COVID-19 could cancel Missouri recreational marijuana campaign, says activist group

The future of an effort to get recreational marijuana onto Missouri’s November 2020 ballot is “unclear,” according to a statement circulated early Saturday by Missouri attorney and cannabis activist Dan Viets.

Viets is the state coordinator for the pro-cannabis group NORML and is an advisory board member for Missourians for a New Approach, the entity backing the current push for recreational, sometimes called “adult use,” cannabis in the Show-Me State.

“No official decision has yet been made regarding whether to suspend the campaign,” the written statement said.

But it’s not looking good, and that’s because of the current pandemic. While Missouri is one of a handful of U.S. states without any stay-at-home order covering its whole territory, St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia all have stay-at-home orders in place, in a bid to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19 infection rates.

“Everything political has been impacted by the response to the virus, not just recreational marijuana,” Viets told the News-Leader Saturday.

His estimate of signatures gathered so far? “At least 60,000.”

Under state law, New Approach would need to gather 160,000 petition signatures by May in order to get recreational weed onto the November 2020 ballot. [Read more at Neosho Daily News]