cannabisnews.com: Hailey To Vote on Pot Initiatives Again





Hailey To Vote on Pot Initiatives Again
Posted by CN Staff on May 23, 2008 at 08:03:42 PT
By Terry Smith, Express Staff Writer
Source: Idaho Mountain Express
Idaho -- As Hailey officials prepare to battle about marijuana in court, the city's electorate prepares to go to the polls to vote once again on four pro-pot initiatives.The latest round in the city's ongoing cannabis dispute will be settled Tuesday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. when the same initiatives voted upon last November will once again be put to the ballot-booth test.
Three passed last time and one failed. Approved were initiatives to legalize medical use of marijuana, to legalize use of industrial hemp and to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority for the Hailey Police Department.Not approved was an initiative to require the city to tax and regulate distribution and use of the drug.So why a second vote?"Cause I knew that the city would pull something like this," said Ryan Davidson, a former Bellevue resident and the man who got the initiatives on the ballot. He is chairman of The Liberty Lobby of Idaho and is often referred to simply as "the pot guy."Davidson, who now lives in Garden City, was referring to the lawsuit that the mayor, the police chief and a city councilman filed against the city in Blaine County 5th District Court to have the previously approved initiatives declared illegal.Davidson described the new vote as "kind of an insurance policy.""If I hadn't put them on the ballot again, they probably would have killed them all by now," he said. "It makes it politically less viable for them to do something if they pass twice."The marijuana issue has been relatively quiet as of late in Hailey, with no pro or con groups surfacing publicly to campaign.Davidson himself has been busy with the Ron Paul presidential campaign in Boise and hasn't had a lot of time to spend on the pot issue. He's hopeful that at least the same three voter-approved initiatives will be approved once again."I'd think it's going to be close to the same percentages as last time," he said. "If all four are approved, that would be great."Last November, 1,288 voters, about 37 percent of the city's registered electorate, showed up at the polls.The medical marijuana and industrial hemp initiatives were approved by about 53 percent of voters. About 51 percent of the voters approved the lowest-police-priority initiative, while the regulation and taxation measure failed with only 47 percent voter approval.Following is a brief summary of the initiatives. The complete text can be found at Hailey City Hall or on the city's Web site at: http://www.haileycityhall.org* The Hailey Cannabis Regulation and Revenue Ordinance would require the city to regulate sales and use of cannabis, a scientific name for marijuana, and would allow it to tax the substance.Davidson considers this the most important of the four initiatives. It doesn't explicitly say that marijuana would be legal in the city, but establishes a framework to come up with the details. The framework would be created by a Community Oversight Committee, which would be allowed to deliberate for a year before finalizing legalization specifics.This and other initiatives would require the city to lobby other levels of government for reform of marijuana laws.* The Hailey Medical Marijuana Act would legalize medical use of marijuana. Details of legalization would be worked out by the Community Oversight Committee.* The Hailey Lowest Police Priority Act would make investigation of adult marijuana use the city's lowest law-enforcement priority. Davidson thinks this one has the greatest chance of approval.* The Hailey Industrial Hemp Act would legalize industrial use of hemp, a different variety of the cannabis plant not usable by marijuana smokers since it's low on THC, the chemical that induces a high.Pot Vote:The polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 27. Hailey voters can cast their ballots on the marijuana initiatives in Room 903 at the Community Campus (the old high school) on Fox Acres Road.Note: Same 4 ballot measures were considered last November.Source: Idaho Mountain Express (ID)Author: Terry Smith, Express Staff WriterPublished: Friday, May 23, 2008Copyright: 2008 Express Publishing, Inc.Contact: letters mtexpress.comWebsite: http://www.mtexpress.com/Related Articles:Hailey To Vote Again on Legalizing Marijuana?http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23681.shtmlHailey Changes Course on Pot Initiativeshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23643.shtmlHailey Snuffs Out Pot Initiativeshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23601.shtml 
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Comment #30 posted by JustGetnBy on May 31, 2008 at 19:10:52 PT
Red White & Blue Gallows #17
  Runruff...... Hear Hear !
