Last verified: April 2026
The Initiative That Forced Negotiation
The Utah Patients Coalition (UPC) was founded in 2017 with assistance from the Marijuana Policy Project and the libertarian Libertas Institute. Volunteers gathered roughly 153,000 signatures across the state. On March 26, 2018, then–Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox’s office validated 117,000 signatures — comfortably above the ~113,143-signature threshold. Proposition 2 was on the November 6, 2018 ballot.
Polling consistently showed Prop 2 ahead. The opposition needed leverage that polling couldn’t deliver.
Drug Safe Utah
The opposition campaign coalesced under the name Drug Safe Utah. Its members:
- Utah Medical Association (CEO Michelle McOmber)
- Utah Eagle Forum (Gayle Ruzicka)
- Utah Chiefs of Police
- Sutherland Institute
- And, decisively, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church’s external counsel, Kirton McConkie — specifically attorney Alexander Dushku — produced a seven-to-nine-page memo cataloguing 31 concerns with Prop 2. The Church distributed it to members and the press.
August 23, 2018: The Press Conference
On August 23, 2018, the Church convened a Salt Lake City press conference. Three senior leaders appeared:
- Elder Jack N. Gerard — General Authority Seventy
- Sister Lisa L. Harkness — First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency
- Elder Craig C. Christensen — then Utah Area President
The Church does not object to the medicinal use of marijuana, if doctor-prescribed, in dosage form, through a licensed pharmacy.
Elder Jack N. Gerard, August 23, 2018 — the formula that would become statutory text
That sentence — doctor-prescribed, in dosage form, through a licensed pharmacy — is the formula every clause of HB 3001 was designed to satisfy.
October 4, 2018: The Compromise Announcement
Five weeks before the election, on October 4, 2018, the principals stood together and announced a negotiated alternative:
- Gov. Gary Herbert
- Senate President Wayne Niederhauser
- House Speaker Greg Hughes
- Sen. Evan Vickers (R-Cedar City; a working pharmacist who would be the Senate sponsor)
- Elder Jack N. Gerard for the LDS Church
- DJ Schanz for the Utah Patients Coalition
- Connor Boyack for the Libertas Institute
- Michelle McOmber for the Utah Medical Association
- Former Sen. Mark Madsen
The Church’s lead negotiator was Marty Stephens — the Church’s Director of Community and Government Relations and a former Utah House Speaker. Stephens did the line-by-line work that produced the Compromise text.
The deal had a striking commitment: regardless of how Prop 2 fared on November 6, the legislature would convene a special session to enact the Compromise. The election would proceed as a kind of formality.
Holdouts: TRUCE Utah and the Epilepsy Association
TRUCE Utah — founded by Christine Stenquist, a brain-tumor survivor and pediatric medical cannabis advocate — refused to sign on. So did the Epilepsy Association of Utah. Both groups argued the Compromise stripped patient protections that Prop 2 voters were being asked to authorize. They threatened litigation.
November 6, 2018: Voters Pass Prop 2 Anyway
Prop 2 passed 52.75% to 47.25% — commonly rounded to “53%” in news coverage. Proponents called it a mandate. The signatories of the October 4 deal called it the trigger for the special session they had already promised.
December 3, 2018: HB 3001 Passes
On December 3, 2018, in a single-day special session, the legislature passed HB 3001 — the Utah Medical Cannabis Act:
- House sponsor: Speaker Greg Hughes
- Senate sponsor: Sen. Evan Vickers
- House vote: 60–13
- Senate vote: 22–4
- Signed by Gov. Herbert the same afternoon
Herbert called HB 3001 “the best-designed medical cannabis program in the country.”
The Lawsuits Failed
Epilepsy Association of Utah, TRUCE, Doug Rice, and Christine Stenquist v. Herbert, filed by former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson on December 5, 2018, alleged that the legislative override violated the Utah Constitution’s initiative provisions and that the Church’s involvement breached separation-of-church-and-state norms. Plaintiffs dropped the church-influence claim in May 2019; the suit was dismissed by September 2020.
The People’s Right (Steve Maxfield et al.) filed an emergency Utah Supreme Court petition arguing Gov. Herbert had effectively vetoed Prop 2 by negotiating its replacement. The court unanimously rejected the petition in August 2019, noting HB 3001 had passed both chambers with two-thirds majorities — the threshold required to override an initiative under Utah law at the time.
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