Helix TCS, Inc., through its cannabis seed-to-sale tracking and point-of-sale subsidiary, BioTrackTHC, has officially deployed North Dakota’s government medical cannabis traceability system.

The system “will track and trace the state’s entire medical cannabis supply chain for compliance and regulatory oversight,” notes a statement from Helix TCS, a provider of ancillary services for the legal cannabis industry that reports having met all go-live deadlines for its government-contracted traceability solutions.

North Dakota lawmakers again wrestled with the state’s medical marijuana law Monday, amid some frustration that the drug isn’t yet available to patients almost two years after the state enacted the voter-approved statute.

Fargo Democratic Rep. Pam Anderson, an early medical marijuana proponent, pushed a bill adding several conditions that would qualify for the drug’s use, including autism, anxiety disorder and Tourette syndrome. It would also allow people from other medical marijuana states to obtain the drug here and expand the types of health care providers who could approve its use for patients.

"I think what we passed last time ... for the most part was a good bill," Anderson said. "What I think we're all trying to do now is really make it better."

After an effort to legalize recreational marijuana failed at the ballot box, a North Dakota lawmaker said this week she plans to introduce legislation reducing penalties for possessing a small amount of the drug.

State Rep. Shannon Roers Jones, R-Fargo, said under the proposal, people caught with a small amount of marijuana would only pay a fine and avoid creating a criminal record. She said she’s still working out the details of the bill, adding it could apply to possession of an ounce or less of the drug.

Marijuana possession is currently a Class B misdemeanor under state law, but there are exceptions for medical use with a valid certification and card.

Legalize ND leader David Owen said they are “100 percent” going to try again in 2020 to pass a recreational marijuana bill in North Dakota.

Despite failing by a 59 percent to 41 percent margin earlier this month, Owen said they are using North Dakota attorneys to write the new proposed language for the ballot measure.

What will be different, he said, is that the proposal will include provisions for tax revenue from sales and limits on the amounts of marijuana an individual can grow or possess.

Other regulations are also planned. “It’ll be a more traditional legalization bill,” he said, similar to those that have passed in other states.

Recreational marijuana sales could bring in a lot of tax dollars, but there is still nothing set-in-stone to determine how that money would be spent if Measure 3 passes.

It's a question, our State Legislature will decide. As your local election headquarters, KX News has been following the issues and topics you'll find on your ballot Tuesday.

The tax commissioner has already said, recreational marijuana will be subject to a 5 percent general state sales tax if it becomes legal. But it could also be taxed on top of that, for a sin tax, like alcohol and tobacco currently are.

David Owen said he has never smoked marijuana in his life, and he doesn’t plan to if North Dakotans approve a measure calling for the legalization of it.

So why would the University of North Dakota student studying molecular, cellular and developmental biology and political science spearhead the effort to decriminalize the drug? He pointed to stories of residents who had dreams of aspiration -- both large and small -- only to have the chances of achieving those dreams quashed by possessing or consuming a drug that he said shouldn’t be illegal.

While most of the attention from cannabis advocates for next month's election has been focused on