Spokane7
39°
July 1, 2010 in City
Organizers: Marijuana initiative won’t make Wash. ballot
SEATTLE — An initiative to legalize marijuana for adults in Washington state will not qualify for the fall ballot, an organizer said Thursday.
Seattle medical marijuana attorney Douglas Hiatt said that the effort fell about 40,000 to 50,000 signatures short of the 241,000 that must be turned in by Friday. Hiatt said his group, Sensible Washington, will try again next year.
Initiative 1068 would have removed all state penalties for marijuana possession, cultivation, use and sale. It was one of the most sweeping marijuana reform efforts playing out around the country this year.
It was prompted in part by Hiatt’s frustration at seeing medical marijuana patients arrested in the state. Proponents also argued that in a time of severe budget woes, it would save the state millions of dollars a year in state law enforcement and prison costs.
The state Democratic Party endorsed it during its convention last weekend — too late to do the campaign much good, Hiatt said.
“We’ve been the little engine that could, and we didn’t,” he said.
The campaign was beset by problems from the beginning. Hiatt and other activists filed it on the spur of the moment in January, with scant support lined up from the state’s progressive establishment.
A printing error cut part of the initiative’s text and forced the recall of many of the petitions it first issued, and eight banks refused to handle the campaign’s online contributions because of its association with marijuana, Hiatt said.
Eventually, a Bank of America branch agreed to handle the campaign donations, and a team of campaign volunteers wrote software code for securely processing the transactions.
Hiatt said he wouldn’t use PayPal because it once froze the account of Seattle’s annual marijuana law reform rally, Hempfest.
Fundraising efforts proved futile, and the campaign couldn’t afford to hire professional signature gatherers.
The Service Employees International Union, a big player in state liberal politics, expressed an interest in hiring enough gatherers to ensure its place on the ballot — both because the union believed it to be good policy and because research showed it could significantly boost progressive turnout in November, Local 775 Vice President Adam Glickman said earlier this month.
But the union ultimately stayed on the sidelines because the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington declined to support the measure. The ACLU argued that it was irresponsible to remove criminal penalties for marijuana without also creating a state regulatory system, but initiative backers said there was no way to legalize marijuana and create a regulatory system without violating state law saying that initiatives can only cover one subject.
Hiatt said the campaign had figured that if the initiative passed, state lawmakers would rush to regulate and tax marijuana.
“This is the No. 1 populist issue in the country right now,” Hiatt said. “It’s a shame we wound up having to fight the ACLU. If it hadn’d been for them, we’d be on the ballot.”
Doug Honig, a spokesman for the ACLU of Washington, defended the organization’s decision, saying “we strongly support the idea of legalization, and we’ll work for that.”
“With campaigns that don’t get enough signatures, it’s a good idea to look inwardly instead of blaming others,” he added.
© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Gregoire signs gay marriage bill 
Enter to win tickets to see Adam Carolla at the Knitting Factory 
EWU Text-to-Win Contest 
WSU Text-to-Win Contest 
empyrius on July 01 at 5:00 p.m.
That is alright, b/c:
1) The federal prohibition against marijuana stands against Christianity in that they outlaw that which our Lord sanctions; I stand on the side of YHWH and against that of evil laws made by corporate politicians! Other religions are legally recognized as able to consume psychedelic hard drugs, and yet the government contends that my freedom of religion should be abrogated b/c marijuana, being a common soft drug, is much more susceptible to being diverted to non-Christians, or any other citizens. Well, I don’t distribute our Lord’s green herb that He calls good to any other citizens. My stash does not get to the “free” black market, so quit persecuting my religion! Praise Jesus!
2) The feds contend that marijuana has a “high potential for abuse”. Their “proof” of which I have thoroughly demolished, and my legal rebuttal is sitting right here on my desktop. The allegations of a few state funded researchers are not credible and do not pass even the most liberal construal of logical induction. One or two schizophrenics who may abuse marijuana out of a thousand people warrants not the designation of “high potential for abuse” (as the feds themselves admit when they state “in a healthy adult population the likelihood for marijuana addiction/abuse is extremely exiguous”; this is like contending that since some people may be predisposed to abusing alcohol then alcohol should be illegal for everybody/anybody to consume!).
3) The thirteen states that allow medical usage are breaking federal law, since the federal government alleges that there are no medicinal qualities to marijuana, but citizens cannot break unjust state or federal law. Quite an interesting quandary I say . . .
People once broke the law by aiding escaping slaves, people once broke the law by manufacturing, distributing, and consuming alcohol, and, once again, for good or ill, Washington State citizens are able to buy fireworks rather than having to rely upon state and city governments for our right to celebrate the 4th of July!
Moral progression can often be a tumultuous accomplishment, and, whereas we the people never had a voice in making marijuana illegal to begin with, and with people such as Richard Nixon blaming the Jews for trying to decriminalize marijuana (as he states that people drink alcohol just to enjoy themselves!!!), and the war on marijuana becoming a tremendous source of power and “social engineering” for certain segments of our government and society: well . . .,
I’ll settle this matter with the Supreme Court myself!
God bless
Scoutster on July 01 at 5:15 p.m.
Five years max.
spokanecommunistparty on July 01 at 5:52 p.m.
Nooooooooooooooo
lewis8457 on July 01 at 5:54 p.m.
wait until the state is so broke they start laying off hundreds of workers then they will get a bright idea gee lets legalize so we can tax the heck out of. if it isn’t good for them they wont do it..
rights mean nothing in this day and age.