It should be hard to change the Constitution

Groundhog Day occurs every February, but November might be the month that leaves voters with a creeping sense of deja vu.

If hemp advocates get their way, Missouri voters could face a third marijuana-related ballot issue within the last decade. Missouri voters approved medical marijuana in 2018 and followed with approval of recreational use for adults in 2022.

Now, a coalition of hemp businesses is gathering signatures for a 2026 ballot measure. This proposed constitutional amendment, if approved, would allow the sale of hemp and marijuana in the same stores as tobacco and alcohol.

So Missouri has reached a point where special interests need a constitutional amendment in 2026 to level the playing field from the 2022 amendment, which was required to fix limitations in the 2018 ballot issue.

This really isn’t about the merits of increased access to intoxicating hemp, although repeal of a three-year-old amendment should give us pause. Voters might have withheld support for Amendment 3 if they had known they’d be asked to potentially expand the product from licensed dispensaries to any liquor or grocery store in the state.

This should be the point where Missourians say, "Whoa, legislation by special interests in every general election cycle isn’t the way to go." The bar needs to be higher, especially for narrowly focused issues that belong in the legislative purview. Constant tweaks, updates, revisions and carve-outs are best left to the legislative branch, which has a process for refining legislation, reaching compromise and coming back the next year to address unintended consequences.

Instead, Missouri has headed down the same road as California, a state where voters decide a smorgasbord of ballot measures ranging from minimum wage and rent control to regulation of dialysis clinics and a proposed requirement that actors use condoms in pornographic films.

It’s fair to suggest that the proliferation of ballot issues is a response to legislative dysfunction, but the result has been dysfunction on a greater scale. This might be why 24 states don’t allow voter-initiated constitutional amendments.

Missouri, with 130 petitions circulating for the 2026 election cycle, needs to stop what has become a free-for-all. Lost in the debate over mid-cycle redistricting, a special legislative session included a proposed higher threshold for making permanent changes to the state constitution.

If adopted, Missouri would require approval in all eight congressional districts on Election Day for voter-generated initiative petitions (but not those that come through the legislature). It’s a high bar, but the time has come to view the Constitution as something that should be difficult to alter.

This isn’t about hemp, abortion or minimum wage. It’s about making changes to the state’s foundational document based on the best ideas instead of the best signature-gatherers.

Otherwise, we repeat the same cycle every other November.