Supporters of a voter initiative to legalize marijuana in Maine have failed to collect enough valid signatures to qualify for the state ballot.

Petition gatherers for the marijuana initiative delivered 51,543 valid signatures — about 9,500 signatures below the threshold, the Maine Secretary of State office reported Wednesday. The office found 47,686 invalid signatures.

Wednesday was the deadline for the Secretary of State office to validate signatures. The failure of the marijuana initiative was the biggest surprise of the day, as a casino proposal was denied and a school funding measure was approved. The marijuana campaign on Feb. 1 had delivered more than 99,000 signatures.

Voters in 20 U.S. states could potentially legalize some form of cannabis use in the November 2016 election — part of a historic backlash to the century-old war on marijuana.

According to Ballotpedia, the encyclopedia of American politics, activists have submitted ballot measures for public vote in: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

No state east of the Mississippi has legalized marijuana, but the land of Yankees has several states that could free the weed this year.

No state east of the Mississippi has legalized marijuana, but that's very likely to change this year, and New England will be leading the way. Two of the six New England states will likely let the voters make the call in November, while the others all have legalization bills pending.

So far, with the exception of Washington, DC, where voters elected to legalize the possession and cultivation, but not the sale of marijuana in 2014, all of the legalization action has been in the West. The four states that have legalized it so far—Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington—are all Western states.

The other Bangor Daily News blog that writes about marijuana, Cannabis Today, published an article bemoaning “simplistic rhetoric.” In her article, Wellness Connection’s Becky DeKeuster takes issue with Representative Deborah Sanderson’s reference to the potential Wal-Martization of the marijuana industry in Maine. Wellness Connection, which runs half of Maine’s dispensaries, takes issue with that label. More power to them, because I do agree that taking a complex issue, or a complex side of an issue, and boiling it down into simple rhetoric and pejoratives is quite unhelpful. I do think, however, it is time for some in the legalization movement to practice what DeKeuster is preaching, and stop boiling down the broad opposition to marijuana legalization into simplistic rhetoric.

An effort to legalize recreational marijuana use in Maine took a step forward on Monday when activists said they had gathered sufficient signatures to earn their proposal a spot on the state’s ballot this November.

David Boyer, of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said the group’s proposal to allow adults 21 and older to legally possess marijuana had garnered the support of 103,115 Maine voters, more than 10 percent of the total and well over the 61,123 valid signatures needed to qualify.

“It makes a really strong statement,” Boyer said following a press conference in an affluent suburb outside Portland, Maine’s largest city. “Maine people are excited to have a chance to vote on this.”

It looks like Mainers will be voting on legalization in November. Monday, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol turned in more than 103,000 raw signatures for its petition drive. It only needs 61,000 valid voter signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

As a general rule of thumb, initiative and referendum experts counsel petitioners to expect a certain percentage of raw signatures to be deemed invalid, but that figure is usually put around 25% to 30%. For this petition drive to fail, more than 40% would have to be found invalid. It's not impossible, but it's very unlikely.  

The group pushing for a November referendum on marijuana legalization will submit its signatures to the secretary of state Monday, paving the way for a decision on whether Maine should join the growing number of states to accept recreational use of the drug.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which backs a bill that would allow adults 21 and older to possess marijuana, said Sunday that it had collected 103,115 signatures in its quest to become the first East Coast state to legalize pot for recreational use. The campaign must submit 61,123 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

Maine is among many states legalizing industrial hemp farming in recent years. The crop was banned by the federal government several decades ago, because it's related to cannabis, which is used to make marijuana. However, hemp is not a drug and contains only a small amount of the ingredient that induces a high. Hemp is instead used in manufacturing, which required United States companies to import it from countries that do allow industrial hemp farming. 

It has been heartening to see all of the efforts and initiatives start up across Maine to address the heroin crisis.  Police departments and sheriff’s departments are looking to start up referral and diversion programs to get people suffering into treatment.  Public health coalitions are setting up forums to put together plans to implement in their communities.  Just this month I was appointed co chair of the Prevention and Harm Reduction Task Force of the Maine Opiate Collaborative launched by U.S. Attorney Thomas Delehanty.  The work that is being done amongst the three task forces is impressive and I am confident will result in effective strategies that will get measurable results.  In short, there are a lot of great people on the ground putting plans into action.