Pubdate: Wed, 05 Nov 2014
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Jessica Contrera
Page: C1

THE HIGH MAY BE MELLOW, BUT THE BALLOT PUSH ISN'T

He has already collected the signatures, counted the names, 
registered the voters, created the spreadsheets, made the phone calls 
and stapled the signs, and finally, it is 6:20 a.m. on Election Day. 
Eric Butler Jr. is on his front stoop. He identifies as an 
entrepreneur, an advocate and a guy who takes care of his 88-year-old 
grandmother. But he's also a "wake-and-bake and nightcap" kind of guy.

Now he's awake, and so, he will bake.

Butler lights a joint as he looks out over Michigan Park, the 
Northeast Washington neighborhood where he grew up. This street is 
his domain, his BMX racetrack as a kid, the home he came back to when 
college didn't work out as an adult.

He came back again after a year in California, when someone needed to 
move in and make his grandmother pancakes in the morning and buy her 
a combo meal at lunch. And so the 30-year-old was in search of work 
in D.C. He checked out THCjobs.com and now, seven months later, he is 
wearing a "Legalize" T-shirt on top of his camouflage pants.

For the past few days Butler's job with the DC Cannabis Campaign has 
been to make sure everything will run smoothly Tuesday. Volunteers in 
place at polling stations. Signs all around. T-shirts passed out to 
all. Lingo taught: Initiative 71 only makes it legal to possess and 
grow small amounts of pot. No sales.

All this frenzied final push to Election Day meant that when his 
boss, political activist Adam Eidinger, told Butler to come party at 
the campaign headquarters Saturday night, Butler sat it out. He might 
not have wanted to celebrate early, but others were ready: Recent 
polls have shown that D.C. voters are expected to support Initiative 
71 by a margin of nearly 2 to 1.

The party, thrown in the room where volunteers had sorted through 
57,000 signatures to get legalization onto the ballot, was "a rager," 
one campaign worker said. Three hundred people showed up, the cops 
were called, the cops were called again and eventually Eidinger was 
yelling at the DJ to take all the bass out of the music.

At 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the house was trashed, one guy was still passed 
out on a beanbag chair upstairs and Butler was spending all afternoon 
working on "Legalize" posters for Tuesday.

"I don't know if they were trying to trip up Stoner Nation or what," 
he said Sunday. "But they put us on the back of the ballot."

He attached a paper that said "Vote On The Back of The Ballot" with 
packing tape on the signs the campaign has had up all fall. The 
design is deliberate: not green, a modestly sized pot leaf, 
"cannabis" instead of "marijuana."

Tuesday morning those signs are piled in the trunk of Butler's red 
Buick LaCrosse (goes by "Ruby"). Butler and his girlfriend, Carrie 
Hughley, and his friend Kendrick Anderson (goes by "40") leave for 
the polls seven minutes before they open at 7 a.m.

First stop: Lafayette Elementary School in Northwest, where Hughley 
will spend the day.

"You can't park there!" a crossing guard yells when they pull up in 
front of the school.

"Not parking here, brother," Butler says as he gets out of the car to 
grab "Legalize" T-shirts and stickers for Hughley to pass out. He 
pops the trunk, and the crossing guard howls.

"Ooooh, I see what you doing," the guard says, "You can park here all day!"

Next stop for Butler: Wards 7 and 8.

Butler, Eidinger and another campaign higher-up (goes by "Poncho 
Popcorn") all agree that Wards 7 and 8 offered the "most vocal" 
opposition to marijuana legalization. A September NBC4/ Washington 
Post/Marist poll showed that 47 percent of those residents were 
likely to vote no, compared with 33 percent overall.

As Butler drives around to check on the campaigners standing in front 
of polling locations in Southeast, he sees some of that opposition to 
his cause:

"Vote yes on 71 on the back of the ballot!"

A voter shakes her head and walks away. "Legalize the tree!" "You're 
still not gonna be able to get a job after you smoke it." "Did you 
vote yes on 71?" "No, I don't want to smell that on the Metro."

Butler approaches another Initiative 71 campaign worker and asks how 
it's going. The polling place location is proving to be a challenge. 
"I don't know man, I feel weird trying to legalize marijuana in front 
of a church."

When backing up his argument, Butler does a lot of explaining of 
things that aren't actually on the ballot. He talks about the powers 
of medical marijuana, which is already legal here. He talks about 
people who go to jail for small amounts of pot, which should no 
longer be an issue, because of the July decriminalization measure.

His best argument is the most personal one, which is why it doesn't 
come out as often to strangers.

"I want to put down roots here, raise my kids here," he says. "And I 
don't want to raise kids knowing they are going to have to go through 
the same experiences I went through."

He's talking about racial profiling, which he thinks the legalization 
of marijuana will drastically limit.

But Butler isn't letting himself think too far down the line. His 
focus is on getting through Election Day. Volunteers in place at 
polling stations. Signs all around. T-shirts passed out to all.

Later, there will be a party at Meridian Pint in Columbia Heights. 
Eidinger will be there. The party's flier ditched the small, red 
marijuana leaf of the campaign signs for a big, green pot leaf, a 
fist and "YES WE CANNABIS" in bold.

But Butler is thinking he might skip out on this party, too. He'll be 
off duty when the polls close at 8 p.m. Someone needs to help his 
grandmother get dinner, and he's spent a lot of time away from home 
for the campaign.

If he doesn't go, he's still planning to celebrate the end of all his 
efforts, of course. He's a wake-and-bake - and nightcap - kind of guy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom