Pubdate: Thu, 22 Nov 2012
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2012 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Page: A6

B.C. ACTIVIST PULLS POT PETITION, PLANS TO BUILD A SUPPORT BASE

VANCOUVER (The Canadian Press) - A B.C. marijuana activist has
withdrawn his petition to decriminalize pot, saying he will spend the
next 10 months gathering volunteers and support before submitting it
again.

Elections BC approved a petition in September by Dana Larsen, who
wants to use B.C.'s unique citizen's initiative legislation to force a
debate on the issue or even a referendum.

The petition calls for changes to the Police Act to prohibit the use
of provincial police resources to enforce simple possession-and-use
laws for adults.

Elections BC formally issued the petition last Friday, and Larsen says
his plan was always to use the current petition as a "test run" before
actually gathering signatures after submitting it again in the fall of
next year.

If he files again, Larsen will have 90 days to gather the signatures
of 10 per cent of registered voters in each of the province's 85 ridings.

If he achieves that, a committee of the legislature could then choose
to either send the matter to the legislature for a vote or call a
provincewide, non-binding referendum.

An initiative petition has only received the required number of
signatures once before in B.C. and that prompted a mail-in referendum
over the harmonized sales tax, which was killed as a result.
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