Two weeks ago, we reported on the battle over Measure B in California's Mendocino County.

[Courtesy California NORML]

June 20, 2008

In final election returns, Mendocino's anti-marijuana Measure B eked out a narrow 52-48% victory. The final margin was the same as the one announced after election day, before 11,000 absentee ballots were counted.

California NORML, which supported the No on B campaign, regards the result as a moral victory, given that Measure B had been widely expected to win by a lopsided margin. Pre-election polls had suggested a victory margin of 60 - 65% , leading Measure B proponents to express disappointment at the narrowness of their win.

The final margin was so close that opponents would have won in a general election, where turnout is larger, younger, and more liberally inclined. Marijuana proponents intend to return to the county with more workable proposals for legally regulating the county's marijuana industry.

The No on B campaign succeeded in raising substantial doubts about Measure B, arguing that it in no way addressed the underlying problems of large-scale growers. http://nomeasureb.org. Measure B repeals Mendocino's Personal Use of Marijuana Initiative, Measure G, passed by an overwhelming 58% of the vote in 2000, but otherwise leaves the county's marijuana policy in doubt, since it seeks to establish the same state limits for marijuana growing that were recently declared unconstitutional in the California appeals court Kelly ruling. Measure B's validity will be subject to two immediate court challenges.

The No on B campaign thanks supporters and volunteers for helping wage a strong mail, media, and get-out-the-vote campaign. "Everything was stacked against us from the beginning," said No on B campaign director Laura Hamburg. Measure B was placed on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors, with support from the city councils of Willits and Ukiah, the district attorney, the county's leading newspaper and major media, and local development interests upset by the difficulty of paying wages competitive with the marijuana industry. California NORML is proud to have played a leading role in supporting the No on B campaign, along with a devoted core of Mendocino activists, the Mendocino Marijuana Patients Union, and the Mendocino Green Party. Thanks too to the Drug Policy Alliance for their financial support.

Thanks to the efforts of a Massachusetts man, voters in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale, Michigan, will have a chance to vote November 4 on an initiative that would allow only one outfit to distribu

From the Desk of Ethan Nadelmann

Dear friends,

I have been traveling back and forth to California this year, working on a ballot initiative that represents the most significant reform of prisons and sentencing in the history of the United States. We’re calling it the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act or “NORA” for short and we’ve just heard from the California Secretary of State that it has officially qualified for the ballot.

We wrote this measure and we are spearheading the campaign. I’m telling you about it because, as with past campaigns, our success in California, the most populous state, will have a national impact.

Now I need you to make a donation to help us build our fund for voter education and television advertising in the days leading up to the election.

Our research shows a substantial majority of Californians really like what’s in NORA. It provides a solution to the state’s prison overcrowding crisis through a combination of measures that will simultaneously and safely reduce the size of the prison population, provide effective treatment and rehabilitation, reduce recidivism and crime, and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

It would be great if NORA could be enacted into law by the State Legislature, but our friends in Sacramento tell us the only way to get it done is through the ballot initiative process. That’s why I need your help. I’ve raised millions from wealthy folks -- including some who live outside California and regard this as a fundamental issue of human rights, smart public policy and/or fiscal responsibility -- but we can’t get to the finish line without lots of support from people across the country who care. Please make a donation now.

I should tell you that NORA isn’t just about solving California’s prison overcrowding crisis and saving taxpayers billions of dollars. It’s also about reforming California’s prison industrial complex in ways that will transform the state into a leader in sensible drug and sentencing policy, and serve as a model for other states.

California used to be known as the State of Higher Education. Now it’s known as the State of Higher Incarceration. NORA can change that with your help.

You might also be interested to know that NORA includes a provision that changes the penalty for marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction -- like a traffic ticket. This single change will protect some 40,000 people a year convicted of simple marijuana possession from the serious and life-long collateral consequences of a criminal record.

So, if you want to know more about the details of NORA, click here, but please also take the opportunity to make a generous donation to ensure NORA wins on Election Day. There are still millions of people in California and across the country who think the best solution to every problem is to lock people up. Don’t let them win the day.

And after you’ve made your donation, please forward this email to everyone you know and encourage them to support NORA as well. There’s never been an opportunity like this to accomplish so much good for so many people.

One in eight Americans lives in California, and a victory in November will send a clear message to policy makers across the country that the American people want a public health approach to drug problems, not more wasteful prison spending. Your support of this California initiative will mean similar reforms will be more likely to pass across the country.

We’re talking about freedom, compassion and responsibility. Smart drug policy. Smart crime policy. And good government for a change.

Many thanks,

Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance Network

P.S. I need to raise the remaining money to run a powerful campaign through Election Day. Please give now to help me build a war chest for NORA.

This November California voters will have the opportunity to vote for the largest prison and sentencing reform in US history.

Eight years ago, voters in Northern California's Mendocino County passed the groundbreaking Measure G, which allowed people to grow up to 25 marijuana plants for medical or personal use and directe

[Courtesy of The American Medical Marijuana Association]

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

AMMA calls for a new initiative for Mendocino
by Steve Kubby, AMMA Director

MENDOCINO, CA -- The passage of Measure B has generated widespread news coverage across the US. A lot of people are looking to the what happens in this haven for cannabis cultivation, as some sort of a national response to the increasing public acceptance of medical marijuana.

With this in mind, the American Medical Marijuana Association is calling for a new initiative for the local Mendocino November Ballot to provide urgently needed protection for the rights of patients, caregivers and cooperatives to use and cultivation cannabis for medical purposes. In particular, the new initiative needs to have a civilian review board to oversee the operations of what appears to be rogue officers and officials in Mendocino, who hate medical marijuana and those who use it.

Furthermore, to protect sick, disabled and dying patients, we believe it is absolutely necessary to legalize personal use and cultivation as well, since police, prosecutors and judges seem hopelessly unable to distinguish between medical and non-medical situations.

Meanwhile, Mendocino law enforcement can now be expected to engage in a frenzy of raids and arrests, while the District Attorney's office will be just as enthusiastic about prosecuting felonies against any patient with 7 plants or more. We predict this will be a wake up call for the voters and they will be ready to support a return to the Measure G protection of their rights.

The key to understanding why a new initiative is necessary and desirable is because Measure B passed with a mere 8,493 votes, while Measure G passed in 2000 with approximately 20,000 votes. That's because half as many people voted in this June election as in the November 2000 election.

Since Mendocino is a traditionally Democratic stronghold, it seems reasonable to conclude that the November 2008 election will again see twice as many voters. We believe that those voters, after being harassed by law enforcement this summer, will be far more like to approve a new initiative to overturn Measure B and reinstate a modified Measure G type initiative.

MEASURE B-Vote Analysis

Total Votes for June 3, 2008 Election:
16,285

YES on B
8493
52.15%

NO on B
7792
47.85%

Difference between Yes and No vote
701 votes.

===========

Total Votes for November 7, 2000 Election:
34,953

YES on G
58%

NO on G
42%

###

For the second time in less than a year, voters in the Sun Valley town of Hailey, Idaho, have approved a trio of marijuana reform initiatives.

In a May 22 decision, the California 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles has ruled that state lawmakers unconstitutionally overstepped their bounds by limiting the amount of marijuana patie

[Courtesy of Marijuana Policy Project]

The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (CSMP) has just begun the second and final stage of the signature drive to place a marijuana decriminalization initiative on the Massachusetts ballot ... giving voters the chance to decriminalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for personal use in the state.

Last November, after two months of petitioning, CSMP turned in more than 105,000 signatures to qualify the initiative for the November 2008 ballot. State law then required the state legislature to consider the initiative between January 2 and May 6. That period is now over, and CSMP began the second stage of the signature drive, which requires another 11,099 valid signatures by June 18. To ensure a place on the ballot, the campaign must collect approximately 20,000 raw signatures — at a cost of about $65,000.

Would you please consider making a contribution to the campaign to ensure that voters have the chance to decriminalize marijuana this fall?

This is the first time in history that an initiative to decriminalize marijuana will be placed on any statewide ballot. And winning in Massachusetts could dramatically advance marijuana policy reform elsewhere in the country.

So far, the campaign has done everything right, including successfully completing the first part of the signature drive and lobbying the legislature not to take any actions that would harm the campaign.

But now the campaign must raise the money that's needed to complete the second phase of the signature drive. Will you please visit www.SensibleMarijuanaPolicy.org/donate to donate $10 or more today?

Thank you,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

Kevin Mannix, a conservative Oregon political operative who has made a career out of pushing "tough on crime" ballot measures, announced this week that he and his colleagues are giving up on an ini

[Courtesy of Marijuana Policy Project] 

MPP’s medical marijuana initiative in Michigan is under attack by out-of-state prohibitionists, who have purchased thousands of dollars' worth of airtime on major TV stations in Michigan to run this outrageously false ad that claims “every major health organization rejects” medical marijuana.

This is a flat-out lie, of course. To the contrary, numerous major health organizations support medical marijuana access and even call on the government to change the law and stop arresting medical marijuana patients — including the American College of Physicians, American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, American Academy of HIV Medicine, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Lymphoma Foundation of America, AIDS Action Council, American Academy of HIV Medicine, National Association of People With AIDS, and many others.

