The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been atypically public in its advocacy for a tightly-controlled and strictly-enforced medical marijuana program in Utah. After joining a coalition effort to oppose Proposition 2 — which would legalize medical cannabis in the state — church leaders joined with some of the initiative’s backers and Utah lawmakers to embrace a negotiated deal expected to be debated and potentially adopted by the Legislature in November.
But the announcement of a tentative compromise appeared to be based in the assumption that Proposition 2 would pass, and that critics of the initiative would be forced to weigh what they saw as the lesser of two evils.