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Comment #29 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 22:47:44 PT
:0) Paint with light 
As I remember, you stood up for yourself and your understanding, and being, perhaps, a bit misunderstood, very well. Looked to me like you held your own pretty well in a contentious situation. As did Museman. There was a blood strike there somewhere, and as I remember you both were able to deal with it gracefully enough.I'm glad.
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Comment #28 posted by Paint with light on May 24, 2008 at 22:10:28 PT
What is different?
Awhile back I posted something positive about people who have served in war and I got severely jumped on about it. I am glad to see there were some silent voices that supported me.
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Comment #27 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 14:10:43 PT
Memorial
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24805978/'Miracle' Marine loses final battle
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Comment #26 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 14:00:27 PT
But how dare those assholes vote against patients 
They "Harden their hearts". They "Stiffen their necks". They are "Wise in their own eyes". They are "Without mercy".
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Comment #25 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 13:57:04 PT
 It can consume a person. 
Indeed.
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Comment #24 posted by FoM on May 24, 2008 at 11:34:05 PT
Off Topic: John Lennon
I never saw this movie. The U.S. vs. John Lennonhttp://www.moviesfoundonline.com/us_vs_john_lennon.php
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Comment #23 posted by NikoKun on May 24, 2008 at 11:22:03 PT
I just hope
That everyone who voted for this last time, does their best to show up again, and vote again.Problem is... I'm sure the prohibitionists out there, will try their best to rally more support against it... -_-
But how dare those assholes vote against patients rights?I hope that anyone who's against medical marijuana, comes down with a debilitating disease, for which Medical Marijuana is the best treatment.
Justice through Irony... LOL
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on May 24, 2008 at 10:48:18 PT
Hope
I am so sorry you are getting a migraine. They are horrible. PTSD is post traumatic stress disorder. When anyone has a crisis in their life PTSD can follow. It can consume a person. 
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Comment #21 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 10:34:33 PT
Badly
as in, I very, very much don't want it.
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Comment #20 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 10:33:21 PT
Do I want to have a migraine?
Why can't I just will it to stop?I definitely do not want the full blown hours of intractable pain that the auras promise.Some would not believe me and it's hard to understand why, because they apparently have some sort of brilliance that makes them know better than me and makes them better than me. They understand and I'm macaroni. But I badly don't want it. Badly. 
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Comment #19 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 10:29:20 PT
I'm so weak...
I'm having the migraine auras from my own emotional pain. Off to seek some help.
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 10:27:30 PT
PSTD and Cannabis.
PSTD? I'm not good with those abbreviations. Extreme emotional pain is what I'm talking about. Cannabis use is not a hiding from reality place... but, you can, if you're lucky, relax a bit... maybe. After a puff, you might be able to take a deep breath. You might be able to stop sobbing. The nightmares and night terrors might ease up. You might be able to eat something after a bit.Weak. I know. Weak is weak. We all are, some time... sooner or later.With a good hit or two of this plant's vapor or smoke, a cup of tea... a cookie... you might be able to suddenly relax the shoulders you didn't even realize that you had scrunched up around your ears. The tears might stop a minute. The aching from it might stop a minute or two. What's so terribly "Wrong" with "Allowing" people to do that? Why can't you see that it is a sometimes wondrous good? Why can't you see that it's a wondrous gift of nature? There are many gifts of course. But cannabis is definitely one of them. Why do you refuse to see it?Aren't you prohibitionist/preventionist people taking something from those you have denied the use of this plant to? Aren't you taking a lot? What would be wrong if somehow, they might find a smile somewhere deep inside themselves? Maybe even be able to laugh about something?Why do you presume to be able and willing to do these things you are doing to them and the grief and injury and wrong you are causing them? Aren't you trying to take over some part of their spirit or soul?For a blessed and healing minute, after a whiff of the what can be a very nice and pleasant herbal smoke or vapor cloud, or a cup of a glass of calming green tea, they might find a way to feel calmer and, truly, try to think more rationally. They might realize how small and helpless they really are in the whole scheme of things... so tiny... yet important... a part of something big... and that bad as it is... you still have to go on. Maybe you can help. You aren't the only one.They might realize that as hard as all this is, it's just part of it. It's the way life is. Right now, anyway. For sure.And alas, in that instant instance, hope, tiny as to invisibility, a spark struck in their heart, signals in the distance. The "Distance", the future? "Right now"... is a signal of hope. Faint. But a signal. Follow it if you can. You have to go on... for the sake of a lot of very important reasons. Perhaps hope will find you again. Perhaps a seed of hope will be planted and it will grow. Perhaps someone is planting that seed of hope for you as we speak. Perhaps you planted that seed yourself... maybe already, somewhere along the line.. now... flourishing... somewhere in the future. Maybe it will be fully flowering when you get to it. That place where hope is. Future? Maybe. Who knows?Maybe they can stop puking. Maybe they can ignore the pain somehow. The pain is beating them to a pulp.Sensitive people and weaknesses and insane depression. It's so human. Even if you don't see scars or bleeding wounds... there is something very painful happening... and people are fighting... or not... and sometimes, I believe, cannabis can help them keep fighting.It's just continually astounding how bad the hatred is from people like Joyce Nalepka over a plant. A plant that's not even poison ivy or kudzu.Why hasn't anyone mentioned growing kudzu for power?
