Connect with us

Politics

As few as 1/5 Missouri voters could soon defeat ballot measures

Published

on

[ad_1]


Every vote cast on a constitutional amendment would be counted two ways under a proposal Missouri Republicans are trying to push to an August vote.The first way would be the traditional method, where all the votes are tallied to determine if the ballot measure has a statewide majority.The second way would be to determine whether the proposal has a majority in 82 Missouri House districts, the same number it takes to pass a bill in the 163-member chamber.Called a concurrent majority, proponents argue it will require measures to have broad support to win at the polls instead of concentrated support in the most populated parts of the state. An analysis of voting patterns by The Independent shows that the change would make it mathematically possible for as few as 20% of voters to determine the outcome of statewide ballot measures.“This will change the way we actually campaign on these issues,” said Tim Jones, state director of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, the group of GOP senators who have demanded initiative petition changes in order to allow the chamber to function. “This to me is a very similar concept to the electoral college.”The proposal is taking on new urgency for GOP leaders because a proposal to overturn Missouri’s abortion ban could be on the ballot in November. Republicans see changing the rules as the only way to defeat it.Opponents claim the idea undermines majority rule, which has determined the outcome of constitutional questions in Missouri since 1846.“Their goal is to make sure that if an overwhelming majority in urban areas supports a measure, the rural voters can defeat it nevertheless,” said Chuck Hatfield, an attorney representing Protect Majority Rule, which is raising money for a possible campaign against the amendment.The proposal represents a shift in tactics from last year, when the favored proposal would have simply increased the majority needed to pass constitutional amendments from half the vote plus one to as much as two-thirds. Voters in Arkansas in 2022 and Ohio in 2023 soundly rejected increasing the majority needed in those states.“Raising the threshold is a loser and various states have proven that’s a loser,” Jones said.The Missouri Senate is expected this week to debate the proposed constitutional amendment after a month of factional warfare over when it would reach the floor and which lawmaker’s proposal will be debated.

Conservative commentator Doug Billings speaks in support of the Missouri Freedom Caucus on Jan. 30 in Jefferson City.

The Freedom Caucus originally demanded not only for the proposed changes to be fast tracked to the full Senate, but according to emails obtained by The Independent through Missouri’s Sunshine Law, also wanted one of its members to carry the bill.Instead, the measure to be debated is sponsored by state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a candidate for Congress who has sided with leadership in the factional disputes.Democrats in the Senate, who have been content to let the GOP civil war play out without interfering, are “vehemently” opposed to any effort to alter the use of a majority for ballot measures, Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, a Democrat from Independence, told reporters last week.“We are not for taking away people’s voice at the ballot box,” Rizzo said. “And the fact that that is… the top priority of the Republican Party when all these other issues are on the table, shows you exactly what the Republican Party thinks of people voting.”Determining what, if any, impact such a proposal would have had on the outcome of recent constitutional amendments is difficult. There are no compiled official records of the outcome of constitutional amendments by Missouri House district.Voters have approved three constitutional amendments with majorities of 53% or less in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles — two proposed by initiative and one placed on the ballot by lawmakers..A constitutional amendment legalizing adult use marijuana received 53.1% statewide in 2022. It passed in counties that have all or part of 95 House districts.An expansion of Medicaid coverage to adults aged 18-64 received 53.3% in 2020, winning in countries with all or part of 86 House districts.Revisions to the legislative redistricting process won with 51% statewide in 2020 and passed in counties with all or part of 89 House districts.But because some districts are less than a full county, or cover multiple counties, no precise conclusions can be drawn.One effort, by the person behind a social media account named Missouri Mapper, used precinct results, aligning those records with legislative district boundaries, for the marijuana initiative petition in 2022. The calculations concluded it would have passed if concurrent majorities were based on state House or Senate districts and failed if it needed a majority of congressional districts.The proposal set for Senate debate wouldn’t just change how constitutional amendments are approved. There are several other provisions, added as “ballot candy,” to entice voter support.The extras in the Senate proposal include barring non-citizens from voting on constitutional amendments, something that hasn’t been allowed in Missouri since 1924, as well as banning foreign governments or political parties from sponsoring or spending in support of initiatives, a practice banned by federal law.There is also a prohibition on initiatives to allow lobbyists to make gifts to lawmakers.All three of those items will be listed ahead of changes to the majority requirements in the language voters would see if lawmakers send it to a statewide ballot.“Concurrent majority ratification by itself will not carry this to victory,” Jones said. “It’ll have to be what the left usually does is have an initiative petition, but call it something else. So there will be proposals that this also include a prohibition on non-citizen voting, something of that sort.”Amendments history

