cannabisnews.com: Group Wants To Put legalized-MJ Issue On Ballot!





Group Wants To Put legalized-MJ Issue On Ballot!
Posted by FoM on August 19, 1999 at 07:51:22 PT
By Angela Galloway
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Buoyed by a $100,000 contribution from a retired Microsoft millionaire, a group filed notice yesterday that it will try to collect enough signatures to put a statewide measure on the ballot to legalize and regulate the sale of marijuana.
Supporters of the Washington Cannabis Tax Act said they are confident they can gather the approximately 180,000 signatures needed by Dec. 31 to put the measure before voters in the November 2000 general election.If approved, the measure would allow marijuana to be sold at state liquor stores to those 21 and older. The measure also would regulate how farmers could grow marijuana and how retail sales would be taxed.The unidentified former software programmer from Seattle has promised to bankroll the effort as much as necessary to collect the needed signatures, said D. Paul Stanford, executive director of the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, which is sponsoring the initiative.Volunteers hope to jump-start that work by gathering 20,000 signatures this Sunday at the Seattle Hempfest '99 in Myrtle Edwards Park, said Stanford of Portland.If the group succeeds in its petition drive, the measure would go before the Legislature next year. Lawmakers can approve it or ignore it. If they ignore it, it would be put before voters in the November 2000 general election.The Legislature also has the option of submitting its own plan as an alternative ballot question.The plan is unlikely to win over lawmakers, said Rep. Ida Ballasiotes, R-Mercer Island, who is co-chairwoman of the state House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee."I don't think it will get support, I really don't," Ballasiotes said. "I don't think our people think it's OK to walk into a liquor store and buy marijuana. . . . I think we have enough problems with drugs as it is."Last November, voters approved a more limited proposal to allow the medical use of marijuana for certain terminal or debilitating conditions. Initiative 692 did not authorize the distribution of marijuana.This new measure would alleviate that obstacle, which is especially burdensome for seriously ill people, Stanford said."They don't have the time to plant a seed and wait for a harvest," Stanford said.I-229 also would prescribe how tax revenue from the sale of marijuana should be used. Ninety percent of the money would go to the state general fund, 8 percent to drug treatment, 1 percent to drug education for children and 1 percent to set up a state committee to promote industrial hemp fiber, protein and oil.The measure would prohibit the use of marijuana in public, including outdoors and ban advertising the drug on television, radio and billboards, Stanford said. The measure also would allow licensed farmers to grow marijuana for liquor store distribution and unlicensed farmers to grow industrial hemp.Stanford's group is sponsoring a similar initiative in Oregon. So far, supporters there have gathered 14,000 of the 66,000 signatures required by July to put the question on Oregon's November 2000 ballot, Stanford said.P-I reporter Angela Galloway can be reached at:360-943-8311or angelagalloway seattle-pi.comThursday, August 19, 1999http://www.seattlep-i.com/local/pot191.shtmlhttp://www.crrh.org/
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Comment #1 posted by David R. Ford on August 21, 1999 at 13:46:40 PT:
Legalize marijuana
It's past time for honesty. Marijuana is the worlds least harmful drug. In 5,000 years there is not one toxicity or overdose death caused by pot. Plus, its great medicine. And the safest. I'm a cancer survivor, and the author of the fast selling hardback book, MARIJUANA: NOT GUILTY AS CHARGED. I'm a former TV host and journalist for the CBS television affiliate in Hawaii. I currently live and write from Sonoma, CA. Needless to say marijuana should never have been prohibited in the first place.Best of luck, and warmest Aloha,David R. Forddrford vom.com
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