Missouri voters have put a lock on the laws they pass themselves. By approving Amendment 6 in the November 3, 2026 election, they made voter-approved measures — including the state's medical and adult-use marijuana legalization laws — much harder for state lawmakers to undo.
The Vote
The Associated Press called the race for Amendment 6 (AP race 85203). With all 3,214 precincts reporting, Yes received 1,251,555 votes (59.97%) against 835,585 votes for No (40.03%).
These results are unofficial until certification.
What Amendment 6 Does
Amendment 6 raises the bar for changing any law that Missouri voters approved through the citizen-initiative process. Once it takes effect — expected December 3, 2026, under the state constitution's 30-day rule for voter-approved amendments — altering such a law requires:
- Approval by 80% of the state House — 131 of its 163 seats
- Approval by 80% of the state Senate — 28 of its 34 seats
- And then another vote of the people
The protection is retroactive: it covers citizen initiatives voters approved going back to January 1, 2010. Before Amendment 6, a simple majority in each chamber could send a change to a voter-approved measure back to the ballot; now that referral itself takes 80% of both chambers, and the change still needs the voters' approval.
What It Means for Legalization
Two of the voter-approved laws now under that protection are the measures that legalized marijuana in Missouri:
- Amendment 2 (2018), which legalized medical marijuana
- Amendment 3 (2022), which legalized adult-use marijuana
Both were passed by voters through the citizen initiative, and both fall inside the window Amendment 6 covers. Both measures are constitutional amendments, so their legalization provisions could never have been repealed by the legislature acting alone — a change always required a public vote. What Amendment 6 changes is how easily lawmakers can put such a change on the ballot: referring one now takes 80% of both chambers, instead of the simple-majority referral vote that previously sufficed.
What This Does Not Do
Amendment 6 does not change Missouri's marijuana laws themselves — medical and adult-use legalization stand exactly as voters approved them. What it changes is who can alter those laws, and how hard it is to do so.
Sources
Associated Press — election results, Missouri Amendment 6 (race 85203), November 2026.
Ballotpedia — Missouri Amendment 6, measure text and summary.
KRPS — reporting on Amendment 6's 80% legislative thresholds.
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