The Natural Medicine Alliance of Idaho is moving ahead with petition initiative to get medical cannabis on the state’s 2026 ballot.

Idaho is one of the few remaining US states without any legalized form of medical cannabis, and it was the last U.S. state to legalize growing hemp.

The Natural Medicine Alliance is seeking to ensure that distinction doesn’t happen with medical cannabis. It says the Idaho Medical Cannabis Act will create safe, highly regulated medical program that allows eligible Idahoan with a valid diagnosis from a healthcare provider to access treatments.

In order to get the issue on the 2026 ballot, more than 70,000 verified signatures from voters statewide are needed.  There have been multiple attempts in recent years to get the issue on the ballot.

Getting behind the effort is Kind Idaho, which had been petitioning to get its cannabis decriminalisation initiative on next year’s ballot.

“In the spirit of cooperation to ensure that we have a pro-cannabis measure on the ballot in 2026, we will not be circulating the #DecriminalizeCannabisNow Petition until they have collected their 70,000 signatures. We will be advocating for their signature gatherers until that time,” said the group.

Like many US states, Idaho has been battling an opioid crisis, and evidence has been mounting that legal cannabis availability is linked to decreased opioid prescription use. For example, a recently published study reported medical cannabis dispensary openings were associated with significant reductions in all opioid outcomes.

“In Idaho nearly 836,000 opioid prescriptions are written every year in a state with fewer than 2 million people,” says the Natural Medicine Alliance. “That’s 44 prescriptions for opiates for every 100 residents. Yet patients facing cancer, PTSD, epilepsy, chronic pain, and other serious illnesses are still denied access to safe, natural, and non-addictive medical treatments to ease their pain.”

The Alliance’s petition and related information doesn’t appear to be live yet, but will soon be available via the group’s website. The main provisions of the Idaho Medical Cannabis Act can be found in this Marijuana Moment article.

A 2022 poll commissioned by the Idaho Statesman found that 68% of Idahoans supported legalizing medical marijuana.