Search Results: i-1068 (19)

Sensible Washington

The nonprofit political organization Sensible Washington on Tuesday will announce they will be running a statewide initiative to repeal adult cannabis prohibition in Washington State, to be filed in January, 2013, as an Initiative to the People.
Similar to last year’s I-1149 and 2010’s I-1068, this initiative would repeal the civil and criminal penalties related to adult cannabis use and possession. It would remove cannabis from the state’s list of controlled substances, without altering legal penalties for minors and for those driving while under the influence.
Sensible Washington is taking input from the community on any potential alterations to the initiative language. Preparation for this initiative, including volunteer recruitment, will begin immediately.

Images
Could this have been what I-502 proponent Roger Roffman was thinking about when he said “It is injurious to young people and their families. There are people who are victims of marijuana”?

By Philip Dawdy
Cannabis Activist
A debate on the merits of I-502 was held on May 8th at a theatre in Monroe in Snohomish County. About 100 people attended and they were treated to one of the initiatives main sponsors, Roger Roffman who is a social work professor at the University of Washington, calling cannabis “injurious.” So why is he a sponsor of an initiative that would make it legal for adults 21 and older to buy, possess and consume one ounce of cannabis?
Roffman explained that he thinks we can do better as a society in addressing the “harms” of cannabis by bringing it into a public health model of control and working to educate and discourage people from using it. Yes, one of the main proponents of the initiative said this.

The Marijuana Advocate
Marc Emery: “How ironic that I have far more respect for my former prosecutor and his proposed legislation than I have for those activists who would foolishly and dangerously oppose this great step forward over trivialities”

Self-styled “Prince of Pot” Marc Emery has called the opposition of Washington state activists to the DUI provisions in a legalization initiative “foolish,” “dangerous” and suggested that those who oppose I-502 are just “jealous.”

Emery, writing from a federal prison cell 2,000 miles away in Mississippi, said the opposition of Washington state medical marijuana patient activists to being subject to DUI arrest was “disturbing” and “absurd.”
Rather than just accepting Emery’s marching orders, I decided to check with some actual Washington medical marijuana activists on the ground to get their take on things. You know — those “foolish,” “dangerous,” “jealous” folks who look out for the patients.
Even among Emery’s staunchest backers, some were taken aback by the shrill, strident tone of his message. Several of those who read the statement said it seemed as if Emery had never even read the actual language of the measure he was endorsing.
“How ironic that I currently have far more respect for my former prosecutor and his proposed legislation that I have for those activists who would foolishly and dangerously oppose this great step forward over trivialities, much the same way as done by many so-called members of the movement who killed Prop. 19 in California in 2010,” Emery wrote. “Much of the Washington state opposition to I-502 is rooted in adversarial jealousy, because after three attempts, some activists just can’t get an initiative of their own on the ballot, so resent [former U.S. Attorney John]McKay, the ACLU and their backers who did manage to get I-502 on the ballot.”

Joe Mabel
The medical marijuana industry in Washington state does not oppose legalization in the wholesale manner in which Dominic Holden, above, claims they do; they merely object to many of I-502’s provisions

By Philip Dawdy
Special to Toke of the Town
The road to cannabis legalization is certainly proving to be an odd one in Washington State, filled with so many ironies that I’ve lost count. Here comes another set of ironies.
On April 13th, the New York Times published an op-ed by Dominic Holden, “news” editor of The Stranger. Its contents prompted me to send the following letter to the editor, which the paper decided wasn’t important enough to share with its readers. In my opinion, Holden has been writing about I-502 in a way that is both deceptive and journalistically unprofessional.
Here’s what I sent the Times:
In journalism school, I was taught that journalists should strive to avoid conflicts of interest and should always reveal them in instances where they cannot be avoided. Interesting then that in his “Smokeless in Seattle” opinion piece on April 13 in which he lambasted the medical marijuana industry for opposing a legalization initiative in Washington State, Dominic Holden did not inform readers that he used to be an employee of the ACLU of Washington.

Graphic: Sensible Washington

​Voters in at least one state may get the chance to legalize marijuana this year. Washington State’s 2011 initiative to legalize cannabis for adults will be filed Wednesday, January 26, Sensible Washington state coordinator Don Skakie told Toke of the Town Tuesday afternoon.

