Search Results: lowest priority (36)

Sensible Washington

Recently the cannabis advocacy group Sensible Washington announced it was filing initiatives making marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority in six cities throughout Washington State. Now signature gathering drive has begun in three of those cities: Olympia, Everett and Bremerton.
“It is our goal to get these quickly on the ballot, as to effectively run a successful campaign to pass these initiatives into law,” said Anthony Martinelli of Sensible Washington.
If put on the ballot and passed, these initiatives, all titled the Marijuana Reform Act of 2012, will make cannabis the lowest law-enforcement priority, and also prohibit city and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities over the implementation of federal cannabis policies.

Steve Elliott ~alapoet~
Tacoma Police officers hassle booth vendors selling pipes at this year’s Tacoma Hempfest in June. Police claimed that pot was “already their lowest priority,” but voters made it official on Tuesday.

​Voters in Tacoma, Washington, just south of Seattle, sent a powerful message Tuesday to law enforcement and to state legislators in Olympia by joining Seattle in officially declaring marijuana possession laws the city’s “lowest law enforcement priority.”

Organizers Don Muridan and Sherry Bockwinkel, cosponsors of Tacoma Initiative No. 1, CannbisReformAct.org, gathered the necessary signatures and the voters of Tacoma resoundingly agreed, passing with measure with 65 percent approval.
The measure overwhelmingly passed by an almost 2:1 margin, despite being voted on in an off-year election. Modeled after Seattle’s 2003 initiative, Tacoma Initiative No. 1 makes adult marijuana possession offenses the lowest priority for law enforcement.

Graphic: Sensible Portland

​Could Portland become Potland? Enforcement of marijuana laws will become the lowest priority for police in Portland, Maine, if supporters of a petition drive are successful.

Under the proposal being circulated by Sensible Portland, police would refrain from arresting or even fining anyone 21 or older for possession of marijuana or paraphernalia, reports Ann S. Kim at the The Portland Press Herald. Police would also be directed to refrain from trying to even find out whether someone has cannabis or paraphernalia.
The proposed ordinance is in line with the values of a community that has supported Maine’s medical marijuana laws, according to John Eder, spokesman and organizer for Sensible Portland.
The eagerness of those who sign the petition and other anecdotal evidence indicate that Portland residents don’t want police wasting resources pursuing people with small amounts of pot, Eder said.

Jon Miller
Sensible Washington organizer and attorney Douglas Hiatt, right, fires up activists before a marijuana march in downtown Bremerton, Washington, earlier this month

Sensible Washington Announces Paid Signature Gatherers in Bremerton, Washington 
Sensible Washington on Monday announced that several “gracious and anonymous donors” have agreed to pay signature gatherers $1 per valid signature, “to assure we get our Bremerton initiative on this November’s ballot.”
This initiative would make cannabis the lowest enforcement priority within the city, as well as ban the city from cooperating with the federal government in the implementation of federal cannabis policies (federal non-cooperation).

Sensible Washington

​Washington state legalization group Sensible Washington announced earlier this year that they would be running local, city-wide initiatives in 2012. Last month the group declared Spokane its first city. Now, just days away from filing, the group has announced the next five cities where they’ll be running initiatives:

• Everett
• Olympia
• Bremerton
• Kent
• Bellingham
According to Sensible Washington, these initiatives will combine making adult cannabis offenses the lowest law-enforcement priority, and prohibiting cooperation of local law enforcement with federal authorities in marijuana enforcement.


Photo: city-data.com
Tiny Hailey, Idaho is Mayberry — plus marijuana

​Could it be the Mayberry of marijuana? Pot smokers and civil libertarians won a victory in a small Idaho town Monday when the mayor announced that cannabis use on private property was officially the lowest police priority.

“This has not been easy, but I think that we have come up with something that works for those on both sides of this issue,” said Hailey Mayor Rick Davis at a City Council meeting, reports Tony Evans of the Idaho Mountain Express.
“This means that Hailey police will not go out and actively look for people smoking pot on private property — but they never have,” Mayor Davis said afterward.

The Weed Blog

​Washington state cannabis advocacy group Sensible Washington on Wednesday is filing initiatives to make marijuana enforcement the lowest priority for law enforcement in six cities throughout the state.
“Today in Spokane, Olympia, Bellingham, Everett, Kent and Bremerton we will begin our campaign to bring about local reform to our cannabis policies, by introducing initiatives to make cannabis the lowest enforcement priority in these cities,” said Sensible Washington Steering Committee member Anthony Martinelli. “In addition, these initiatives will prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities in the implementation of federal cannabis policies.”

Denver City Council has taken the first step towards banning cannabis use on your property if it can be viewed from the street. That pretty much eliminates all toking in front yards and on balconies within the city limits.
As one Denverite so eloquently said at the meeting: “I would rather see police going after serious drug problems than playing security patrol for the Stepford wives.”

Legalizing Marijuana

Americans overwhelmingly agree, by an almost 2-to-1 margin, that the federal government should not enforce federal marijuana laws in states that legalize cannabis, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.

“These polls are making it quite clear that most Americans do not want the federal government to stand in the way after a state’s voters have approved a ballot measure to make marijuana legal for adults,” said Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “The initiatives in Colorado and Washington received strong majority support because the voters believe regulating marijuana like alcohol would make their communities safer than the current system of prohibition.”
“It’s not just the people of Colorado and Washington who want to see these ballot measures implemented in accordance with the will of the voters,” Fox said. “It’s nearly two-thirds of all Americans. The Obama administration should not undermine their sensible action by ensuring marijuana sales remain underground where the profits prop up cartels and gangs instead of legitimate businesses.”
The question became a very timely one on Thursday, as Washington became the first state in the U.S. to legalize and regulate the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older, reports USA Today. 

Kalamazoo Gazette

​Michigan is undergoing a groundswell of activism for a statewide vote on the legalization of marijuana, and voters could get a chance to have their say in November 2012.

There’s a strong popular will toward reforming the cannabis laws statewide, according to Kalamazoo defense attorney Louis Stocking, who ran the petition drive for that city’s successful citywide vote Tuesday to make enforcing the marijuana laws the lowest priority of police, reports Paula M. Davis at the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Following Michigan’s approval of medical marijuana in 2008, Tuesday’s ballot measure in Kalamazoo was “a way of keeping the tidal wave going,” Stocking sasid.
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