And another one. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today once again rejected a proposed ballot initiative today to legalize marijuana in the state (we covered her last rejection of this proposal here).

The measure, proposed by Robert Reed, who has been working on the issue for years, would legalize recreational marijuana in addition to medical marijuana, and loosen regulations on cultivation significantly versus the Medical Marijuana Amendment passed by voters in 2016. The legislature could regulate weed, but not prohibit its growth or sale.

Reed’s previous submission was similar to a proposal submitted in 2016 that was rejected by Rutledge, who cited ambiguities in the text, as is her wont. Rutledge also rejected five previous attempts by Reed to propose the amendment in 2015.

Reed has expressed frustration over these rejections because he submitted language that was identical to a proposal that Attorney General Dustin McDaniel approved in 2014. That approval came after years of back-and-forth (McDaniel had rejected half a dozen previous attempts) — but it came in June, giving the campaign just a month to collect the needed signatures and get them certified by the secretary of state’s office. The group was unable to collect the needed signatures in time. When Reed tried again with Rutledge, with the same proposal, she proved creative in finding additional nits to pick.


This time around, Reed tried to answer Rutledge’s critiques, but she found that his proposal did not sufficiently explain how it would change current law, including changes to the Medical Marijuana Amendment.

To proceed, a ballot measure first needs to be certified by the attorney general. At that point, the amendment would need to collect around 85,000 signatures of registered voters by July to make it on the ballot in November.


This now makes 65 ballot proposals that Rutledge has rejected this election cycle. She has approved zero.