New marijuana ballot measure starts circulating
Posted: 07/25/2011 10:34:45 PM PDT
A new marijuana legalization ballot measure was cleared Monday to start seeking petition signatures.
But its proponents aren't affiliated with the Oakland-based backers of last year's Proposition 19, who intend to mount a 2012 initiative of their own.
The state attorney general's official summary says the measure, named by its proponents as "The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012," would decriminalize marijuana sales, distribution, possession, use, cultivation, processing and transportation by people at least 21 years old.
Advertising of marijuana, except for medicinal use, would be banned, but zoning restrictions would not apply to marijuana growing and processing. Existing agricultural taxes and regulations would apply to all except noncommercial production of up to 25 flowering plants or 12 processed pounds per year. Sales of marijuana with at least 1 percent THC -- the herb's most prominent psychoactive ingredient -- would be allowed only to people 21 and up.
The measure also would direct state and local officials not to cooperate with enforcement of the federal ban on marijuana.
Proponents James Gray, William McPike and Steve Kubby have until Dec. 19 to collect valid signatures from at least 504,760 registered voters in order to qualify it for the ballot.
Gray, a former Orange County Superior Court judge and the 2004 Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate, is a longtime drug reform advocate from Newport Beach.
McPike is a Fresno attorney specializing in marijuana law. Kubby, of South Lake Tahoe, is a longtime marijuana advocate and the 1998 Libertarian gubernatorial nominee.
They aren't with the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform, which grew out of last year's Prop. 19 legalization effort. Although 53.5 percent of voters rejected Prop. 19 in November, the measure did have support from 4.6 million voters and so the coalition intends to try again in 2012.
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