Medical marijuana initiative needed when Idaho legislators are out of step with Idahoans

Once again, Idaho legislators are legislating contrary to a majority of Idahoans’ beliefs.

A new poll from SurveyUSA conducted for the Idaho Statesman shows that a vast majority of Idaho residents favor legalizing medical marijuana.

In all, 68% said the use of marijuana for medical purposes should be made legal in Idaho. That comes close to a similar survey done in 2019 that found 72% in favor of medical marijuana.

In the Idaho Statesman poll, only 18% said medical marijuana should remain against the law.

The survey also found that legalization of medical marijuana is supported by significant majorities of every demographic subgroup except those identifying as very conservative — who still support it by a 13-point margin, 47% to 34%.

The common line from Republican legislators that “we’re representing Idahoans’ wishes” just doesn’t hold water.

The Idaho Medical Marijuana Act failed to get on the ballot this time around, but the organizers, Kind Idaho, are poised to try again for the November 2024 ballot. Kind Idaho was authorized to start collecting signatures again as of Oct. 14 and has until April 14, 2024, to collect the necessary signatures, Joe Evans told the Idaho Statesman.

Our survey also shows heavy support for decriminalizing marijuana.

Only 11% of our respondents said the possession of small amounts of pot should be penalized with time in jail; 43% say the punishment should be a fine; 42% say there should be no penalty at all.

SurveyUSA interviewed a total of 550 Idaho adults online and by phone the week of Oct. 17. The pool of adult survey respondents was weighted to U.S. Census targets for gender, age, race, education and home ownership.

This is reminiscent of the Medicaid debate just a few years ago. Idaho legislators, claiming some sort of mandate from conservative Idaho, fought Medicaid expansion with all their might — until voters overwhelmingly approved it in 2018, with 61% support.

The Idaho Legislature has had opportunities to do something.

In the 2021 legislative session, Jeremy Kitzhaber, a retired U.S. Air Force sergeant with terminal cancer, proposed a reasonable and comprehensive bill to allow medicinal marijuana in Idaho.

After compelling testimony by Kitzhaber, it at least got printed.

But it never even got a hearing in committee.

Not only that, but in the very same session, Idaho legislators went in the opposite direction, proposing — and passing in the Senate — a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited the legalization of marijuana.

“We have a duty to protect our children, our families, our communities from the scourge of drugs and the drug culture which we have seen go clear across this nation,” Republican Sen. Scott Grow said in opening the debate on the Senate floor for the legislation, which he sponsored, according to The Associated Press.

The constitutional amendment never made it to the House floor, and Idaho voters never saw it.

Had Idaho voters voted on it, though, it likely would have failed spectacularly, based on our survey results.

Legislators are clearly not on the same page as Idahoans when it comes to the use of medical marijuana.

Just like Medicaid expansion, it’s going to take a citizens initiative to get it done.