cannabisnews.com: Medical Pot Measure Lands on Ballot





Medical Pot Measure Lands on Ballot
Posted by CN Staff on June 24, 2004 at 14:04:19 PT
By Allie Keeshan and Jacob Schneider
Source: Daily Californian
Activist groups landed two new Berkeley initiatives on the November ballot Tuesday, which would make prostitution enforcement a low priority for police and loosen medical marijuana restrictions in the city. Although Berkeley City Council will weigh in on both issues in July, initiative proponents chose to send them to the voters instead of rely on the council’s approval.
The Patients’ Access to Medical Cannabis Act, if passed, will increase the amount of medical marijuana plants that patients can cultivate from 10 to 72, but will maintain the prohibition of large-scale growth for profit. Don Duncan, president of the Alliance of Berkeley Patients, which pushed for the initiative, said it adds to Berkeley’s current medical marijuana law. The new initiative establishes a peer review board to “oversee safety and operations at Berkeley’s medical cannabis dispensaries.” Medical marijuana first became legal when California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, which garnered the support of 86 percent of Berkeley’s voters. Duncan and his alliance collected 3,700 signatures, well over the required 2,077, to put the measure on the ballot. Despite the support of Berkeley voters, however, the legalization of marijuana remains a controversial issue and the drug remains illegal under federal law. “No respectable scientific body has said marijuana has medical uses. We are worried that the assumption is made that marijuana is medicine,” said Special Agent Richard Meyer, San Francisco Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson. “I wouldn’t support an initiative where people are given marijuana.” Voters will also decide whether or not Berkeley will be the first city in the nation to symbolically decriminalize prostitution. If passed, Angel’s Initiative, named in memory of a slain prostitute, would decriminalize prostitution, which would instruct police to making enforcing prostitution laws a low priority. Written by the San Francisco-based advocacy group, Sex Workers Outreach Project, the initiative is largely symbolic, since the Berkeley Police Department will still be required to follow state law which outlaws prostitution. Angel’s Initiative would also end police “sting operations” which bait prostitutes for arrest, said Robyn Few, executive director of Sex Workers Advocacy Project and a former prostitute. Few said sting operations are expensive and do not stop prostitution. The police have made 41 arrests for prostitution this year, most during sting operations, said Berkeley police Officer Joe Okies. But Berkeley City Councilmember Linda Maio, whose district includes a stretch of San Pablo Avenue, a center of prostitution, said police successfully target clients, not prostitutes, in sting operations. Maio said she is concerned about the future ramifications of Angel’s Initiative. “If we send the message that we’re not going to respond to prostitution, we become the hotbed of the East Bay,” Maio said. Few first tried to place the decriminalization measure on the November ballot in January, but was rejected by the city attorney’s office for imprecise wording. In May, Councilmember Dona Spring brought Angel’s Resolution to the Berkeley City Council. The initiative has since been sent to the Commission on the Status of Women for recommendation. “It is very much about the civil rights for women,” said Avaren Ipsen, a member of the Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women. “Should women be jailed for adult consensual sex?”Complete Title: Prostitution, Medical Pot Measures Land on BallotSource: Daily Californian, The (CA Edu)Author: Allie Keeshan and Jacob Schneider, Contributing WritersPublished: Thursday, June 24, 2004Copyright: 2004 The Daily CalifornianContact: dailycal dailycal.orgWebsite: http://www.dailycal.org/Related Articles & Web Sites:Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.org/Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmBerkeley To Vote on Marijuana, Prostitution http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19049.shtmlMMJ Limit Increase May Go To Votershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18755.shtmlCouncil Threatened With Med Pot Initiativehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18723.shtml 
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