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Comment #17 posted by runruff on May 24, 2008 at 09:49:56 PT:
If I were King............
633 Tactical Squadron 4077th Air Base wing Air MedEvac. from 1963-1967. I too am a war time vet.I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then! I wouldn't serve. I thought I was trying to protect our rights and liberties. I know now how we were lied to just like America's finest who are now being wasted away in Iraq.If I could be King I would have W hanged in a public ceremony on a red white and blue star studded gallows.
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Comment #16 posted by afterburner on May 24, 2008 at 07:50:41 PT
OT: Unintended Consequences
CN AB: Column: Canada's Laws Going To Pot, The Calgary Sun, (23 May 2008) 
http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v08/n521/a13.html?176 
CN BC: B.C. Town's Cash Crop UP In Smoke, Along With Economy, The StarPhoenix, (21 May 2008) http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v08/n519/a01.html?176
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 07:00:15 PT
God Bless Them
Agreed to and Amen to that.May the mercy and love of the Creator towards creation abound... if it can be found or live in this world.
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on May 24, 2008 at 06:37:00 PT
Our Soldiers
What I want for our Veterans is to be treated with respect. When they come home I want them to be cared for in a proper manner. War is Hell and it can twist a young man or woman's mind. PTSD is really Shell Shock. Some never get over war and some do. Our soldiers are not disposable. They do what they are told to do and if the war is wrong it isn't their fault. God Bless Them.
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on May 24, 2008 at 05:49:36 PT
Veterans
So much given to preserve freedom and liberty and life. I appreciate it. I'm thankful to them... to all of you. Even though there are those who are trying to tear our serving soldiers and our veteran's gift from our hands every minute of the day.The blood. The sweat. The tears. The grief. I guess all that makes it slippery and hard to hold on to... but though the gift be drenched in tears, and blood, and sweat, and sorrow... we must try to hold on to it with all our might.
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on May 24, 2008 at 05:38:45 PT
OverwhelmSam
My husband did two tours in Vietnam. I appreciate soldiers. They are polite and disciplined. I hope we get to bring our troops home from Iraq soon.
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Comment #11 posted by OverwhelmSam on May 23, 2008 at 21:54:59 PT
Tribute to our Veterans for Memorial Day
I was a soldier too, active duty soldiers in Iraq have my undying respect and support:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe71zCA5xFQ&feature=relatedWith beauty like this in the world, how can there be bad people?
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Comment #10 posted by OverwhelmSam on May 23, 2008 at 21:41:20 PT
I'm Sure Barrack Knew
Barrack had to know up front that some fanatic like Hillery would try to have him killed. Her use of the power of suggestion is ingenius.
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on May 23, 2008 at 18:05:25 PT
Sam
You're right. Christians who believe in a social doctrine (do unto others etc.) are not the sames as Evangelicals.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on May 23, 2008 at 18:02:38 PT
OverwhelmSam 
I sat on the edge of my seat watching Keith Olbermann tonight. Wow.
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Comment #7 posted by sam adams on May 23, 2008 at 17:37:55 PT
not all clergy created equal
Many in the clergy are activists in favor of drug policy reform. The Unitarians and also most United Church of Christ churches are not only progressive on drug policy but also activists in speaking to their congregrations on it and also publicly.It's the evangelicals that you have to worry about! Their leaders seem to delight in scapegoating the drug users and gay men while they're doing drugs with male prostitutes.
