Whoa: Pharmacy Measure Gets Over 24,000 Signatures In Six Weeks
North Dakota has a very weird pharmacy protection law that basically prohibits chain pharmacies from opening in the state. Efforts to repeal the law in the Legislature have failed because the pharmacists are very organized, and swing a lot of lobbying clout. Efforts to repeal the law through initiated measure have failed in the past, kept off the ballot when signatures were disqualified due to a technicality (the signature pages weren’t circulated with the measure language attached).
A new group started collecting signatures on June 3rd to try and put the measure on the ballot again, and now roughly six weeks later the group has submitted almost twice the number of required signatures to Secretary of State Al Jaeger.
Sponsors of measure to change ND's pharmacy ownership law submit 23,961 signatures to get on Nov. 4 ballot. They only need 13,452. #ndpol
— Mike Nowatzki (@mikenowatzki) July 18, 2014
Pharmacy measure sponsors were approved to start gathering signatures June 3. They collected nearly 24,000 in just over six weeks. #NDpol
— Mike Nowatzki (@mikenowatzki) July 18, 2014
That’s impressive, and speaks highly to both the organization of the petition supporters and the desire of the public to put this issue on the ballot.
Expect this issue to get heated this fall. The pharmacists, as I’ve already mentioned, are also very organized.