The initiative, which would remove marijuana penalties for adults, will be filed in the Secretary of State’s office in the Legislative Building, Olympia, Washington, at about 2 p.m.
“Anyone wanting to be part of this historic event is welcome to participate,” Skakie said. “Please be mainstream in your dress and appearance.”

Photo: Sensible Washington
New cannabis legalization petitions should start circulating in February 2011 in Washington state.

By William Budz, Guest Author
While a marijuana decriminalization initiative does not appear on the 2010 Washington state ballot, issue supporters say 2011 is a whole new bag. The Sensible Washington campaign plans to file its new initiative, which was recently endorsed by NORML, in January 2011 and circulate it in February.
Many pro-cannabis voters were disheartened earlier this year when they heard that I-1068, an initiative that would have removed state civil and criminal penalties for persons 18 years or older who cultivate, possess, transport, sell, or use marijuana, had failed to generate enough signatures to make it onto the 2010 ballot.
Philip Dawdy, vice-chair of Sensible Washington, the organization which backed I-1068, said while the campaign anticipated that money and volunteers would be challenges, they never expected to have to battle Mother Nature.
“It was the weather that was truly our biggest obstacle,” Dawdy said. “We had a very wet May and June (the months when most signatures get gathered by any campaign) and it became a struggle to turn out signature gatherers in tough weather.”

Photo: Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press
Marc Emery, with wife Jody backing him up, speaks to reporters outside the B.C. Supreme Court in May 2010. He is scheduled to be sentenced to 5 years in U.S. federal prison on Friday, September 10.

​Marijuana activists from Washington state and around North America will gather outside the Federal Courthouse at 700 Stewart Street in Seattle on Friday, September 10, to protest the sentencing of Marc Emery, the “Prince of Pot,” who faces five years in prison for selling mail-order cannabis seeds to Americans.

Cannabis advocates are calling on President Barack Obama to pardon Emery, who faced federal charges after Drug Enforcement Administration agents entered Canada and arrested him in 2005. He is expected to be sentenced to five years in federal prison under a plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors.

Photo: Owl Jester/Seattle Hempfest
“There’s no place more perfect to announce our plans for 2011’s campaign than at the world’s premier marijuana reform festival.” ~ Douglas Hiatt, Sensible Washington

​​If at first you don’t succeed, try again!
Sensible Washington, sponsor of this year’s Washington legalization initiative I-1068, has announced that it will launch its 2011 marijuana legalization campaign at this year’s Seattle Hempfest.
“There’s no place more perfect to announce our plans for 2011’s campaign than at the world’s premier marijuana reform festival,” said Douglas Hiatt, chair of Sensible Washington and main author of I-1068, which failed to gain enough signatures to qualify for this year’s general election.

Photo: KOZE950.com
Could marijuana legalization be in Washington state’s future? The office of Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thursday that it’s a “legitimate idea.”

​Could marijuana legalization be in Washington state’s future? The office of Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thursday that it’s a “legitimate idea” that will be considered.


When Gov. Gregoire opened an online suggestion box on ways to fix the state’s budget, she may not have expected pot legalization to come in at first place. But it has been in the lead for more than a week now, and the governor’s office even has a somewhat positive response.

“It’s a legitimate idea,” said Gregoire spokeswoman Karina Shagren, who said the Governor is reading the list herself, as is Marty Brown, the director of the governor’s budget office. “But we’d like to see how the federal government would respond.”
With marijuana legalization apparently so popular among Washington’s (and America’s) voters, the idea is being considered right along with the roughly 1,750 others that have been submitted so far.

Graphic: Reality Catcher
With the demise of I-1068, legalization won’t be happening until at least 2012 in Washington state.

​Sensible Washington, the group which tried to get marijuana legalized in Washington state through Initiative 1068, has fallen just short of the number of petition signatures it needed to get the measure on November’s ballot.

Friday was the deadline for submitting petition signatures to the Washington Secretary of State’s office, and campaign organizers said they will be several thousand names short of the roughly 241,000 needed, reports Andrew Garber at The Seattle Times.
The proposal would have eliminated penalties for persons 18 and older who cultivate, possess, transport, sell, or use marijuana.
Ballot measures in Washington need at least 241,153 valid signatures of registered state voters to make the ballot, and the Secretary of State’s office recommends at least 300,000 as a buffer, to allow for duplicate, illegible and ineligible signatures.
1 2