On Tuesday, a reform to largely expand North Dakota’s cannabis Legalisation cleared a major House commission.However a proposed provision to have voters choose whether to decriminalize cannabis next year or not was defeated by the committee.
The advocate of the authorisation legislation said she would push the legislators to dismiss it in case a different bill that legalizes recreational cannabis is approved.
Last month, Representative Jones Shannon Tiers initially submitted the legalisation measure. The legislation would add to the original cannabis regulation that was implemented two years ago.It advanced past the House Judiciary Caucus after a 8-4 approval vote.
According to the current provision, possession of not more than an ounce marijuana is a breach of law punishable by a $1000 fine and zero jail time. The recent statute would allow possession of not more than an ounce marijuana.
Also, possession of over an ounce and not more than 250g would be classified as an infraction, instead of a Class B offence.
Jones said at the meeting that the legislature doesn’t want to generate criminal cases that will affect folks in future for minor possession of marijuana or cannabis commodities. She added that the legislature has noticed that this influences a person’s ability to secure a job, residence and so on in future. It alters their potential of being successful.
Representative Marvin Nelson also tabled a proposal to the Judiciary Commission that recommends introducing a measure to change the federal constitution to authorize cannabis through voters come 2022. That was declined by the group in a 10-2 ‘don’t pass’ recommendation.
Independently, a Republican legislator is touting support for decriminalization reform that he launched, although he doesn’t second the underlying regulation. Roers said that she’d call for her legalization reform’s defeat in case the authorization initiative sponsored by Representative Docker Jason is passed.