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Comment #6 posted by HempWorld on May 23, 2008 at 16:19:24 PT
Hailey To Vote on Pot Initiatives Again ...
You can vote until the cows come home! I can't help but notice that since 1995, whenever the people vote for medicinal Cannabis, (see prop. 215 and many, many other local and state elections) the clergy and police quickly work together to not implement what the voters wanted. And then what is even stranger is that these/our rulers and masters get away with it because there is no one to stand up to them, because ultimately they hold the power over us and there is NOTHING we can do. That is democracy US style.
On a mission from God!
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on May 23, 2008 at 15:50:31 PT
OverwhelmSam
I hope this finishes her campaign. All I can say is Thank God he has good secret service agents.
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Comment #4 posted by OverwhelmSam on May 23, 2008 at 15:28:07 PT
Hillary Calls for Obama's Assasination
In a conversation today, Hillery signaled her supporters to take Barrack Obama out. I expect the people she represents, the poor ignorant racist whites, will initiate her will. Eh, I saw this coming. Any time a representative of the people, like Obama or the Kennedys, gets a chance to be or is elected, the wealthy religious fanatics get together and have the poor bastard killed. After all, a President like that would threaten their total domination of the world. That's why they give us the illusion of making the decisions.Question: If Obama is out, what choice does that give us in the election?
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on May 23, 2008 at 14:48:46 PT
Slate: DEA vs. CA
 By Bonnie Goldstein Friday, May 23, 2008Since 1996, California laws have permitted citizens to use marijuana "for medical purposes." But the drug remains illegal under federal law, and the Drug Enforcement Agency regularly shuts down cannabis despensaries in the state. Last month John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House judiciary committee, wrote DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart (see below and on the following two pages) questioning the "dramatically intensified … frequency of paramilitary-style enforcement raids" on authorized users and suppliers. Conyers asked for an accounting of the agency's costs for these measures against "individuals who suffer from severe or chronic illness" and for its rationale for threatening landlords of licensed dispensaries with "arrest and forfeiture of their property." Meanwhile, the California State Legislature is considering a measure that would allow state and local law enforcement agencies to refuse cooperation with the DEA.Barack Obama's presidential campaign told the San Francisco Chronicle last week that if elected president, Obama would curb federal enforcement on state medical marijuana suppliers.Complete Article: http://www.slate.com/id/2192062/entry/2192063/
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 23, 2008 at 09:31:17 PT
CNBC Poll and Video
This Bud's For You--And I Don't Mean Beer May 23, 2008It's generally believed that the number one product from California's number one industry isn't legal. Agriculture remains the Golden State's biggest business, and some believe marijuana is worth $14 billion. No one really knows for sure.URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/24792440
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on May 23, 2008 at 08:07:09 PT
Editorial From The Idaho Mountain Express 
No Place for ‘Pot’ Battle***Friday, May 23, 2008Idaho -- Logic and legal precedent suggest that some court, somewhere, some time will rule that promoters of a pro-marijuana initiative in Hailey have no right to skirt state and federal laws with a local vote.How long that will take depends on how long pot proponents want to persist in this comedy, how deep their pockets are and how long Hailey voters allow them to spend the public's tax dollars on repeated elections or legal defenses.Hailey voters can begin to put an end to this farce on May 27 by voting "no" on four ballot measures that purport to create a marijuana haven in Hailey.Voters will be asked if the city should legalize the medical use of marijuana and the industrial use of hemp, make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority for the Hailey Police Department, and tax and regulate sales and use of marijuana within the city.Hailey has been spending scarce taxpayer funds on the court tussle to restore the city's right to enforce laws and to avoid costly repeated elections.The issue of pot legalization is a statewide matter. Marijuana advocates can no more claim that Hailey can be exempted from Idaho and U.S. laws than anti-tax promoters can claim Hailey residents are exempt from paying state income tax.Obviously, backers of the marijuana initiative fear the consequences of a statewide vote in conservative Idaho. Defeat would be certain.Hailey isn't the place for this battle. Its pinched budget should not be forced to withstand it. Voters should help stop the spread of red ink by putting this issue to rest.Copyright: 2008 Express Publishing, Inc.http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005120813
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