We can’t let the drug warriors lie to the public and jeopardize our ability to pass the medical marijuana ballot initiative in Michigan. Would you please help us fight back with the truth by donating to our campaign today?

We know from past successes that we can pass state medical marijuana initiatives, and we can do it again in Michigan this November — if we have the financial resources to make sure voters hear the truth. Since our well-financed opposition is swarming the airwaves with false and fear-mongering ads, it's crucial that we have the funds to fully execute our campaign plan.
 
Would you give what you can today? If you help us respond, you’ll be able to tell your friends and family that you helped pay for the campaign that succeeded in making medical marijuana legal in Michigan.

Thank you in advance,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2008. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

Eleven states have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, leaving those busted to face only tickets and fines instead of a criminal record and possible jail time.

With an initiative known as the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act headed for the November ballot with strong popular suppo

The Michigan Board of Canvassers Monday officially certified that the Michigan Compassionate Care Coalition had handed in enough valid

[Courtesy of MPP] 

I am excited to announce that yesterday the Michigan government officially certified that MPP's Michigan campaign committee — the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care (MCCC) — collected enough signatures to qualify a medical marijuana initiative for the statewide November ballot. You can read more about this milestone here.

The roughly half a million signatures counted by the state had a whopping 80.2% validity rate, far exceeding what was needed to qualify for the ballot. I hope you’ll consider making a donation to MCCC today so that we can run a robust campaign the rest of the year and ensure that the measure passes in November.

The official word that we gathered enough signatures to send the initiative to the voters in November culminates a monumental effort in the state. Thanks to the hard work of MPP and MCCC staffers, local activists, volunteers, and supporters for the past nine months, Michigan is close to becoming the 13th medical marijuana state — and the first in the Midwest.

The initiative will now be transmitted to the Michigan Legislature, which has 40 days either to pass it into law or to send it to voters in November. Because the legislature has considered multiple medical marijuana bills in recent years and none has ever gained traction, Michiganders — who support protecting patients from arrest by a nearly 2 to 1 margin — are all but certain to vote on the issue at the polls later this year.

Most importantly, Michigan patients are now one enormous step closer to being able to use medical marijuana without the fear of arrest and jail. If passed by a majority of voters on Election Day, the initiative will allow Michigan patients to use, possess, and grow their own marijuana for medical purposes with their doctors’ approval.

The most recent polling shows that 61% of Michigan voters support medical marijuana access, and we’ve hired a top-notch consulting firm and a full-time campaign manager to translate that public sentiment into a new law that protects patients. But we need your financial support to succeed, so please make a donation to the campaign today.

I’m grateful for your support.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2008. This means that your monthly pledge to MPP will be doubled.

[Courtesy of Marijuana Policy Project] 

“Different lipstick, same old pig.”

That was the title of a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial on Monday, referring to a quote by MPP’s Neal Levine, who was artfully characterizing the unconstitutional ballot initiative law in Nevada that we’re going to overturn.

Last week, MPP and the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Nevada government to overturn its unconstitutional law, which requires signatures from voters in all of the state’s 17 counties in order to qualify a measure for the statewide ballot.

This is the second time MPP has sued the Nevada state government over the very same issue. We won in 2004, and we’re going to win this time, too, and the Nevada government is going to have to pay our legal fees in full — again.

In addition to the editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, one of the state’s biggest newspapers, a columnist for the Las Vegas Sun also weighed in on the situation.

Because MPP plans to run another ballot initiative campaign to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol in Nevada in a few years, it’s vitally important that Nevada’s ballot initiative law not be overly burdensome.

The previous law we overturned in 2004 — which required signatures from voters in 13 of Nevada’s 17 counties — was correctly thrown out by a federal court as a violation of the “one man, one vote” rule. And the new law — which MPP’s Neal Levine told the Las Vegas Review-Journal was “a different shade of lipstick on the same old pig” — also violates the “one man, one vote” rule.

We’re so sure we’re going to win this lawsuit — and get our legal fees reimbursed by the incompetent Nevada government — that I’m not even going to ask you to donate money to help pay for it.

However, I hope you’ll consider joining our monthly credit card pledge program — even with just $5 or $10 per month — in order to support our other 2008 projects.

Thank you, as always, for supporting MPP’s work.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2008. This means that your monthly pledge will be doubled.

California's prison system is in crisis.

Last month, voters in tiny Hailey, Idaho, approved three municipal initiatives that legalized medical marijuana, cultivation of industrial hemp, and ordered the city to make enforcement of state an