New Montana Initative Seeks to Install Colorado Marijuana Rules

A new ballot initiative went to the secretary of state’s desk yesterday, seeking an expansion of access to marijuana in Montana. Anthony Varianno of Glendive brought the initiative and explains how he hopes it will work.

"Well it's basically the same initiative that was passed in Colorado to legalize sales of recreational marijuana with taxes going towards funding public school systems," Varianno said. "Taxes will be used to pay new schools and pay teachers what they're worth."

Varianno says he won’t be able to start collecting signatures for about another month, but when he does he’ll make these arguments.

"Regardless of what you think of marijuana, it's a drug that's proven to be useful medicinally," Varianno said. "The public school system is in shambles. We can't even pass an infrastructure bill to pay for our roads. This is an opportunity for Montanans to get the things they need in order to help their community."

Varianno plans on riding his bicycle across the state to advocate for the new law, which will require a change to the state constitution. So far he says he has already raised over 1,000 dollars for that purpose.