Misguided public policy deserves rejection based on its faults, but we're satisfied when it fails on procedural grounds.
A proposed constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana will not appear on the November ballot, after a court ruled the petition effort fell short.
Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green on Wednesday ruled proponents did not collect a sufficient number of valid signatures.
A spokesman for the New Approach Missouri, which sponsored the proposal, said an appeal is unlikely due to time constraints.
For the present, the effort has been blocked by the courts, which are the appropriate venue to determine that an initiative effort conforms to legal and constitutional guidelines.
To place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot, signatures must be acquired by at least 8 percent of registered voters in six of the state's eight congressional districts. Secretary of State Jason Kander, the state's election authority, previously said the petitions fell short by 2,242 signatures in the 2nd District, which covers part of the St. Louis area.
In addition, St. Louis-area election authorities rejected thousands of petition signatures, an action affirmed by Green's ruling Wednesday.
The courts determine the legitimacy and constitutionality, not the merits of proposed public policy.
Policy decisions are made by legislative bodies, which represent the people, or directly by the people through an established initiative process - the path sought by New Approach Missouri.
Those proponents, however, already have signaled Missourians have not seen the last of their efforts to legalize medical marijuana.
When that happens, we will renew our arguments about why legalization is poor public policy.
Among them, marijuana is not medicine. We know of no other medicine that is smoked and no established medical organization that endorses the proposal. And if marijuana is medicine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration becomes the appropriate authority for oversight.
We are convinced proponents envision medical usage as a step toward recreational usage, which raises another set of public policy concerns to be addressed when the time comes.