cannabisnews.com: Backers Expect Some Changes but it's a Big Task!





Backers Expect Some Changes but it's a Big Task!
Posted by FoM on July 12, 1999 at 08:23:26 PT
By Joe Frolik, National Correspondent
Source: Cleveland Live
LOS ANGELES - The political landscape for Proposition 215, California's medical marijuana initiative, was ideal.
With bipartisan support the California Legislature had twice passed a bill exempting qualified patients from prosecution for using marijuana. Both times, it was vetoed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson."That's the ideal scenario for going to the ballot with a proposition," said Bill Zimmerman, who heads Americans for Medical Rights, a group spearheading the charge for medical marijuana. "The people seemed to want it, their representatives had passed it and only the governor was blocking it."But the proposition, drafted by a coalition that included a retired Orange County nurse and a convicted San Francisco pot dealer, needed more than good will. Less than two months before their deadline, the drafters were broke with little chance of collecting the 500,000 signatures needed to make the November 1996 ballot.Then a group of wealthy donors, among them Cleveland insurance tycoon Peter Lewis, hired Zimmerman, a veteran California political consultant. With a seven-figure budget, Zimmerman paid signature-gatherers to get 215 on the ballot, then ran a campaign emphasizing the plight of terminally ill AIDS and cancer patients. On Election Day, despite fierce opposition from the Clinton administration, Proposition 215 got a 56% "yes" vote.On the same day, Arizona voters passed a drug policy proposition that, among other things, exempted medical marijuana users from criminal sanctions.Last November, similar initiatives passed in Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Alaska. Arizonans voted to reaffirm their 1996 vote, overturning changes imposed by the state legislature.(Voters also cast ballots on medical marijuana in Colorado and the District of Columbia. The Colorado vote was not counted because of a dispute over the validity of petitions that arose after the ballots were printed. Congress declined to appropriate funds to count ballots in the District of Columbia, an indication of how vehement opposition to medical marijuana is on Capitol Hill. Exit polls indicated both propositions would have passed.)In the glow of last November, Zimmerman talked of opening a new fronts in 2000, including Ohio. His deputy, Dave Fratello, said a win in Ohio would show "mainstream" acceptance of medical pot.But now Zimmerman is scaling back. A vote in Maine is set for this fall; next year, voters will speak again in Colorado, where the secretary of state now says the 1998 petitions were valid, and Nevada, where a referendum must be approved in two consecutive elections. Aside from those three contests, Zimmerman said, he'll wait to see if Washington softens its stand."There are some signs of change," he said, noting the recent announcement that the federal government will consider more medical marijuana research proposals.But the only way to move federal authorities is by keeping the pressure on through state initiatives, argues Chuck Thomas, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based lobby that favors medical marijuana.John Hartman, president of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws' North Coast (Greater Cleveland) chapter, agrees, but said there is little current discussion of such a push in Ohio. An initiative campaign is expensive, he noted, and unless Americans for Medical Rights is willing to bankroll it, prospects are slim."I think we could win," Hartman said. "But it's a pretty big task."Besides, in the aftermath of Proposition 215's passage, Ohio newspapers noted that the legislature here had included a medical marijuana defense in a 1995 crime bill. Many legislators howled that they didn't know that; when they returned to work in early 1997, they quickly repealed it.Pubdate: July 12, 1999© 1999 Cleveland Livehttp://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/w11poli.ssf
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