Bill Description: House Joint Resolution 4 would amend the Idaho Constitution to say only the legislature has the authority to legalize psychoactive substances.

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Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the United States Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the US Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?

House Joint Resolution 4 would amend Section 26, Article III of the Idaho Constitution, which currently gives the Legislature power to regulate liquor. The proposed amendment would expand this section to deal with marijuana, narcotics, and "psychoactive substances."

The amendment would say, "Effective immediately upon adoption by the voters of Idaho, only the legislature of the state of Idaho shall have power and authority to legalize the growing, producing, manufacturing, transporting, selling, delivering, dispensing, administering, prescribing, distributing, possessing, or using of marijuana, narcotics, or other psychoactive substances."

Declaring that "only the legislature of the state of Idaho shall have power and authority to legalize" these substances would have two distinct effects on Idaho law. It would prohibit local governments from legalizing such substances, and it would preclude the use of the initiative process to legalize them. Removing the use of the initiative would be a move away from a direct democracy approach to a complex political issue.

The term "psychoactive substances" is not defined in Idaho code, but the term generally includes a wide variety of substances that affect the functioning of the central nervous system.

It is not unusual for the Legislature to pass preemption laws to prevent local regulations (e.g. preventing local governments from regulating guns, imposing a minimum wage, or banning plastic bags), and this constitutional amendment would serve a similar purpose by preventing the use of the initiative to repeal government prohibitions enacted by the Legislature.

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Does it promote the breakdown of the traditional family or the deconstruction of societal norms? Examples include promoting or incentivizing degeneracy, violating parental rights, and compromising the innocence of children. Conversely, does it protect or uphold the structure, tenets, and traditional values of Western society?

The initiative process could be used to modify Idaho code in ways that will harm our quality of life and undermine traditional values. This bill would amend the state constitution to prevent initiatives that broadly legalize drugs, as happened in Oregon with measure 110, which decriminalized a wide variety of formerly illegal drugs and was effectively repealed with House Bill 4002.

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