Idaho committee backs sending constitutional amendment on drug authority to the floor

A House committee voted to send House Joint Resolution 4 to the floor with a due pass recommendation, advancing a proposed constitutional amendment that would give the state legislature sole authority to legalize "marijuana, narcotics, or other psychoactive substances." Representative Scott moved the motion, and the voice vote carried; Representatives Green and Achilles were recorded as voting no.

The amendment, sponsored in the House by Representative Bruce Skaug, would add language to the Idaho Constitution to reserve to the legislature the power to legalize those substances. Skaug told the committee the measure is aimed at keeping Idaho"not open to drugs" and to "harmonize the current treatment of intoxicating liquors"…