Pubdate: Thu, 10 Oct 2013
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/chico/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559
Author: Tom Gascoyne

MARIJUANA FLASHBACK

Signature Gathering Begins for Recreational Pot Initiative

An effort to legalize marijuana use in California beyond the medicinal
applications allowed by Proposition 215 has been launched for the
third time in the past four years.

On Sept. 26, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced those
behind this latest try may begin collecting the 504,760 signatures of
registered voters needed to qualify the initiative for the ballot. The
signatures must be collected by Feb. 24 of next year.

The initiative, which is being pushed by Los Angeles-area marijuana
activists Berton "Buddy" Duzy and Michael Jolson, "[D]ecriminalizes
marijuana and hemp use, possession, cultivation, transportation, or
distribution," according to the state attorney general's official
summary. It would also require a case-by-case review of those
"currently charged with or convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses,
for possible sentence modification, amnesty, or immediate release from
prison, jail, parole, or probation."

The state Legislature would be asked to create laws to license and tax
commercial marijuana sales, allow doctors to recommend pot use for
patients regardless of age, limit an employer's right to test
employees for marijuana, and bar state or local police from aiding the
enforcement of federal marijuana laws.

Last year, legalized marijuana use was approved in Colorado and
Washington. In August, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the
governors of those states that the Department of Justice would allow
them to regulate the legalized use of marijuana for adults.

A similar California ballot measure failed in 2010, but did garner 46
percent of the vote. In 2012, Duzy and Jolson failed to gather enough
signatures to place it on the ballot. Duzy said he's been involved in
trying to legalize marijuana for most of his adult life. He runs a
group called the Reefer Raiders, who are friends and supporters of the
late pot crusader and author Jack Herer. The Raiders have been filing
marijuana initiatives since 1980.

"I am motivated by the simple fact that the cannabis hemp plant is by
far the most versatile and useful plant on the planet and that it has
been actively suppressed by the many special-interest industries that
feel threatened by the plant," Duzy said in an emailed message.
"Stories abound about people who have been able to abandon many of
their prescription medications by substituting cannabis use. The
pharmaceutical industry is very aware of this and lobbies heavily to
keep it illegal."

Other industries, Duzy argues, including those that manufacture paper,
fiberboard, building materials as well as those who extract
fossil-fuel, are also against legalization of the plant.

"Hemp can replace trees for paper, fiberboard, and other building
materials," he said. "Hemp, when grown for biomass, can yield up to 10
dry tons per acre, making it the best candidate for biomass ethanol
fuel."

Duzy said the same industries helped criminalize marijuana in the
early 20th century and are now working to keep it illegal.

"Beyond hemp, I feel that adults should be able to use pot
recreationally as a safe substitute for alcohol, and that locking
people up for [using] what is basically a safe herbal substance is a
social travesty and a waste of taxpayer money and jail space," he said.

The financial impact if the measure passes, according the secretary of
state's summary, will mean "reduced costs in the low hundreds of
millions of dollars annually to state and local governments related to
enforcing certain marijuana-related offenses, handling the related
criminal cases in the court system, and incarcerating and supervising
certain marijuana offenders."

There is also a potential increase in annual tax revenues "in the low
hundreds of millions of dollars" connected to the sale of marijuana
and industrial hemp, the report concludes.

Duzy said there are more than 500 volunteers across the state ready to
hit the streets to collect signatures.

"We are adding dozens more [volunteers] every day and so I am
confident that our grassroots effort has a good chance for success,"
he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt