Activists hope to raise support for medical marijuana petition in Idaho

MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho — On Saturday, Mountain Home had a festival that was the first of its kind in the city. Organizers got together to promote an initiative to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana in Idaho.

The petition, started by Jackee Winters, hopes to get enough signatures so the issue could be put on a statewide ballot, giving Idaho voters a chance to decide rather than having Idaho lawmakers lead the way.

“I care a lot because I’ve got a lot of family that doesn’t want to take pharmaceutical drugs or suffer from side effects,” said Alyssa Walker, who owns Reign and Smoke shop in Mountain Home. She put on the event on Saturday.

She says her family chooses to medicate with marijuana instead of use pharmaceutical drugs. She wants the medicinal use of marijuana to be legal in the state she calls home.

The festival brought vendors from around the state, as well as Top Crop Cannabis, a company from Ontario, who weren’t selling marijuana but were promoting their business.

“We live in America, we should already have freedom of choice,” Walker said. “We have a lot of other things that are available to the public, I don’t understand why this isn’t already.”

The petition can be found on Winters’ website.