Print Column: Bank of North Dakota Should Explore the Marijuana Business
MINOT, N.D.—In 2016 North Dakota voters invited the marijuana industry into the state when nearly 64 percent of them voted for a ballot measure creating a framework for legal access to medical marijuana.
Voters will likely get a chance to expand on the liberalization of state marijuana laws in November, assuming the secretary of state’s office finds no significant problems with signatures turned in supporting a measure legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
However the vote for that measure turns out this year, the marijuana industry is coming to North Dakota, and in one way our state is more uniquely qualified than just about any other to welcome it.
Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is still classified as a schedule 1 substance, which is defined as something with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.
One wonders how alcohol doesn’t also meet that definition, but I digress.
