cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Questions Also on Ballot Elsewhere Marijuana Questions Also on Ballot Elsewhere Posted by CN Staff on October 20, 2002 at 09:13:17 PT By Ed Vogel, Review-Journal Capital Bureau Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal Nevada isn't the only state where citizens on Nov. 5 will be preoccupied with marijuana. Arizona voters also decide whether to decriminalize pot use; South Dakotans determine whether to legalize industrial hemp, and San Franciscans decide if their city should grow pot for medical patients. None of the initiatives has received as much national attention as Nevada's Question 9, but a lot of money has been spent in Arizona over its initiative to decriminalize the possession of 2 ounces or less of marijuana. The measure also requires the Department of Public Safety to provide two free ounces to people with permission to use marijuana for medical reasons. The Arizona Republic reported in September that the campaign to decriminalize marijuana is being bankrolled by Phoenix entrepreneur John Sperling, New York financier George Soros and Cleveland businessman Peter Lewis. The trio have donated a combined $840,000 to a campaign committee known as "The People Have Spoken." If the question passes, then residents would pay only $250 fines if caught with small amounts of marijuana. Lewis, the chief executive officer of Progressive Insurance Co., also has made contributions to the Marijuana Policy Project, the parent organization of the group seeking to to legalize marijuana in Nevada, Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement. Police organizations have railed against the ballot question, particularly the requirement that medical marijuana patients receive free pot. Arizona voters established a program to allow people to use marijuana for medical purposes in 1996. South Dakota would become the fourth state with a law allowing farmers to grow industrial hemp for industrial purposes if its citizens back a ballot question. Polls show 85 percent of the population supports the plan. Industrial hemp is defined as the type of cannabis plant that contains 1 percent or less of THC, the mind-altering chemical found in marijuana. Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia already allow industrial hemp cultivation, although growing the crop remains against federal law. South Dakota farmers want to grow hemp because it has become a $500 million a year crop, grown mainly for fiber. Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to let residents decide whether they want the city to grow marijuana for patients. That measure came in response to a Drug Enforcement Administration raid on a Northern Nevada farm that supplied medical marijuana. Polls show this question also probably will pass. About 3,600 people in San Francisco have permission to use marijuana as medicine.Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)Author: Ed Vogel, Review-Journal Capital BureauPublished: Sunday, October 20, 2002Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Review-JournalContact: letters lvrj.comWebsite: http://www.lvrj.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:NRLEhttp://www.nrle.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Nevada Pushes Next Frontier: Legalizing Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14503.shtmlProp 203 Requires State to Give Away Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14494.shtmlSF Voters Support Marijuana Measure, Poll Showshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14101.shtmlHemp Initiative Offers South Dakota A Processhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13235.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by DdC on October 20, 2002 at 12:51:42 PT Prohibition: Who Gets Hurt? Who Gets Paid? Who Gets Hurt patients, recreational users, religious users, workers using instead of booze, junkies trying to kick, tax payers, welfare and maybe social security benefits in the future- failing urine tests, students denied tuition, families denied foodstamps for life, babies breathing and adulterated by the alternatives to organic hemp, bystanders in the line of fire caused solely by prohibition, kids...Who Gets PaidPharmaceuticals keeping out competition, Urine testers, drugczars, D.E.A.th politicops, politico's, 50,000 copshops, cops, prison construction, prison services (staff, linen, furnature, devices), lawyers, treatment services, treatment construction, fossil fuels, meat, dairy, booze- hard to soft, drug cartels, mafia, banks, pesticide and herbicide, corporations, DARE propaganda groups services (staff, posters, etc), D.E.A.th lite Cowboy adventures... Got Pills? http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/31/31879.jpgReckless http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/28/28806.gifSmirkoff http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/34/34233.jpgWhy I Support Marijuana Prohibition http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=122.topic Moraleze [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on October 20, 2002 at 12:21:44 PT DdC Each day I am overwhelmed by this whole situation. Cannabis is a plant. I find this almost as bizarre as SNL last night. We make jokes about Cannabis. News broadcasters always smile when they mention Cannabis. This is a cute little issue compared to the serious issues facing our country and the world but if we keep going deeper into war people will want to "cop out" just like during Vietnam. The average person doesn't want to think about blowing up people in other countries. Killing is immoral. Keeping this beneficial plant illegal is immoral too. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by DdC on October 20, 2002 at 12:06:18 PT This is the Bottom Line of Ludicrous! Today! So far..."There is a point at which the law becomes immoral and unethical. That point is reached when it becomes a cloak for the cowardice that dares not stand up against blatant violations of justice. A state that supresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as plotting to high treason, is a state that breaks an unwritten law." - Kurt Huber [The head of White Rose], killed by the Nazis in 1943. the city could be busted by the federal government for pursuing such an operation.I'd like to see that jail cell...The 9th wonder of the world!Then the state behind bars! I can see the prison construction Korpses drooling over that. An entire state behind bars! Finally Solidarity!THE POLICE STATE COMETH by Rep.Ron Paul http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec97/cr062597b.htm"No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. ....the 63% of the German people who expressed their opposition to Hitler were much too divided and shortsighted to combine against a common danger which they must have known would overwhelm them unless they united, HOWEVER TEMPORARY, to stamp it out." -William L. Shirer, Arizona Cannabis Stamp...Re-Legalize! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on October 20, 2002 at 11:06:37 PT News Brief from The Associated Press San Francisco May Explore Growing Medical Marijuana Published: October 20, 2002San Francisco - AP -- Will San Francisco soon start growing and distributing its own marijuana for medical purposes?An initiative on an upcoming ballot is asking local voters to decide whether the city should explore the idea.Supervisor Mark Leno says that despite a 1996 California law allowing the use of medical marijuana, federal drug enforcement officials continue to shut down medical marijuana clubs and arrest those growing pot for medical reasons.The city's ballot measure is expected to pass overwhelmingly -- but there could be some potential liabilities.Leno says San Francisco needs to determine if would be held liable if someone who purchased marijuana from the city developed problems. He also says the city could be busted by the federal government for pursuing such an operation.Copyright 2002 Associated Press [ Post Comment ] Post Comment