Measure 5, an initiative to legalize recreational cannabis in North Dakota, was defeated in Tuesday night’s election.

Support for recreational cannabis has been growing with each attempt to pass legislation, and one of its more vocal advocates, Steve Bakken, Burleigh County commissioner and chairman of the New Economic Frontier, the committee that penned the measure, said it’s about “personal choice, personal freedom and government overstepping its bounds.”

Bakken said voters were told what they should think, and he has faith that as long as voters have all the correct information in front of them, they will make the correct decision for North Dakota.

“We took our shot to protect North Dakota from outside forces and outside measures when it comes to recreational cannabis, and that’s all we could do,” he said.

Patrick Finken, the retiring chairman of The Brighter Future Alliance, the main body opposing the measure, said this was the measure’s advocate’s best chance, and it failed.

“It’s been on the ballot and failed three times now. The people of North Dakota have spoken and they don’t want this,” Finken said.

Bakken asserted that due to the trend of growing support for legal cannabis, the ultimate goal of the measure will eventually become a reality for North Dakota. He expressed concern that future proposals for legalization would not be good for the state. According to Bakken, voters now will be faced with an eventual initiative that will bring with it issues similar to those other states have faced.

Sheriff Kelly Leben, also of Burleigh County and one of the measure’s more vocal opponents, said he doesn’t consider the possibility of a less favorable initiative in the future as a reason to vote for a measure he disagrees with, but, ultimately, it was up to voters. If the measure passed, he said, he in his capacity as sheriff would have worked with it.

If Measure 5 had passed, Leben said, North Dakota would have seen some drastic changes on both the social and the criminal side of things, but that’s not what voters wanted this year.

“From the national level down to the local level, I think a strong message was sent about where people were at,” Leben said.

Measure 5 was the measure on which most voters had an opinion, drawing 361,894 votes that showed 171,733 votes in favor and 190,161 against. The next closest measure, Measure 1, related to terminology describing public institutions, drew about 5,300 fewer voters.

Leben said this strong turnout sends a strong message from voters that they are making their collective voice heard.

“No matter what, there will be people who illegally use the substance in North Dakota,” Leben acknowledged, adding he doesn’t see anything major changing in the future.

“Obviously I’ve been very vocal on the negative facts of marijuana legalization, but whatever happens, this is the process I believe in. The people get a voice and get the opportunity to say how they want the state to be,” he said. “The voters have spoken. Three times now they have voted down marijuana legalization in this state, and I think that at some point we have to accept that, and until something changes, I hope we can just move forward now.”