North Dakota Passes Measure 5

North Dakota voters passed Measure 5, the North Dakota Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative, which allows medical use for registered patients. The total count came in 63-36.

“More than half the states in the country now have medical marijuana laws, thanks to the decisions tonight by North Dakota voters and those in Florida,” says Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority. “To be candid, very few people in our movement expected this result, and it happened with almost no coordination or major assistance from national organizations.

"The fact that North Dakotans approved medical cannabis with an effort that was largely off the radar of most political operatives shows that truly any state could be the next to change its marijuana laws. Marijuana is medicine, and now North Dakotans will be able to utilize it without fear of being sent to jail."

Measure 5, sponsored and supported by North Dakota Compassionate Care, establishes a program which allows patients to apply and register for identification cards to be able to qualify. The North Dakota Compassionate Care Act will cover: cancer, HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s, dementia, Crohn’s, glaucoma, epilepsy, and chronic pain, with other conditions to be added by the state Department of Health (DOH), which will run the program.

Patients applying to the program must register with the DOH with information from the patient, physician certification and an application fee. The program also allows for patient caregivers to register. A qualified patient could be dispensed up to three ounces of usable marijuana every 14 days and could maintain a home cultivation if the patient’s home is farther than 40 miles from the nearest dispensary.

In a home cultivation, a patient can raise up to a total of eight plants, but must keep the cultivation site locked and not within 1,000 feet of a public school.

The marijuana supply in North Dakota will be done through “compassion centers,” which will be licensed by the North Dakota Department of Health, and operate on a non-profit basis with strict rules disallowing pesticide use, according to the initiative language. Each site must also be more than 1,000 feet away from a public school, and have required security systems in place, as well as individual plant tracking. The application fee for operation of a compassion center is $5,000.

“Patients in North Dakota can feel relieved with this win. It is great news that they will have fair access to their medicine, and this is also a great step for social justice as well as the ND economy,” says Jeff Zucker, co-founder of Green Lion Partners, a cannabis consulting firm based in Denver, Colo.

Measure 5 comes after two defeats of medical marijuana programs in 2015 by the state’s House of Representatives: one bill that would have created a program, and one that would have directed a committee to study marijuana legalization.

After the first bill, House Bill 1430, failed, residents who testified in support looked to start a ballot initiative through public petition, according to the Yes on Measure 5 website. https://www.ndmedcan.com/our-story.html They gathered more than 18,000 signatures, and the issue was added to the ballot.

The program will cost the state more than $3.5 million annually, including hiring employees, according to the state Department of Health in a Minot Daily news article.

The projected state market sales for North Dakota is $2,305,265 by 2020, according to data from New Frontier.

Measure 5 also establishes the Compassionate Care Fund, which is built from fees collected, civil penalties imposed and private donations. Also, according to the initiative text, the state health officer may accept and spend private grants, gifts, donations, contributions and devises to assist in carrying out the provisions of this chapter, including but not limited to providing funds for the individuals who are financially distressed for purchase of medical cannabis products.