North Dakota’s Senate might revive the question of legalizing recreational marijuana, but through a ballot measure put to voters.
The chamber last week soundly defeated a bill to legalize but restrict the drug for recreational use. The 50-page bill, which passed the House, came as an effort by lawmakers to head off a proposed citizen-initiated measure to legalize marijuana through the state constitution, as South Dakota voters did in 2020. Montana voters also approved recreational marijuana last year.
Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, told the Tribune on Tuesday morning that a resolution for a 2022 measure would be heard by the Senate Delayed Bills Committee in the afternoon, on the Legislature’s 55th official day of a maximum 80.