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By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Two Sonoma County lawyers behind a new statewide effort to legalize marijuana believe 2012 could be their year.
Joe Rogoway and Omar Figueroa have drafted a ballot initiative that would repeal all laws against possessing pot, allowing anyone 18 or older to have up to three pounds and to maintain a 100-square-foot garden. The state Department of Public Health would oversee regulation and taxation of commercial sales.
The measure could go before voters at the November presidential election when turnout is expected to be larger and younger than the 2010 midterms, when voters defeated another referendum to legalize pot, Proposition 19.
“We’re in a more favorable political environment to enact this sort of change,” said Rogoway, a deputy public defender and chief proponent of the Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012. “There’s a strong indication that the wind is at our back. “
The initiative, co-written by three activists in the legalization movement, was filed last month with the state Attorney General. The office is expected to give it a title and summary by mid-October before authorizing proponents to begin collecting the more than 500,000 signatures required to put it on the ballot.
Rogoway said a large contingent of volunteers and paid signature gatherers are standing by and will have six months to return the petitions. The most recent polling shows 55 percent of Americans support legalization, his group said.
“This time around, the level of enthusiasm is incredible,” said Figueroa, whose Sebastopol law firm specializes in marijuana defense. “The zeitgeist is now.”
But whether backers can raise the more than $1 million needed to get it on the ballot is unclear. Millions more would be required to mount a successful campaign leading to Nov. 6.
The measure could face competition for donations from another initiative, Regulate Cannabis Like Wine 2012, which is wending its way toward the ballot.
“It’s going to be a long-shot that one gets on the ballot, much less more than one,” said Richard Lee, the chief promoter of Prop. 19 and founder of Oaksterdam University, the Oakland-based training program for marijuana producers. “I think most veteran reformers know that getting the money to get signatures is the first big hurdle.”
Steve Kubby of Regulate Cannabis Like Wine sees other flaws, such as the age limit, which he said should be 21, not 18. And Kubby said the Department of Public Health isn’t equipped to handle regulation. That should be left to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, as his measure proposes.
“When we sat down we agreed society isn’t ready for legalization,” Kubby said. “They prefer a strictly regulated scheme. We’re doing something that all sides can agree on.”
But Rogoway and others believe voters will embrace their initiative. Unlike Prop. 19, it would repeal prohibition of marijuana. And at just 742 words, his proposal is clearer and more concise, he said.
If approved by voters, it would take effect the day after the election. The Department of Health would have 180 days to respond with plans to regulate commercial sales, Rogoway said.
Possession under the three-pound, 100-square-foot garden threshold would be unregulated. Laws prohibiting sales to minors or driving while impaired not be changed, he said.
Already, Rogoway said pot advocates around the state are signaling their support for what he called “the favored initiative.”
If the money can be raised to get it on the ballot, the measure will enjoy broad backing from the public, he predicted.
“It seems this is the issue that resonates with people,” Rogoway said.
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The White House has petitions on it’s web site. The petition to Legalize and Regulate Marijuana has a signature deadline of Oct. 22, 2011. Anyone wishing to sign must create a log-in with their true name. Help spread the word.
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/legalize-and-regulate-marijuana-manner-similar-alcohol/y8l45gb1
No
Greg says, “There are simple tests for driving while intoxicated. But where are the tests that measure when you’re too stoned to drive? Until these are developed and/or deployed, how can you vote in good conscience to fill the freeways with a gaggle of perfectly legal stoners?”
Guess what, Greg. Legal or not, they’re already out there… and they’re probably pulling over to let the speeding drunks pass them. The highway safety aspect is a red herring.
How can we get these two, Joe Rogoway and Omar Figueroa disbarred for contributing to court costs in Sonoma County?
These two need to take their smoking habits off campus and out of state.
Smoking is bad for everybody and smoking pot is just plain stupid.
Open Eyes wrote: “Heck, while we’re at it, lets legalize prostitution and tax it also.”
Women can take birth control pills. Women can have an abortion.
But women can’t sell sex.
Leagalize it, tax it & tax the income.
Same with the marijuana.
Russian Roulette is a perfectly safe activity five times out of six.
Opened Eyes:
Isn’t it interesting that the untrustworthy government tries to play the game both ways?
