Supreme Court Upholds Jaeger’s Decision, Denies Pharmacy Petition

The North Dakota Supreme Court, today, upheld Secretary of State Al Jaegar’s decision to reject the pharmacy law petition from entering the polls this November.

Although uncomfirmed, the petition reportedly had enough signatures to qualify for a public vote this November. However, missing sponsorship paperwork had immediately disqualified the petition from consideration.

The law, enacted in 1963, required pharmacies be majority owned by pharmacists, preventing national chains such as Wal-Mart and Walgreens from operating pharmacies. CVS/pharmacy and Thrifty White Drug are exempt from the law since each were previously operating prior to the law.

3 Comments

1. 

   Jessy S.

   September 8, 2010 at 12:19 pm

   I hope that the people that distributed this petition get convicted for fraud. The people of North Dakota have the right to know who is sponsoring any given petition. If the brains behind this were Wal-Mart and Walgreens, I am sure that we wouldn’t have had 14,000 names on the petition because CVS would have been fighting to make sure the petition doesn’t get on the ballot. At this point, it would be cheaper for Walgreens to acquire CVS than it would be to change the law.
2. 

   Randy Hoffman (admin)

   September 8, 2010 at 1:22 pm

   Jessy, the list of members of the sponsoring committee was available for petitioners to review when signing, and online. The Tribune also posted the exact copy here: http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/bismarcktribune.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/c/8a/33a/c8a33a84-a099-11df-a900-001cc4c03286-revisions/4c5ac3f550f84.pdf.pdf

   It was not forgotten due to kind of cover-up or act of “fraud”, it was simply an error on the part of the petitioners. Mistakes happen.

   I also want to point out that CVS actually wants this law abolished as well, as it is inhibiting their own initiatives to expand beyond their current 6 stores.
3. 

   Mike Tifft

   October 26, 2010 at 7:25 pm

   This is a horrible law that hurts the people of ND. It needs to be repealed. I hope they keep trying.