Missouri Rep. Shamed Dogan (R-98) has a plan to legalize recreational cannabis statewide. However, because the measure would be placed on the ballot as a constitutional amendment, the state is 18 months away from potential enactment.
“It's untenable to have a situation where someone who grows or sells cannabis recreationally is still subject to felonies when medical marijuana is available legally without growers and distributors facing legal consequences,” Rep. Dogan told the St. Louis Record.
As previously reported, it was Missouri voters who legalized medical marijuana two years ago.
“I would caution people who are adamantly against legalizing recreational marijuana that if the legislature doesn't legalize it, then there will be citizen groups who will likely put more than one initiative on the ballot through the petition process,” Dogan said. “I would much rather have the Missouri legislature engage in debate and craft reasonable regulations for growers and sellers in a way that's responsible and transparent instead of out-of-state interests that come in and put it on the ballot.”
House Joint Resolution No. 30 permits adults at least 21 years of age to recreationally smoke or ingest the herb and would be an important step to criminal justice reform, according to Dogan.
“Officers who attended the police Academy want to go after violent criminals and every hour they spend on arrests for marijuana possession is time they're not spending on arresting violent criminals or traffickers of fentanyl or opioids, which are causing overdose deaths,” Dogan said. “Marijuana does not cause deaths when using the drug.”
Before medical marijuana was passed in 2018, 10% of the arrests that were made statewide involved simple marijuana possession, according to Rep. Dogan’s data.
“That means 10% of law enforcement resources are being spent on something that is a victimless crime,” Dogan said.
Dogan added that he is also working on a package of police reforms, which would include a ban on chokeholds and would criminalize on-duty police officers having sex with people who are in custody.
“Just like an inmate who's in prison can't consent to having sex with a prison guard who has their freedom in their hands, anybody who's in police custody does not have the ability to consent to sex with a police officer and we don't pay police officers to have sex with anybody while they're on duty,” Dogan said. “Most law enforcement organizations have signed off on this and they approve of this reform because they want to uphold standards of professionalism statewide.”
Dogan was re-appointed chair of the Committee on Criminal Justice for which he has served the last two years.
“Our session is from January through May and so hopefully with law enforcement support, we will be able to get that passed in the House and the Senate,” he said. “Currently, most departments have a policy against officers having sex with people in police custody but we don't have a state law yet.”