“What they’re going to start doing instead of going around because it’s become so difficult, is start to change who’s down here,” Rizzo said. “… They’re going to have [their voices] heard at some point, it just depends on when and where.”

Sater’s bill was voted out of committee Wednesday.

Sen. Eric Burlison, R-Battlefield, is among those who say the process to change the “sacred document” that is Missouri’s constitution has become too easy. He says issues like medical marijuana do not have a place in the document.

“The constitution is about rights,” Burlison said. “It’s about very fundamental issues. To me getting into that issue is, not to use a pun, but getting in the weeds of something. To me that’s what statutes are for.”

“To get into such detail about a particular product or good I think is an error. We made that error with alcohol in the U.S. Constitution and reversed it.”

Petitions proposing changes to the state constitution are required to field signatures from 8 percent of voters in two-thirds of the state’s eight congressional districts. Statutory changes need signatures from just 5 percent of voters from these regions to get on the ballot.