cannabisnews.com: Berkeley To Vote on Marijuana, Prostitution Berkeley To Vote on Marijuana, Prostitution Posted by CN Staff on June 23, 2004 at 10:09:07 PT By Kristin Bender, Staff Writers Source: Oakland Tribune Berkeley -- An initiative to make Berkeley the first city in the nation to decriminalize prostitution and another to give medical marijuana patients more access to cannabis have qualified for the November ballot, the Berkeley city clerk confirmed Tuesday. The Sex Workers Outreach Project, backers of Angel's Initiative, and a group of cannabis club operators sponsoring the Patients Access to Medical Cannabis Act have each collected the 2,077 signatures needed to put their issues on the Nov. 2 ballot, City Clerk Sherry Kelly said. The City Council will consider both items at a July meeting, Kelly said, but initiative proponents aren't optimistic the council will rubber-stamp the controversial plans. Both require a simple majority to pass in November, and organizers said Tuesday they believe Berkeley voters will support their causes. "There is a surprising amount of support (for Angel's Initiative) from the community, especially women," said Robyn.Few, executive director of the Sex Workers Outreach Project and a former high-priced call girl. Few and her group will announce further campaign plans on the steps of Berkeley City Hall at 12:15 p.m. today. If Angel's Initiative is approved by voters, Berkeley would be the first city in the nation to symbolically decriminalize prostitution, said Carol Leigh, spokeswoman for Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics, a group working to repeal anti-prostitution laws. Passage of the measure would be purely symbolic because police must follow state law, which outlaws prostitution, Few said. If passed, the initiative would direct city leaders to lobby in favor of repealing state prostitution laws; make arrests of prostitutes and their clients a low police priority; and require police to write a semiannual report outlining prostitution arrests. Few is pushing the measure to show the world that Berkeley believes prostitution is a health and safety issue and not a criminal act, she said. "Women are turning to this because of poverty and economic reasons," Few said. "If we want to help women on the streets, first (the community) has to work with them and not against them. "Arrest is not the answer," said Few. "(Police) have arrested women over and over again, and it has not stopped prostitution." Don Duncan is the campaign manager for the Alliance of Berkeley Patients, a group of cannabis club operators who will soon kick off a campaign to pass the Patients Access to Medical Cannabis Act. Duncan said his group collected some 3,600 signatures in just over a month to qualify the measure for the ballot. The initiative: Replaces the city's 10-plant medical cannabis limit with a patient's "personal needs," defined by a doctor and the patient. Sets up a peer review committee to oversee the safety and operations at the four dispensaries. Amends zoning ordinances to allow for the issuance of use permits to qualified applicants. Calls on the city to take over distribution of medical cannabis if the federal Drug Enforcement Administration closes the city's four dispensaries. The City Council in April tabled Councilmember Kriss Worthington's proposal to increase the number of allowed medical cannabis plants from 10 to 72 following concerns about increased crime and questions about how much dry marijuana one plant produces. Note: One initiative seeks to increase cannabis plants for medicinal use, another to decriminalize sex work.Source: Oakland Tribune (CA)Author: Kristin Bender, Staff WritersPublished: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Copyright: 2004 MediaNews Group, Inc. Contact: triblet angnewspapers.com Website: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmMMJ Limit Increase May Go To Votershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18755.shtmlCouncil Threatened With Med Pot Initiativehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18723.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by Hope on June 23, 2004 at 12:28:02 PT thing Having a clue at how difficult things like that are to make, I'm amazed at it. It's quite a little creation. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Hope on June 23, 2004 at 12:26:41 PT catapillar thing It is cool. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on June 23, 2004 at 12:23:16 PT Hope I don't know what it is but it is very cool! http://www.cbc.ca/playgoestopot [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Hope on June 23, 2004 at 12:18:32 PT heinous and hideous The article at the url below is hard to read and, even worse, there are several photographs of Mr. Ashcroft, who more and more, appears to be a man harboring heinous and hideous spirits.http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040623/D83CQGA80.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Hope on June 23, 2004 at 12:10:23 PT FoM That catapillar looking thing at the cbc site, with the cannabis leaf on it's nose, or whatever it is, is wild. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Richard Paul Zuckerm on June 23, 2004 at 11:43:20 PT: BERKELEY IS PROGRESSIVE!!! Yeah Berkeley!!! Do it Berkeley! I hope both ballot measures pass!!! I.PLEASE CALL YOUR CONGRESSPERSON TO OPPOSE THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FISCAL BUDGET FOR 2005, H.R. ???, DUE TO BE VOTED UPON SOON?Today, I called the Washington, D.C., office of Congressmen Frank Pallone, Jr. and Rush Holt to OPPOSE the passage of the U.S. Department of Defense Fiscal Budget of 2005, H.R. ???!!! I told them the two main reasons for opposing the Bill: [1] 274 U.S. Department of Defense workers were recently found to have lied about their credentials; [2] The U.S. Department of Defense has been unable to account for nearly $3 Trillion, according to the credible www.expertwitnessradio.org.Do you people feel safe with this kind of government incompetence????!!!! II.PLEASE CALL YOUR CONGRESSPERSON TO CUT THE BUDGET OF THE DEA, SO THAT THEY WILL LEAVE THE MEDICAL CANNABIS PATIENTS ALONE, DUE FOR A VOTE NEXT MONTH? III.PLEASE VISIT WWW.FLUORIDEALERT.ORG, FIND OUT IF THE DRINKING WATER IN YOUR AREA/STATE HAS BEEN FLUORIDATED, AND DEMAND AN END TO WATER FLUORIDATION, FOR THE REASONS STATED IN WWW.FLUORIDEALERT.ORG? PLEASE CONSIDER ATTENDING THE WATER FLUORIDATION CONFERENCE, SCHEDULED FOR JULY 31, 2004, AS PER WWW.FLUORIDEALERT.ORG? FLUORIDE IS A TOXIN WHICH HAS BEEN APPROVED BY CONCOCTED CONCLUSIONS OF STUDIES CONDUCTED BY SCIENTISTS WHOM HAD BEEN ON THE MANHATTAN PROJECT [TO MAKE THE ATOM BOMB], AS FLUORIDE IS AN INDISPENSIBLE INGREDIENT TO THE ATOM BOMB AND OTHER MATERIALS, AND THEY WANTED TO COVER UP THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND MEDICAL DAMAGE CAUSED BY FLUORINE/FLUORIDE, SO WE WOULD NOT SUE THEM FOR DAMAGES!!! THEY CONDUCTED SECRET STUDIES AND CONCLUDED FLUORIDE IS TOXIC, BUT DID NOT REPORT THESE STUDIES!!! WWW.FLUORIDEALERT.ORG. I AM READING THE BOOK ENTITLED THE FLUORIDE DECEPTION, C. 2004, BY CHRISTOPHER BRYSON, SEVEN STORIES PRESS. MY LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE HOME NEWS TRIBUNE, IN EAST BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, WAS PUBLISHED RECENTLY, ASKING NEW JERSEY RESIDENTS TO CONTACT THE NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SENIOR SERVICES TO OPPOSE THE PENDING PETITION TO FORCE FLUORIDATE ALL OF THE DRINKING WATER IN NEW JERSEY!!! IV.I RECENTLY CREDIT CARDED $20 TOWARDS THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN OF LARRY KLAYMAN, RUNNING FOR U.S. SENATOR IN MIAMI, FLORIDA. LARRY KLAYMAN HAS DONE RESPECTABLE WORK FOR JUDICIAL WATCH. V.The U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down this past Monday, entitled Larry Hiibel, Petitioner v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada, et al, Respondents, www.supremecourtus.gov [type "Hiibel" into the search and click the search button], www.hiibel.com, holds that pedestrians must tell the police our name or produce identification to demanding police ONLY in those States with explicit language requiring it. The New Jersey Statutes do not have explicit language requiring us to produce identification or tell the police our name. The majority opinion by The Court represens flawed interpretation of the Fourth Amendment, especially in the last paragraph of page 8 of the majority opinion. You can download the full opinion from www.yahoo.com news archives. I definitely favor the retirement of those Justices who wrote the majority opinion!!! My concern about voting for Kerry is he would appoint U.S. Supreme Court Justices whom would vote for continued Marihuana prohibition, gun control, and against jury nullification! VI.One of our friends, Sylvia Pressler, Judge of the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is to retire next week. She had written freedom loving opinions for the intermediate appellate court of The State of New Jersey! She respected the little guys in court. One of those opinions was one of this nation's first appellate opinions to uphold the actionability of SLAPP [Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation](SLAPP apparently was first explained by University of Denver Professors Penelope Canon and Pring.), LoBiono v. Schwartz, something they have not mentioned in the newspapers favorable towards her!!! Judge Pressler will be sorely missed! She will continue to write the New Jersey Court Rules Annotated, for Gann Law Books, though!! Yesterday's newspaper article describes her as an avid Gardener. I'd like to see her grow some legal HEMP!!!!Richard Paul Zuckerman, Box 159, Metuchen, New Jersey, 08840-0159, (Cell telephone number)(908) 403-6990, richardzuckerman2002 yahoo.com;Diploma in Paralegal, New York University, 2003; B.A. in Political Science, Kean College of New Jersey [Kean University], Union, New Jersey, 1987.Member of: www.aclu-nj.org; www.greenparty.org; www.njlp.org; www.njmilitia.org; www.fromthewilderness.com; www.norml.org; www.cannabisculture.com; www.hightimes.com; www.fija.org. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on June 23, 2004 at 10:48:47 PT CCC: Play Goes to Pot Play Goes to Pot is an hour-long special hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, airing:- Friday June 25th at 11:30pm on CBC TV- Saturday June 26th at 7pm on Newsworld followed by an hour-long Pot phone-in show live with Jian Ghomeshi.Also on Newsworld: Saturday June 26th at 11pm, Sunday June 27th at 2am & 4am, and Sunday June 27th at 8pmDon't miss this CBC special on cannabis culture which will feature interviews and segments shot during Fill the Hill on June 5!View the commercial:MPEG-1 - http://www.fillthehill.ca/playgoestopot.mpgReal Player - http://www.fillthehill.ca/playgoestopot.rmMedia Player - http://www.fillthehill.ca/playgoestopot.wmvhttp://www.cbc.ca/playgoestopot [ Post Comment ] Post Comment