Rudi Keller

/

Missouri IndependentOrganizers of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition prepare to start a Jan. 30 rally against changes in the majority needed to pass a constitutional amendment at the capitol in Jefferson City.

The first time Missourians voted on alterations to the state constitution was Aug. 3, 1846, when the white male electorate rejected an entirely new charter to replace the state’s founding document.A majority of 57% voted against the proposal of a state constitutional convention, leaving the original method of amending the constitution in place until 1865.For 45 years, approval by voters was indirect. If two-thirds of state lawmakers agreed on an amendment, it was published in newspapers repeatedly across the state prior to the next general election. If two-thirds of the lawmakers then elected also approved the change, it was added to the constitution.In 1865, voters approved a new constitution abolishing slavery. The 1865 “Drake Constitution,” written by what were called Radical Republicans, took the vote away from former Confederates and extended it to immigrants who were not yet citizens but who had declared their intent to become one.The provision rewarded the largest immigrant group in Missouri at the time, Germans, who were among the most anti-slavery, and therefore Radical Republican voters. The franchise was taken away from non-citizens in 1924, when newcomers were more likely to come from eastern and southern Europe, in an amendment proposed by a Constitutional Convention passed with 53.5% of the vote.Taking away the votes of immigrants who had declared their intent to become citizens was favored heavily in large population centers like St. Louis, where it received more than 75% in the city and county, but it did not have broad support statewide. The majority in the city of St. Louis alone exceeded the majority statewide by almost 5,000 votes. It failed in at least 84 of Missouri’s then-151 House districts, which would have defeated it under the proposed concurrent majority standard.The 1865 Constitution also provided for a direct vote on constitutional amendments for the first time, with a majority needed for approval. That has remained unchanged.Missouri voters in 1908 approved, by majority vote, a legislative proposal to allow use of the initiative petition process to add amendments, enact statutes or subject legislative enactments to a referendum.The method of securing a spot on the ballot and the majority needed for passage have remained essentially unchanged.What has changed is what is being put in the constitution. In 2010, with backing mainly from the Humane Society of the United States, voters approved a new law regulating dog breeders, with a key provision limiting the number of breeding dogs. Missouri lawmakers responded the next year by changing key provisions, including removing the cap on the number of dogs allowed.Since then, the strategy for groups pushing initiatives has been to put their ideas in the state constitution, where only another statewide vote can change what has been enacted.“It was the puppy mills that got everybody to wake up and say, ‘Oh, we better not do it by statute, we better do it by constitution,’” said Michael Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court chief justice and dean emeritus at St. Louis University School of Law.As a result of the tactical switch, some very long amendments have been added to the constitution over the last decade in order to prevent legislators from rolling them back.Critics argue most of those changes should properly be state statutes.The state constitution approved by voters in February 1945 was just under 27,000 words long. The medical marijuana amendment, approved in 2018, was almost 8,000 words. Legalizing recreational marijuana in November 2022 added 14,000 words in a new section and 2,000 more for revisions to the medical marijuana section.Majority mathNot everyone who wants to raise the bar for approving constitutional amendments is sold on the idea of concurrent majorities.Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a candidate for governor, said he’s got a simple standard that legislation must meet.“It should be something that makes sure that if we’re amending our Constitution, it’s what the people of Missouri want and has broad agreement,” Ashcroft said. “If what they do supports making sure Missourians broadly are making that decision, I’m fine with that.”The key to understanding how concurrent majorities work is to know that the votes in districts that support a measure can be overwhelming, even 100%. But if it fails by a single vote in enough districts, it would thwart the statewide majority.
