cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Backers Pledge Continued Efforts





Marijuana Backers Pledge Continued Efforts
Posted by CN Staff on November 06, 2002 at 16:14:33 PT
By The Associated Press 
Source: Associated Press
Backers of a failed Nevada initiative to legalize up to 3 ounces of marijuana blamed voter fear and government propaganda for the defeat but pledged continued efforts to pursue pot reforms."We're going to target a state in the next two to four year for the same proposal,"Robert Kampia, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, said Wednesday, a day after Nevada voters rejected Question 9 by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent.
"We don't know if it will be Nevada or not,"he said, but added the next target also will likely be in the West.Also on Tuesday, Arizona residents rejected an initiative that would have treated marijuana possession like a traffic violation, while voters in Ohio defeated a proposal that would have required judges to order treatment instead of jail for certain offenders who requested it.Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, an offshoot of the Washington group, gathered 75,000 signatures to place the Nevada initiative on the ballot.It sought to legalize possession by adults of up to 3 ounces of marijuana and called for the regulation of cultivation and distribution of pot through state-licensed smoke shops.The more vocal opponents came from law enforcement, who argued the measure would lead to more drug use among youth and undermine Nevada's drunken driving laws.President George W. Bush's newly appointed anti-drug chief, John Walters, and other opponents characterize marijuana as a gateway drug that leads to increased drug abuse by youths. Besides, they say, it causes traffic accidents, domestic violence and health problems.Tuesday's defeat was a blow to backers, who targeted Nevada because of its otherwise carefree lifestyle and tolerance of vice.Kampia said he could offer no real positive spin on the loss at the polls."I'm not going to try to dress up a pig,"he said Wednesday.Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, had predicted Question 9 would fail despite Nevada's reputation as a leader in vice, where drinks flow freely, gambling is embraced and prostitution is tolerated.Nevadans just aren't"willing to go that far yet,"when it comes to marijuana,"he said.During the campaign, backers touted the initiative as a priority issue, saying legalization would allow police to spend more time pursuing violent criminals.They also argued it would allow medical marijuana patients a legal way to obtain the drug and raise millions of dollars for state coffers through taxation. Nevada voters approved medical marijuana in 2000.Those arguments, Kampia said, were appealing to voters."Yet there was still something in their minds, in their ears, causing to make them very nervous,"he said.He blamed the government for voters' jitters."The government has been telling Americans for decades that marijuana is much more harmful than it really is,"he said, citing anti-drug commercials that ran in the weeks preceding the election.The federal government, he said, used"literally hundreds of millions of dollars ... to campaign against us."The Marijuana Policy Project financed the campaign for Question 9, spending about $2 million.Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick, who championed the opposition in northern Nevada, said that it was initiative backers who were trying to deceive voters."Their goal is to legalize drugs,"he said."I've had no doubt that if people in Nevada knew the facts they were not going to vote for this."There is a bright side,"Gammick quipped."They have dumped millions of dollars into the economy of this state trying to get this passed."His message to the pro-pot advocates:"We appreciate your patronage. Now go away."Complete Title: Marijuana Backers Pledge Continued Effort for Pot Reforms Source: Associated Press  Published: Wednesday, November 6, 2002  Copyright: 2002 Associated Press Related Articles & Web Sites:NRLEhttp://www.nrle.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/State Voters Reject Legalizing Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14671.shtmlMarijuana Legalization Backers Suffer Defeats http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14670.shtml
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Comment #28 posted by Dan B on November 07, 2002 at 02:08:55 PT:
crank--I wholeheartedly agree
Yes, this proposal did not pass because there are several flaws in it. The wording needs to reflect the concerns of the fence-sitters. If the three-ounce thing didn't fly, I think one ounce should be plenty. Heck, you can't even buy an ounce in Amsterdam. One ounce looks like a lot less than three ounces on television (if they put it in one of those big baggies, it would look ridiculously small, and putting it in a small baggie would show everyone that it is less than the size of a sandwich).The driving thing also needs to be better addressed, as well as the taxation and penalties for those who run their businesses outside the rules. Once this bill passes, then we can work on personal cultivation--but let's get a ballot measure that will actually pass first. Specifics are the key. The more specific the legislation is, the better chance there will be of passing it, and the better chance there will be of making the letter of the initiative stick when it goes before the state congress. I think that if they reworked and reworded this same proposal, paying careful attention to weeding out arguments made by its opponents, and returned it to the ballot in 2004, there would be less turmoil over it, and it likely would pass.Thanks for saying what was on my mind, crank.Dan B
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Comment #27 posted by Dan B on November 07, 2002 at 01:54:45 PT:
FoM - The Coming Draft
They already have the legislation ready for passage. See the story at this link:http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/LThomas100302/lthomas100302.htmlThe draft will be a reality with the upcoming war against Iraq and all of the upcoming wars for which Bush is gleefully rubbing his hands together. "Get as many humans killed as possible" is the motto of this administration. It has nothing to do with our safety and everything to do with their power.Dan B
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Comment #26 posted by DdC on November 06, 2002 at 21:52:05 PT
Should we pay for our own persecution?
Our taxes pay for our own incarcerations, humiliations and physical altercations? If cops can't afford to bust us should we donate them money? Should our taxes represent at least a nat's ass portion of our needs? Just a flicker of representation at least? No crumbs. Removing tuition, foodstamps, medical, workers comp, unemployment, housing, houses, cars, jobs, parents and kids... isn't my idea of persuing happiness. Doesn't leave many alternatives. While the fascist profit from our money on our misery. Isn't that salting the wound just a bit after they chase us down like rabid animals for infecting their kids with notions? Then they send us a bill for it? Watch for censoring the internet. Feinstein.Hatch's been working it through the Senate several years. It included hemp talk and what we do right here. Should WoD be subsidized by us? I think its a Constitutional exzemption. I know its totally illogical.Plus the inflated cost of ganja that penalizes many Americans without the buzzard D.E.A.th cost. I want a refund from the government causing price gouging. The administrated inconvenience means punitive damages. Has anyone ever met the guy that sets the ganja prices? I think the growers deserve it at the present time, and know they are the unsung hero's supplying the working class. At great risk and hardship sometimes. Public servants we don't thank enough. With connections it ain't totally easy, let alone those wanting medicine without a clue as to how to get it. Vulnerable on the streets, yum yum. So as we are again stigmatized and herded. I think we should ask ourselves this. If we're being stigmatized on TV and herded into cages, the streets or the graveyard. Can they be reasoned with? Aren't we dealing with full tilt bozo's here? Robot Fascist with warts and atheletes mouth? I mean insanity can't be reasoned with except by the insane. How do you run a fair campaign uphill against insane people coming down on ya with billions again paid for by us? What if the 3 billionairs bought an island far away, in the tropical sun. And we move there and grow our ganja? This new weird odor stinks of D.E.A.th!Peace, Love and LibertyDdC
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Comment #25 posted by eco-man on November 06, 2002 at 21:41:54 PT
Alternatives to corporate media and propaganda
It is hard to fight billions of dollars in anti-cannabis propaganda. NEWS sites. Europe, USA, world.
http://corporatism.tripod.com/fairuse.htm 
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Comment #24 posted by Reverend Nick on November 06, 2002 at 20:45:33 PT:
Amerika
If this really is Amerika, as many of us are starting to feel, for what it's worth, this is probably all true too.http://www.talion.com/election-machines.htmlWhy wouldn't they rig the computer voting machines after everything else they've done. The Constitution is so much Hemp TP for these gangsters. There's gotta be a blessing in all this somewhere...
The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry: We Use Cannabis Religiously
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Comment #23 posted by John Tyler on November 06, 2002 at 20:33:24 PT
Prohibitionists fought tooth and nail
The feds and other prohibitionists fought tooth and nail on this issue and spents millions on derailing the vote. It would have been an incredible slap in their faces if they had lost, yet still the forces for cannabis liberation got 39%. That is something to build on. San Francisco and D.C. got their vote passed, so all is not lost.
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Comment #22 posted by afterburner on November 06, 2002 at 20:21:15 PT:
MikeEEEEE and eco-man
So a 61 to 39 percent vote is actually not that bad...If only 11% of the NV voters changed their votes, the result would be a dead heat. What if more people voted next time?In some ways we're fighting years of conditioning.We're fighting cliches and cliches are a shortcut for real thinking, knee-jerk reaction. Get their bodies moving. Dance by the light of the moon and sun.ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.said he was a buffalo soldier in the war for America, Bob Marley.
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Comment #21 posted by eco-man on November 06, 2002 at 20:15:02 PT
Hi FoM. Worldwide we are winning. MMM!
If in the land of the most propaganda against cannabis we can get 39% of the few voters left who still believe in voting between the 2 wings of the corporate Republicrat Party, then we are well on the way to even more tolerance of cannabis. This age of dumbass fundamentalist rule of America is almost over. Million Marijuana March! 200 cities worldwide! May 3 2003: 
http://corporatism.tripod.com/mmmlinks.htm 
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Comment #20 posted by crank on November 06, 2002 at 20:10:35 PT
Next time around
>>> "We're going to target a state in the next two to four year for the same proposal," Robert Kampia I hope he doesn't mean literally "the same proposal" - there are problems that need to be fixed.Examples:There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that driving stoned will not be newly legal (or treated differently than current law) because of the proposal. The bit about driving "dangerously" was inadequate.The need to set the limit as high as 3 ounces seems irrelevant if you can buy at a local store. I realize the cops complaining about 250 joints wouldn't support it if the limit was 0.00003 ounces, but they probably influenced some voters.The issue of taxation, price, and economic benefit to the state has to be dealt with honestly and realistically. The retail price should be high enough to discourage export and assuage voters' fears about "everybody getting stoned all the time", low enough to thoroughly undercut the black market. Unless the tax rate is much higher than for tobacco, there will be so much profit for some people that corruption will be hard to avoid (how many licenses? who gets them? etc). There need to be significant penalties for those who conduct business outside the rules.It should be perfectly clear that the ability of private employers to do drug testing will not be affected.I'm sure there's more. Sorry that I don't seem to be in the same spirit as most of you. And, yes, if you must know, I'm the somewhat more anonymous evil twin of someone else.
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Comment #19 posted by MikeEEEEE on November 06, 2002 at 19:51:15 PT
BGreen
You said, Why can't we have control over our own domain?Propaganda tends to work better with small minds. Constant bombardment in the media, totaling billions of dollars, has left the naive and small minds with a reason not to like something, when there wasn't a reason before. Notice how they always use the same propaganda lines, the heavy money has left us with the anti mindset.In some ways we're fighting years of conditioning. I think we're doing very well. With 2 million dollars, verses the anti's billions in ad dollars, we managed to get just under 40%.There's more and more cracks in wall almost every day, it stands but it's getting weaker around the world.
Freedom is a slow process.
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on November 06, 2002 at 19:48:49 PT
Hi eco
It's good to see you. I've know you as long as DdC and if you can have hope well so can I. I'm taking a mental break and we're watching The Osbournes interview with Barbara Walters. Barbara Walters ask Sharon if Ozzie was doing illegal drugs. She said no he moved on to legal prescription drugs. That poor man isn't with it at all. Legal drugs are worse then illegal ones I think sometimes.
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Comment #17 posted by eco-man on November 06, 2002 at 19:42:37 PT
reign of error. 
The federal government, he said, used "literally hundreds of millions of dollars ... to campaign against us."The sentence above from the article is the truth. In fact; BILLIONS have been spent demonizing cannabis since the evil ones, Ron and Nancy Reagan, began their reign of error.So a 61 to 39 percent vote is actually not that bad, and I am actually encouraged. :) Spin-doctoring 101. :)
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Comment #16 posted by SirReal on November 06, 2002 at 19:01:38 PT
Lets face it,...
The anti's have solidified their power by branding most of us with drug felonies, thereby eliminating our vote
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on November 06, 2002 at 18:33:21 PT
BGreen 
Glad to meet you Amy! LOL!
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on November 06, 2002 at 18:29:26 PT
Alvin Cool & BGreen
BGreen I know your right. I'm only kidding because I'm very tired and AlvinCool New Jersey? We'd be too close to D.C. for them. They'd probably want to send us way up in Alaska but then they'd change their mind because they'd want the oil. If this wasn't so sad it would be funny.
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Comment #13 posted by BGreen on November 06, 2002 at 18:08:45 PT
uh oh, I've let it slip now
I really am "Amy," a 12-year-old writing a report for my D.A.R.E class. LOLI meant to say "Not only am I not safe IN my house, I have to fear them STEALING my house."
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Comment #12 posted by AlvinCool on November 06, 2002 at 18:05:22 PT
Yucca
Well they might give us Yucca, but they would probably make us live in New Jersey.
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Comment #11 posted by BGreen on November 06, 2002 at 18:04:26 PT
You and I own land in amerika, FoM
Why can't we have control over our own domain? Not only amy I not safe IN my house, I have to fear them STEALING my house.
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on November 06, 2002 at 18:02:43 PT
That Wouldn't Work
They's only want to let us live in Yucca Mountain!
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on November 06, 2002 at 18:00:05 PT
Now I'm Not Serious
Maybe they should just give us a state. Let us relocate and leave us alone. That would be fine with me. We won't bother anyone and we'd all get along! 
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Comment #8 posted by BGreen on November 06, 2002 at 17:54:20 PT
Don't worry, you lying twit
(Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammicks') message to the pro-pot advocates:"We appreciate your patronage. Now go away."I'll never set foot in your state and spend my money to support your economy.
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Comment #7 posted by goneposthole on November 06, 2002 at 17:30:36 PT
limit was too low
Question 9 should have allowed for a maximum amount of cannabis in one's 
possession at 1 metric ton or 1000 kilograms. Same as a long ton, weighing 2206 lbs. There would be plenty of time to build up your stash.The black market would have ceased to exist.
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Comment #6 posted by DdC on November 06, 2002 at 17:24:42 PT
Careful what you purchase!
Don't support fascist. Period. Don't buy their products. Any company pisstasting, reject them even if it cost a few more cents... buy from people who are not cloned sheep!Don't do services for fascist. Let them employee a robot.Vote out fascist sheriffs and politico's.Any, I mean any D.E.A.th advocates should not be in business in America. Thats all I'm saying. Put them out of business! Nonviolently, if at all possible but frankly scarlet I don't give a damn anymore. They seem to have no problem killing me or caging me. My neck is so sore from turning the other cheek. But if at all possible keep it peacefull.I had a nice rant this morning with two nurses. Why am I teaching nurses about hempseed or ganja meds? That was a question they couldn't answer. Why isn't it taught in med school or colleges? Why didn't they know about the vaporized ganja released in England or that 32 countries grow hemp? Same as when I ask about hemp seed nutrition.Eh? Hemp seed/ganja anti biotics? Eh? That hemp is 99% of ganja eradications to raise numbers? Eh? Well that one made sense as to why. Not justifying it but coming to an possible understanding that this isn't about due process. Its about a systematic cultural cleansing of ganja, users and any non right wing christian. Not just the tokers. Even regular christians aren't safe from International fascism. You don't count after your vote is cast. Grazing on their bottled booze and packaged foods flipping channels to hear another talking head glop out sputom of terror. For one simple reason... to retain fear in the masses. The only thing I really hope for is freeing ganja and a chance in my life to smack Wally in the face with a cream pie...That will make my year. ¶8)Peace, Love, Liberty and Smacking D.E.A.th in the Puss with a Pie!DdCKeep Your Foot on the Grass: Hemp Car Touts Fuel
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11044.shtmlNatural Compound May Reduce Brain Trauma Damage
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11033.shtmlMarijuana Could Help Cocaine Addicts Kick Habit
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11031.shtmlUS-Funded Colombian Unit Linked to Terrorist Group
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread11038.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on November 06, 2002 at 16:51:34 PT
Fear
We've been a free spirited country for a long time and the only way to get people to do what you want is to create an overwhelming sense of fear in the people. This administration is doing a fine job of scarying everyone so we will do what they say. It is so unreal to watch it happen and not have people understand what is happening.
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Comment #4 posted by Patrick on November 06, 2002 at 16:45:21 PT
FoM
I agree, they are gonna do everything they can to link the terrorism fear in America to someone smoking a joint or having a "dime bag" in their pocket. Curious to see what atrocity the DEAth squad has planned next with their 20 Billion Dollar budget?
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on November 06, 2002 at 16:40:02 PT
Patrick
I saw that on the news and thought here we go. They want to start a big war and tie it together anyway they can. I feel very sorry for boys around 18. I believe they will start up the draft. I really do and no one will fuss if it happens. I remember reading William Bennett thinks the young men are to free and need to learn discipline. He said the service will teach them respect and he said we should bring back the draft.
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Comment #2 posted by Patrick on November 06, 2002 at 16:32:31 PT
4 arrested in drugs-for-weapons plot
The news on the day after election. “The war on terrorism has been joined with the war on illegal drug use,” Ashcroft said.from:http://www.msnbc.com/news/831465.asp
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on November 06, 2002 at 16:24:33 PT
Someday
I hope to meet or hear of a District Attorney that is actually a respectable human being. All the ones I see are people who profit from the suffering of others. For them, crime is the springboard to long political careers feeding at the public trough. The more grizzly the crime, the better the opportunity to jump into the spotlight. Think about it. The day that crime is solved, we won't need DA's any more. Where is their vested interest? And DA's are ENORMOUSLY powerful in state and local government.Just look at Guiliani. He applied his DA mindset perfectly to the 9/11 attack.  He had jumped in front of the cameras and radio mikes before the second plane even hit. Scumbag. 
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