Missouri may be the 20th state in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana. In November, the issue will be on the ballot and if the initiative passes, anyone ages 21 and up will be able to buy pot from dispensaries in the state.
John Payne is the campaign manager for Legal Missouri 2022, one of the most prominent groups that pushed for the ballot initiative. He said legalizing weed is an important issue for the state.
"It's a fundamental issue of freedom. If you're an adult over the age of 21 years old, there's no reason the government should tell you what to do with your life as long as you're not hurting anybody else," Payne said. "So you should have the choice of whether you want to use marijuana just as you have the choice of if you'd like to use alcohol."
Payne said another reason to get this initiative passed is that there are large amounts of people in prison for nonviolent marijuana-related offenses.
"These marijuana offenses, nonviolent marijuana offenses, the vast majority of them are for small possession offenses, and they have criminal records that follow them around for the rest of their lives," he said. The initiative would allow them to have those offenses expunged.
While there are people who say marijuana is a dangerous drug, Payne wants to dispel some myths and double standards.
"It's certainly a substance that has some risks. But those risks are, I would argue, certainly not more and most likely, very much less than the risks that we have from drugs that are legal and regulated, such as alcohol and tobacco," he said. "And, you know, I don't hear anybody out there saying that we would be better off to prohibit those substances."
He said the better system is to legalize it so it's regulated and taxed.
Payne said that since Missouri legalized medical marijuana in 2018, sales have been increasing ever since. He said it'll help with the rollout of recreational, since there's already structures in place for the sale of marijuana.
Listen to the whole conversation with John Payne from Total Information AM: