[Continued from 2017: Rebranding for Reform Integration]

After a two-and-a-half year “retirement,” I returned to weekly live podcasting with The “Radical” Russ Belville Show. I focused my coverage on the politics of ending marijuana prohibition in my home state of Idaho, but I also still covered the national politics and culture of all mind-altering substances and issues of criminal and social justice.

A substantial part of the new podcasting was coverage of campaigns to legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize recreational marijuana in my home state of Idaho. My father, John Belville, became the Chief Petitioner for the 2020 Idaho Medical Marijuana Act, and the two of us toured all 44 Idaho counties gathering signatures. Our campaign was about 80% of the way to the signature threshold when the COVID–19 pandemic shut us all down.

The following year I embarked on a new type of decriminalization campaign for Idaho that would have taken advantage of the legalized states that surround it. PAMDA 2022—Personal Adult Marijuana Decriminalization Act—would’ve made legal the possession of an ounce or less of any legal marijuana product purchased from out-of-state with an accompanying receipt, without legalizing any sales or production in the state of Idaho. Unfortunately, it did not gain any traction.

[Continued on 2025: Diving Back into Politics With a Toke and a Smile]