Idaho HJR 4 asks voters to amend the state Constitution so that only the Legislature may legalize marijuana, narcotics, or other psychoactive substances. A yes vote would also remove citizens’ ability to use the initiative process to enact statutes legalizing those substances; a no vote would preserve that initiative power. The measure therefore asks two questions at once: what Idaho’s drug policy should allow in the future, and whether voters should retain a direct-democracy route for changing that policy when legislators decline to act. Drug policy can have long-term public-health and enforcement consequences, but the initiative process exists precisely because voters sometimes want choices legislators will not offer. The constitutional question is whether this subject deserves a special exception from ordinary direct democracy.
Who should have the power to legalize or decriminalize psychoactive substances in Idaho?