 18 cease and desist
letters demanding that hemp retailers stop selling hemp flower products in
the state.

Thampy told the Independent that the campaign seeks “to give the marijuana
operators an opportunity to pursue the consumer dollar in the mass market,
as the hemp side already does.” However, Andrew Mullins, executive director
for the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, called the plan a “bait and
switch.”

“Missourians aren’t about to take hundreds of millions away from local
communities, veterans and our justice system,” he told the Independent,
“all in hopes that politicians will eventually replace it with something
down the road.”

The advocates of the plan expect the draft language of the initiative to be
submitted to the Missouri Secretary of State by August.