cannabisnews.com: Petitioners Turn in Extra Signatures Petitioners Turn in Extra Signatures Posted by CN Staff on June 29, 2004 at 14:27:00 PT By Dave Moore of the Tribune’s Staff Source: Columbia Daily Tribune In addition to choosing who will be president, Columbia residents might also decide whether possessing small amounts of marijuana should be decriminalized in city limits and whether the city should buy green energy.Petitions containing thousands of signatures were submitted to the city clerk’s office yesterday and today. If they each contain 2,275 valid signatures of voters, those initiatives will appear in a proposed ordinance before the Columbia City Council in August. If the city council doesn’t pass the ordinances, they will appear on the Nov. 2 ballot. Green-energy proponents and marijuana-issue supporters are optimistic that they’ve obtained enough signatures of registered voters in the city, though they had to work hard to obtain enough signatures to qualify for consideration by the city council and voters.A contested mayoral election in April boosted voter turnout, which results in requiring nearly double the number of signatures to place the marijuana issues on the ballot this fall compared to last year.Voters defeated a marijuana initiative in April 2003 by a 57 percent majority, 10,461 to 7,629. An initiative to decriminalize marijuana also failed in 1985 by the same margin.While marijuana petitioners went for a large quantity of signatures at events such as the Twilight Festival, the green-energy initiative folks visited neighborhoods that usually have a high-percentage voter turnout.The marijuana petition group, the Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education, or CAPE, says it expects that nearly half its 5,000 signatures are invalid because the signers aren’t city residents or because their addresses on the petition don’t match their voter registration information.The green-energy group, Columbians for Clean Energy, has joined with the Sierra Club and the League of Women voters to circulate petitions.One of the group’s leaders, Chris Hayday, said he checked 30 signatures randomly and found that only two were invalid.Initially, members of CAPE thought they would fall short of the required number of valid signatures."Apparently there was a pile of petitions that was not being counted with the rest of the group," CAPE member Amber Langston wrote in an e-mail to the Tribune. "Those numbers in addition to last-minute hand-ins have brought our raw total to close to 5,000 signatures for each."One marijuana initiative petition would allow patients to possess misdemeanor amounts of marijuana as long as a physician has recommended its use.The second marijuana initiative directs that misdemeanor marijuana arrests be handled only by municipal court, with a fine of up to $250. In both cases, only adults would be affected by the ordinance. The marijuana initiative attracted volunteers like Amanda Broz, 24, of Columbia."Why is the drug itself a crime when prescription drugs are so prevalent?" Broz asked as she circulated a petition Thursday at the Twilight Festival.The green-energy initiative directs the city to derive 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2022, as long as electric rates don’t increase by more than 3 percent.All the signatures are supposed to be certified or rejected within 10 days of submission, according to city regulations.Note: Initiatives target marijuana law, energy.Source: Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)Author: Dave Moore of the Tribune’s Staff Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2004Copyright: 2004 Columbia Daily TribuneContact: editor tribmail.comWebsite: http://www.showmenews.com/Related Articles:Pot Petitions Aim for Spot on City Ballot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19001.shtmlAnti-Pot Group Files Late http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15879.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Post Comment