“I have not done the math on that,” Jones said. “People that I trust have done the math on that and they assure me that if it is a concurrent majority by House districts, that is better for folks on the right side of the political spectrum.”The Independent performed calculations using election results available on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website.Over 163 Missouri House districts, the total vote varies widely from election to election.In November 2020, there were 2.76 million votes cast in state House races, with the fewest, 7,026, in the 19th District in Jackson County. The largest vote was 27,205, in the 16th District just across the Missouri River in Clay County.To achieve a majority — 50% plus one vote — in the 82 districts with the fewest votes required just over 574,000 votes, or 20.7% of the total vote cast in all House districts.In the November 2022 election, there were 1.87 million votes in state House races. The smallest vote in a House race was 3,671, in the 121st District in Pulaski County in south central Missouri. The largest was 18,150 votes, in the 90th District in St. Louis County.To achieve a majority in the 82 districts with the fewest votes required just over 379,000 votes, or 20.2% of the total vote cast in all House districts.A slightly larger percentage of the statewide vote, approximately 23%, could theoretically control the outcome if the concurrent majority requirement uses the state’s eight congressional districts. In that scheme, a vote against an amendment in four districts would be enough to defeat it statewide.Is it legal?There is an instance in Missouri where a concurrent majority is already used, but it is not the final say on an issue. When a city seeks to annex an area and there is opposition in the region to be added, it goes to a vote, with the city and the area to be annexed voting separately.If there is a disagreement between the results where the city approves annexation and the area to be annexed does not, a second vote is held where the results are combined and a final decision, based on a two-thirds majority of the whole, is made.But the question of whether the concurrent majority requirements under debate would be allowed by the courts presents problems that the annexation law doesn’t encounter. The most important, attorneys contacted by The Independent said, is the varying number of votes in each district.Wolff, the former state Supreme Court judge, said he’s uncertain whether the courts would think it is more important that the districts are nearly equal in population or that the equality of people doesn’t result in similar numbers of votes.The question will, he and others said, almost certainly be decided in federal court.“I don’t know where the U.S. Supreme Court’s gonna go on this because the current court goes back and looks at well, what was the intent of the framers of the Constitution?” Wolff said.In 1963, the Supreme Court threw out a concurrent majority law in Georgia that required statewide candidates to win in a majority of counties to be nominated in primaries. That case involved units that varied widely in population.“The logic there is that you cannot allow some people’s vote to count for more than others,” said Hatfield, the attorney for opponents of the proposed initiative petition changes.That same logic would make a concurrent majority to approve constitutional amendments unconstitutional, Hatfield said.“Those 20% of the people are essentially getting two votes each and they can defeat my one vote,” Hatfield said. “If you happen to live in your smallest House district, you get two votes and you can defeat my one vote. That’s the problem.”The other legal question is whether concurrent majorities would apply to constitutional amendments set for the November ballot if voters agree to it in August.Unless they state otherwise, constitutional amendments go into force 30 days after voter approval.That date, in early September, would be after the November ballot has been certified by Ashcroft. Signatures are already being gathered for several initiative petition campaigns and are due in May.“Is this changing the rules of the game after it has begun?” Wolff said. “That’s certainly going to be an interesting piece of litigation, isn’t it? I don’t know. I would think that (the new majorities would apply), but the question as well is, when did the game begin?”Hatfield said the question is a closer call for him than his expectation that concurrent majorities would ultimately be found unconstitutional.“It’s a close call, honestly,” Hatfield said. “So if you pass this in August, it’s effective 30 days later. It is the law. And so if some initiative gets voted on in November, arguably that law applies.”That is how Ashcroft, who will oversee both elections, views it. But he also is sure his opinion won’t be the final word.“This sort of thing,” he said, “will eventually be decided by the courts.”This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.

[ad_2]

Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Politics

Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

Published

on

[ad_1]


A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.

Brian Munoz

/

St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

Published

on

[ad_1]


Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.

[ad_2]

Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

Published

on

[ad_1]


Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.

Dilpreet Raju

/

Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.

No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

[ad_2]

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending