A group in Montana took the first step this week toward getting a pair of initiatives aimed at legalizing marijuana on the state’s ballot in November.

New Approach Montana submitted two separate proposals to Montana’s secretary of state on Monday after spending the past year gathering input from voters throughout the state.

This year has been momentous for cannabis reform, from the Illinois General Assembly becoming the first state legislature to pass a bill to regulate cannabis like alcohol to the U.S. House of Representatives passing the SAFE Banking Act and forging ahead with the MORE Act. 

It’s important to celebrate these victories, but with the end of 2019 comes the beginning of 2020, which is already shaping up to be the biggest year ever for marijuana-policy reform. 

Momentum could be building for the legalization of recreational weed in Montana. That’s because a local group working for cannabis reform in the state has just received big time backing from advocacy groups.

If the efforts in Montana succeed, voters could see legalization on the ballot next year. However, with all that said, there is still a long ways to go. That includes getting initial approval for the proposal and then gathering enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Last week, Sam Markowski pulled his pickup truck into a field where he once planted 10 acres of feed corn. Instead of neat rows of corn stalks, however, thousands of dark green hemp plants dotted the landscape.

Markowski, wearing a fleece and a baseball cap bearing the name of his family's excavation company, threaded his way through the pungent plants toward a lone worker in the distance, framed by hills of fading fall foliage.

Chris Teitsma gently squeezed the flower-laden stalk top of a hemp plant, known as the cola, and explained how he knew the time for harvesting had arrived. "You want them fat and firm like this," Teitsma said, showing off the crop. "The flowers are really dense and packed in there."

Montana farmers planted 22,000 acres of hemp last year — the most of any U.S. state. Many are turning to the recently legalized option because trade wars continue to hurt profits on traditional crops like wheat and barley. But now many Montana hemp farmers allege they weren’t paid what they were promised. The result is a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the company they partnered with. 

Dean Nelson is among that group waiting to learn the fate of his hemp crop. Roughly 1,000 bales still line his fields, each one about 1,400 pounds.

• The 29 U.S. states having reporting licensed hemp cultivation acreage total nearly half a million acres in combined cultivation land area, a massive increase over 2018's combined U.S. total of just over 100,000 acres.
• Colorado leads the nation in hemp cultivation and processing land area with over 80,000 acres reported.
• Oregon, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Montana lead in hemp program expansion efforts.
• Tennessee leads in total hemp licenses issued in 2019.
• At least 70% of the 2019 U.S. hemp harvest is intended for extract production.
• California is poised to be the top-producing hemp state for both conventional and organic production as thousands of acres have already been planted in 2019.

Montana continues to tweak its medical marijuana system, which was first written into law 15 years ago. On Monday, the state’s House passed Senate Bill 265, which makes important changes to the program including a temporary tax increase, the institution of doctor recommendations by phone, and the “untethering” of patients.

A bill to legalize recreational marijuana use for Montanans 18 and older failed to advance Thursday from a state House committee.

Kendra Langford Shaw loved running a small business.

It was a part-time endeavor with only six customers. Her product was medical marijuana, which she felt her customers relied on for their well-being.

When new regulations brought more costs in 2018, she thought things still might pencil out. She worked to comply with new state laws and had an inspection of her grow operation in the basement of her Billings home. She told her cardholders they had to look elsewhere.