Missouri medical cannabis backer sues to quash rival initiatives

A Missouri organizer for a medical cannabis initiative is suing to remove two related measures from the November ballot.

Springfield doctor and attorney Brad Bradshaw filed two separate lawsuits seeking to invalidate the medical marijuana initiatives submitted by New Approach Missouri and Jefferson City attorney Lowell Pearson.

State law requires petitions to receive a certain number of signatures in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. Three initiatives were certified for the November ballot.

Bradshaw alleges that some of the signatures collected by Pearson’s group, Missourians for Patient Care, are invalid and that New Approach Missouri unlawfully obtained signatures.

New Approach spokesman Jack Cardetti called Bradshaw’s claims “desperate” because he won’t receive any support at the ballot box.

Bradshaw’s initiative, Find the Cures, would impose a 15% retail tax rate on medical marijuana, compared with New Approach’s 4% and Missourians for Patient Care’s 2%.

Some observers are concerned that multiple ballot initiatives could confuse voters.

Voters could approve more than one initiative, meaning results would have to be hashed out by lawmakers or the courts.

– Associated Press and Marijuana Business Daily