First, they say pot must be illegal. Its dangerous.
When the public opinion outranks the government as it soon will in legalizing pot, then the government says ‘well, uh, okay, but we get to TAX it.’
Note to all: legalize pot, yes.
Tax it? NOPE.
You don’t need the government’s permission to grow a natural plant on your own property and then suffer extortion from a government that only cares about getting a piece of your money for their public pensions.
I like the argument for legalizing and taxing it. The government claims that with sales the way they are, umpteen billions of dollars in taxes will be collected. But wait…if it is legal, don’t you think there will be a Pot-Mart that grows tons of it at a low cost and drives the prices down? Lower prices = less tax revenue, right? The left believes that lower taxes leads to less tax revenue, so wouldn’t lower priced pot lead to lower tax revenue? Where is that accounted for in the calculations?
Heck, while we’re at it, lets legalize prostitution and tax it also. We could also legalize meth and tax the sales of it.
Bit of advice, “don’t spit into the wind.” California will not legalize Marijuana, not should it. Even if it did, the Feds won’t recognize it plus you have all kinds of problems with 1) legalize at what level of THC? If at 20% you immediately create a blackmarket for anything over 20%. 2) Unlike ability to test for alcohol, what test do you have for drivers who are “over the limit” on weed? 3) Smoking is killing thousands per year and you want to add more cigarettes for lung disease? 4) when someone sells some of their stash, can you control the content in the Marijuna? You know, the stuff that is added to the pot? Don’t think so.
Marijuana and the internet the two final fascist fronteirs yet to be monopolized.
With close to 900,000 marijuana related arrests in the United States annually it’s time to refocus the mind set of law enforcement on behavior that actually should be prevented/hindered. If the focus of “drug” enforcement officers was on truly harmful substances, i.e. Methamphetamine, our society would be better off. And to anyone who cites violence related to Marijuana I would point out that the violent incidences around Marijuana are ALWAYS financially related. Reduce the value of Marijuana and the associated violence will evaporate.
There are simple tests for driving while intoxicated.
But where are the tests that measure when you’re too stoned to drive? Until these are developed and/or deployed, how can you vote in good conscience to fill the freeways with a gaggle of perfectly legal stoners?
Legalize pot and put the cops out of business. Reduce unnecessary law enforcement. Reduce jail populations.
This is a win win situation all around. Revenue from pot sales help fill state coffers.
A side benefit is it will help reduce alcohol consumption and drunk driving.
How many times are they going to put this on the ballot?
Just keep forcing a vote until people are just tired of it and don’t show up?
Whoo-hoo, you can smoke pot. Freaking dopers. Do you not understand the left wants you doped up and dependent, to ensure they remain in power. Why do you think they want to keep expanding the reach of government. “Give a man a fish” and they are dependent for life. Do some research on the number of people on government services who actually get off them.
But it is the people who want smaller government who are the problem. Man, are voters stupid
Attention Board of Stupidvisors:
If smoking is bad and you are banning it, why don’t you include marijuana in your regulation? Are you declaring weed is good for us?
I guess too many 60′s pot heads have been elected to public office in Sonoma County.
Supes ban smoking in apartments and condos,
scratching my head
legalize marijuana?
did not the voters have a say in this a while ago
please get out and vote
no more whiners and dopeheads
boycott Sebastopol
Marijuana intoxicates people. 18 is a ploy to get the measure on the ballot. Would you lower the drinking age to 18? Sham initiative will do more to damage the fight to legalize marijuana than to aid the cause. And backyard grows? I guess these guys have never dealt with the STINK of a backyard grow. If this moves forward I hope all their neighbors put in their 100×100 plot!
Guess who will be funding the opposition to legalizing pot ??
Yep. The criminal justice industry.
Legalized pot means zero need for military style helicopter raids around Northern California. Less need for cops, jailers, court clerks, prosecutors, judges. You can bet they’re all going to organize against it. Public wages and benefits in the justice industry are huge and they’re not going to let voters destroy their game.
And, the drug cartels themselves will be donating cash, laundered of course, to defeat the measure.
But to the average Californian, legalizing pot is the way to go. We can do with much less of a justice industry. And we diminish the income of the drug cartels at the same time.