Proposed B.C. marijuana decriminalization ballot measure fails to get voter signatures

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Sensible British Columbia Campaign organizer Dana Larsen Sunday announced that the ballot initiative they had been pushing to decriminalize marijuana possession failed to collect enough signature in time for the deadline.
Still, the group says they collected 200,000 signatures and that they’re looking forward to 2015 with another plan to prevent police from enforcing marijuana laws in the Canadian province.


Canadian cannabis activist Dana Larsen, who has spearheaded the campaign, says the signature-gathering since July just hasn’t been enough. He needed to collect 10 percent of the registered voters in the 85 voting districts of British Columbia.
“We’re not done counting yet and there are last-minute signatures coming in, but it looks like we reached the threshold in about two dozen ridings,” Larsen told MetroNews last night. Larsen also hinted that he was considering legal action in certain parts of B.C. where he says cities prevented canvassers from doing their job.
Last week Larsen also told reporters that he was having trouble getting signatures for his petition from people misled into thinking that they could lose their jobs for signing the petition or, even worse to some, losing the ability to go back and forth between Canada and the United States.
“Those fears are not really based in any kind of reality. Nothing bad is going to happen to anyone for signing on board with this,” he told CTV News. “I didn’t expect that to be a big problem, but it has. People are just afraid of signing our petition sometimes.”
He maintains that there would be huge support for the measure if it were to ever make it to voters.
“We’re definitely not done yet,” Larsen said. “We hope to maintain the momentum we built and keep our team together for a second try.”

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