(Fargo, North Dakota) –– Today, Healthy and Productive North Dakota was filed to oppose the passage of Measure 2, the ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota. The committee was filed by Kristie Spooner, LSW, who is an addiction counselor in Fargo, North Dakota, and served as the Chair of the campaign that defeated the 2018 ballot measure to legalize marijuana. Joining Healthy and Productive North Dakota are Luke Niforatos, the CEO of Protect Our Kids and the Campaign Manager of the 2018 campaign, and Connor Kubeisy, who will serve as the Campaign Manager and is a Communications and Policy Associate with Smart Approaches to Marijuana. Together, they will work to educate North Dakotans about the harms associated with the legalization of marijuana.
“The self-interested marijuana industry is hellbent on taking root in North Dakota, no matter the consequences for public health and public safety. Measure 2 would result in more youth using marijuana, more traffic fatalities from marijuana-impaired drivers, more marijuana-related emergency department visits, and countless adverse physical and mental health effects,” said Luke Niforatos, who also serves as the Executive Vice President of Smart Approaches to Marijuana. “North Dakotans soundly rejected legalization in 2018, and we are urging them to vote on the side of public health again in November.”
“Measure 2 lacks critical safeguards that are needed to prevent youth from using marijuana, having opted not to outline a regulatory framework. Measure 2 leaves open the possibility for there to be unrestricted advertisements for marijuana, no warning labels or child-resistant packaging on products, no potency caps, and no ban on the industry targeting kids,” said Connor Kubeisy. “North Dakota has some of the nation’s lowest rates of youth marijuana use; Measure 2 would take the state in the opposite direction.”
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Media Contact:
Jaime Zerbe
(540) 849-0107
jaime@learnaboutsam.org