One of the most conservative members of the Wyoming State Senate is Cale Case (R-Lander). He favors approval of a medical marijuana bill and says there is a surprising amount of support for such an effort among older, conservative Wyomingites.

I happened to be with Case during his recent talk to the Lander Rotary Club. He asked the crowd of 50, how many would favor such a measure? Some 35 hands were raised – 70 percent!

Earlier, Cale had joined our Fox News All-Stars coffee group (average age 69) and took a similar poll. All of the nine people there favored it.

More Wyoming residents support legalizing marijuana now than two years ago, according to a survey released earlier this week.

Further, most survey respondents also favor nixing jail time for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Support for medical marijuana (with a doctor’s prescription) increased from 74 percent in 2014 to 81 percent in 2016.

Marijuana for personal use also saw increased support, from 37 percent in 2014 to 41 percent in 2016, though the majority of respondents are still against doing so.

Additionally, 72 percent of Wyoming residents say possession of small amounts of marijuana should not result in jail time, compared with 66 percent in 2014.

A Wyoming legislative committee on Thursday moved to make possession of marijuana brownies and other foods and beverages containing the drug a misdemeanor.

The Wyoming Senate earlier this week called for making it a felony to possess more than three ounces of food or drink containing marijuana or its active ingredients.

However, the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday stripped out the felony language, leaving the bill instead with a system of increasingly stiff misdemeanor penalties for repeated convictions of possessing food or beverages containing THC, the active compound in marijuana.

The full House still must act on the bill before a conference committee could try to resolve any differences between the House and Senate versions.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming lawmakers are struggling with how to craft legislation regulating marijuana brownies and other foods and beverages containing the drug.

The Wyoming Senate on Monday voted to advance a bill making possession of more than 3 ounces of marijuana edibles a felony. However, senators continue to argue about how to measure the concentration of marijuana in the substances, and its potency.

The debate was prompted after a state district court judge ruled last year that the law outlawing marijuana refers specifically to pot in plant form and does not cover the extract found in edibles.

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.

CHEYENNE – The group trying to get voters to decide whether to legalize medical marijuana in Wyoming will fall short of the state’s requirements to get the question on the 2016 ballot.

A spokeswoman with Wyoming chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws confirmed Monday that the group will not collect the necessary number of signatures by next week’s deadline.

Volunteers were only able to collect about 7,120 signatures, according to unofficial county-by-county tally provided by NORML.

That amount is just over one-quarter of the nearly 25,600 signatures of registered voters that the state requires for a citizen-led initiative to make the ballot.

But supporters are hoping they will be able to get the question on the 2018 ballot.