HELENA – Montana voters will decide in November whether to legalize recreational marijuana in the state, for adults 21 and older.
New Approach Montana, the group formed to take voting measures to legalize marijuana, said Thursday that two additional measures to achieve that goal are eligible for the Nov. 3 vote: Initiative 190 and Constitutional Initiative 118.
“Our research has always shown that a majority of Montanans support legalization, and now voters will have the opportunity to adopt that policy, which will create jobs and generate new revenue for our state,” said Pepper Petersen, campaign spokesman for the group.
New Approach Montana has already spent nearly $ 2 million on the signature drive and related expenses from getting the two measures on November 3rd. It said it collected more than 130,000 signatures from registered voters.
The initiative needed about 25,000 verified signatures to qualify and the constitutional amendment needed about 50,000 signatures.
I-190, if approved by voters, would legalize the sale and possession of limited quantities of marijuana and also impose a 20 percent tax on the sale of non-medical marijuana in Montana.
CI-118 would amend the state constitution to allow the age of the legislation for adults who own and consume marijuana. Under the current state constitution, everyone 18 or older has all the rights of an adult except the possession of alcohol.
New approach has said legal marijuana sales would generate $ 20 million in tax revenue for Montana by 2025.
