The Cheyenne City Council has given approval to a resolution urging state lawmakers to decriminalize marijuana.
The city council for Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming and its most populated city, passed a resolution this week that it plans to present to the Wyoming Association of Municipalities (WAM) at their next meeting. The resolution, passed by a vote of 5 to 2, urges the Wyoming Legislature to begin considering the decriminalization of marijuana during the next legislative session.
“We’re asking the Legislature to run it with their interim topics and draft more marijuana-friendly legislation,” said City Council President Richard Johnson, who introduced the resolution. Johnson says he hopes that he can gain support from other WAM members and thus build momentum for a statewide change.
State Representative Daniel Singh, who is from Cheyenne, says he will support marijuana decriminalization when the session begins in March.
The resolution was supported by Councilmembers Ken Esquibel, Mark Rinne, Richard Johnson, Scott Roybal and Bryan Cook, with Councilmembers Tom Segrave and Michelle Aldrich voting “No”.
“If we can get it to the Legislature at the end of the budget session and listed as one of the topics of discussion for the interim session for 2024, we can bring it forward with a bill in 2025,” says Johnson.
A member of the Casper City Council also brought forth the issue of marijuana decriminalization at a council meeting this week. Casper is the second most populated city in Wyoming, and the combined population of Cheyenne and Casper make up over 20% of the state’s population.
Currently Wyoming is just one of 11 states that have not at least legalized medical marijuana or decriminalized personal marijuana possession.
