cannabisnews.com: Group Wants Marijuana Issue on Ballot





Group Wants Marijuana Issue on Ballot
Posted by CN Staff on June 15, 2002 at 10:19:11 PT
Metro in Brief
Source: Washington Post 
A group that supports medical marijuana use in the District began gathering signatures yesterday to place an initiative on the November ballot which, if passed, would allow seriously ill patients to legally grow, possess and use their own marijuana if they have their doctor's approval.In the coming week, about 30 people will be at Metro stops, grocery stores and the Department of Motor Vehicles to collect signatures, said Robert Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. 
The group has until July 8 to turn in 17,000 valid signatures to the D.C. Board of Election and Ethics.Source: Washington Post (DC)Published: Friday, June 14, 2002; Page B03 Copyright: 2002 The Washington Post Company Contact: letterstoed washpost.comWebsite: http://www.washingtonpost.com Press Release from The Marijuana Policy Project Dear Friend, As reported in today's Washington Post, the Marijuana Policy Project is now legally permitted to collect signatures to place our medical marijuana initiative on the ballot in our nation's capital. Would you please help us in one of three ways? We must collect 40,000 total signatures (which translates into 20,000 valid signatures) in D.C. between now and July 7. This is a monumental effort! 1. TRAVEL TO D.C. AND GET PAID TO COLLECT SIGNATURES: Can you commit to gathering 200 signatures per day for 20 days, starting immediately? We will pay for your round-trip plane ticket, provide you with a hotel room, and pay you $2 per valid signature. (200 total signatures per day translates into about 100 valid signatures per day, which means you would be paid about $200 per day.) Please call MPP's Kat DeBurgh at 202-462-5747 ext. 101 if you are interested in earning about $4,000 in three weeks. Those who are willing to fly to D.C. within the next two days will be given preferential treatment. 2. VOLUNTEER IN D.C.: If you already have a full-time job and live near D.C., would you please volunteer to collect 120 signatures between now and July 7? The training session will take about one hour, and you can collect 120 signatures in about five hours by standing outside of a Metro stop or a supermarket. The first training session is tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:00 p.m. at Armand's Pizza at 226 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, on Capitol Hill. Please sign up at: http://www.mpp.org/dcinitiative/volunteer.html -- if you can come to this training or a future training, where you will be given free pizza and a free medical marijuana T-shirt to wear while gathering signatures. 3. DONATE TO PAY FOR SIGNATURE DRIVE: If you aren't able to collect signatures on a volunteer or paid basis, would you be willing to donate money so that others may be paid $2 per valid signature? Please donate at: http://www.mpp.org/dcinitiative/contribute.html -- at your earliest convenience. In 1998, D.C. voters passed a medical marijuana initiative with 69% of the vote. Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA) and other hard-line drug warriors in Congress kept this initiative from taking effect, then barred D.C. residents from ever voting on the issue again -- trampling on the will of the voters and the rights of patients. Three months ago, MPP beat Rep. Barr and the U.S. Justice Department in federal court, winning the right to run a new medical marijuana initiative in D.C. And one week ago in D.C. Superior Court, MPP successfully defended the initiative from a legal challenge by a team of local activists who were trying to prevent the signature drive from starting. Finally, yesterday, the local D.C. government gave us our petitions. We must now collect 40,000 total signatures between now and July 7. If we do, D.C. voters will surely pass our medical marijuana initiative this November, which means Congress will have to debate and vote on whether it will allow the local medical marijuana law to take effect ... or whether Congress will overturn the will of the voters. We must gather 2,000 signatures a day for 20 days -- from June 16 to July 7, with a one-day break on July 4 -- in order to qualify our measure for the November ballot. This is a monumental effort. Would you please help in one of the three ways listed above? Thank you! In urgency, Rob Kampia Executive Director Marijuana Policy Project Washington, D.C. P.S. To send a check in the mail, please direct it to: MPP's Medical Marijuana Initiative, P.O. Box 77492, Washington, D.C. 20013Thanks again! Related Articles & Web Site:Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org/The Medicinal Value of Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12823.shtmlThe Pollster Who Answered a Higher Calling http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13035.shtmlMedical Marijuana Ban Overturned in D.C. http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12422.shtmlRuling May Put Marijuana Measure on Ballothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12398.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by TecHnoCult on June 15, 2002 at 11:30:34 PT:
If nothing else, donate
It is real easy to do and you can donate as little as $10. ANYONE can come up with $10! Give them $25 or more if you can. Let Congress know what we want!THC
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