Pubdate: Sat, 17 Aug 2013
Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Kamloops Daily News
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679
Author: Jason Hewlett

POT ACTIVIST DRUMS UP SUPPORT

Aside from a couple of speed bumps along the way, Dana Larsen's 
Sensible B.C. campaign to decriminalize marijuana continues to drum up support.

Larsen, a former NDP leadership candidate turned director of Sensible 
B.C., stopped in Kamloops on Friday at the tail end of a 12-day, 
32-city tour to sign up canvassers in his bid to launch a referendum.

Sensible B.C. has until Sept. 9 to recruit as many canvassers as 
possible before Larsen's efforts can begin in earnest.

"We have three months to hopefully get half a million signatures all 
around the province," Larsen told The Daily News prior to meeting 
with the media and supporters at a Sahali restaurant.

Larsen will need the signatures of about 10 per cent of the voting 
population in each electoral district.

His Kamloops stop was on the last leg of his tour of the Northern 
Interior of B.C.

"We're not doing big rallies or talking to thousands of people. We're 
talking to the dozen or two dozen people in these small towns who are 
interested," he said.

"We've got to find people in every community to make this a success."

Sensible B.C. has so far signed up 1,000 supporters across the province.

Locally, Larsen recruited pot activist Carl Anderson and Chad Moats, 
who was part of the successful anti-HST referendum campaign, as organizers.

"We're hoping for about 5,000 or 6,000, but we're well on our way," 
he said. "There's still people who haven't heard about our campaign 
yet. It takes a while to reach everybody."

The campaign has run into obstacles along the way, he said. Sensible 
B.C. was promised it could set up a booth at the Nanaimo bathtub 
races but was not allowed entry at the last minute.

A similar incident occurred at Ribfest in Kamloops. In each case, 
organizers accepted registration fees from the group.

Ribfest spokesman Bryce Herman said Anderson's $300 was mailed back 
to him earlier this week.

For the most part, the effort has met with a positive response, Larsen said.

"Either way, we're going to continue our campaign."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom