Ballot Measures
Press Release: Federal Court Throws Out Nevada Petition Rule as Unconstitutional
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEÂ Â Â
SEPTEMBER 29, 2008Â Â Â
CONTACT: Neal Levine, MPP director of state campaigns, 612-424-7001
LAS VEGAS â U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro today ruled in favor of the Marijuana Policy Project, its Nevada campaign committee and co-plaintiffs, invalidating a Nevada rule for petition signatures that gives voters in the state's smallest counties as much as 1,000 times the clout of voters in Clark or Washoe counties.
   The law, NRS 295.012, was passed by the Legislature after federal courts tossed out the old "13 counties rule" because it discriminated against residents of the more populous counties by giving extra weight to initiative petition signatures from smaller counties. MPP and its Nevada campaign committee, the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, were joined by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and four individual Clark County voters in seeking to overturn the new law, arguing that it actually magnified the disparities that had caused the 13 counties rule to be judged in violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
   MPP director of state campaigns Neal Levine urged the state not to appeal the judge's decision. "With Nevada's economy in such a dire situation, you would think the state would have better things to do than pass and defend unconstitutional laws and pay our lawyers fees," Levine said. "This is now the second time we've defeated the state on the exact same issue. How many more times do you think it's going to take before they stop passing unconstitutional initiative laws?"
   With more than 25,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.
Marijuana Decriminalization Campaign Uncovers Criminal Acts by Opposition
Dear friends:
You might think that the people who are paid to uphold the law would also follow the law themselves. In Massachusetts, you'd be wrong.
The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (CSMP) â which is running the campaign to pass a marijuana decriminalization ballot initiative in Massachusetts this Election Day â has uncovered at least 15 violations of Massachusetts campaign finance and election laws committed by the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association and other opponents of the initiative. You can read media coverage of yesterday's press conference calling for charges to be filed here.
If you support forcing marijuana policy reform opponents to follow the law, please help out the campaign today.
CSMP has filed official complaints with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance and the Office of the Attorney General, charging that opponents of the initiative participated in 14 counts of raising funds illegally, as well as one count of publishing false statements relating to the initiative, which are clear violations of the law. The campaign is calling on the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance to punish them to the fullest extent of the law. Each violation carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Specifically:
- Under Massachusetts law, it is illegal to solicit, receive, or spend funds to support or oppose a ballot initiative without first forming a political committee. CSMP has from its inception followed all of these rules, but the district attorneys solicited, received, and spent donations before they were legally allowed to â blatantly ignoring state law in a cynical attempt to conceal their campaign activity for as long as they could, undermining the very laws they have sworn to uphold.
- Additionally, the district attorneys used public funds to post and house a statement urging voters to reject the decriminalization initiative on its Web site ... clear, indisputable violation of Massachusetts election law, which prohibits public officials from using public resources to advocate for or against a ballot initiative.
- What's more, this illegal statement â itself an abuse of public office and taxpayer resources â is riddled with bald-faced lies ... like the claim that the initiative would permit any person to carry and use marijuana at any time. In reality, the measure simply changes the type of penalty for possession of less than an ounce and specifically reiterates that public use remains illegal.
It's past time for prohibitionist officials to be held to the same standards and laws as everyone else. If you support these aggressive tactics to hold our opponents accountable for their lies, deception, and lawbreaking, would you please consider donating $10 or more to the campaign today?
Thank you,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
P.S. If convicted, the initiative opponents would risk more than fines and jail time. They'd also face loss of their driver's licenses, suspension of their licenses to practice law or medicine; and placement in a permanent database of offenders that employers, landlords, and schools can search and use to preclude offenders from getting jobs, housing, and school loans ... the same penalties that marijuana offenders currently face in Massachusetts and which the ballot initiative would remove.
Decriminalization Campaign Announces Prominent Endorsers
Dear friends:
Yesterday, the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (CSMP) released a list of prominent endorsers of the marijuana decriminalization initiative that will appear on Massachusetts' November 4 ballot â including a former first attorney general, legislators, and public health experts.
Would you please consider donating $10 or more today to CSMP today so the campaign has the resources to keep this momentum going?
Prominent endorsers of the initiative announced yesterday include:
- Tom Kiley, Massachusetts' first assistant attorney general
- Sergeant Howard Donohue, a 33-year veteran of the Boston Police Department
- Lieutenant Thomas W. Nolan, a 30-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, now a professor at Boston University
- Dr. Robert Meenan, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health
- Lester Grinspoon, M.D., associate professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
- Jeffrey Miron, Ph.D, senior lecturer in the Harvard University Department of Economics
- Massachusetts state Sen. Patricia Jehlen (D), chair of the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs and vice-chair of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight
- Massachusetts state Rep. Frank Smizik (D), chair of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture
- John H. Halpern, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
- Charles Barron, professor at Boston College School of Law
- ACLU of Massachusetts
- the Union of Minority Neighborhoods
Meanwhile, the opposition, which is composed of the usual suspects â district attorneys, sheriffs, and police chiefs â has made a cornerstone of its opposition the allegation that the initiative is somehow outside of the mainstream ... which these endorsements belie.
There are only seven weeks left to go until Election Day â when Massachusetts voters will have the chance to remove the threat of arrest or jail for possessing an ounce or less of marijuana, replacing it with a $100 fine â and your help is needed for this final stretch.
Would you please consider donating $10 or more today to the campaign to help push it to victory?
As always, thank you for anything you can do to help.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
Put "Yes on 5" on TV
|
Dear friends, The gloves have come off! In July, Californiaâs major law enforcement groups tried to get Proposition 5 âthe largest sentencing and prison reform in U.S. history â thrown off the state ballot. But the California Supreme Court rejected their challenge, and affirmed that the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act will appear on the November state ballot as Prop. 5. As you can see, opposition to Prop. 5 is mounting from some of the staunchest opponents of criminal justice reform in the state. We need your support to address the misrepresentations theyâve begun to spread about this urgent package of reforms. Please give to âYes on 5â today and help us put commercials on TV in the final days of the campaign. The 34 district attorneys and two former California governors (Wilson and Davis) involved in the suit all know that Prop. 5 has strong public support, so they tried to keep it away from voters. But their effort, built upon slick legal arguments that badly mischaracterized Prop. 5, has failed. Now the stateâs voters will decide whether to pass Prop. 5 and, with it, create new youth treatment programs, improve and expand treatment offered through the court system, and work to end the stateâs prison overcrowding crisis. This wonât be the last we hear from law enforcement groups. As a recent issue of California Political Week put it, âto top ranking officials from law enforcement, nothing is more important than the defeat of Prop. 5â¦â The California District Attorneys Association is heading up the fight, with support from associations of sheriffs and police chiefs. Weâre working hard to make sure that the âproâ voices are even louder. Our growing coalition of reform advocates includes the League of Women Voters, the Consumer Federation of California, the NAACP of California, the Latino Voters League and a wide range of youth advocates and treatment experts. And, hopefully, you! Please make a contribution toward the âYes on 5â campaign today. Help us stop the lies and broadcast the truth about treatment for nonviolent offenders. Please donate today to help put the truth about Prop. 5 on TV before November 4. With your help, we will make ourselves heard above our opponentsâ fear-mongering â and win in November! Sincerely, Margaret Dooley-Sammuli P.S. Help us fight regressive law enforcement opposition and broadcast the truth about treatment for nonviolent offenders. Please support the âYes on 5â campaign today. Paid for by NORA Campaign -- Yes on 5, sponsored by Campaign for New Drug Policies and Drug Policy Alliance Network. / Major funding by George Soros and Bob Wilson / ID# 1302707 / 555 Capitol Mall, Suite 1425, Sacramento, CA 95814 |
District attorneys lie about marijuana decriminalization initiative
Dear friends:
Sometimes it seems like the prohibitionists just can't help themselves.
In what has become a predictable routine, our opposition is once again openly lying to voters. This time, it's the members of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association (MDAA), who have posted on their Web site a statement of opposition to the Massachusetts marijuana decriminalization initiative so riddled with misleading claims, inaccuracies, and outright lies that it almost defies belief.
Among other outrageous claims, the DAs allege:
* That currently, first-time marijuana offenders are placed on probation and their records are sealed. In reality, simply getting arrested â not even convicted â for possessing a small amount of marijuana in Massachusetts generates a permanent record in a database that employers, landlords, and schools can search and use to preclude offenders from getting jobs, housing, and school loans.
* That âdecriminalization of marijuana will increase its availability and use.â In reality, both the National Research Council (in 2001) and the World Health Organization (just this year) have published studies explicitly debunking this myth.
Â
* And that âthere is a direct link between marijuana use and criminal activityâ because a âsignificant number of male arrestees test positive.â In reality, this is literally a meaningless claim that doesn't show any causal relationship ... and is, in any case, entirely irrelevant to the policy change that the initiative proposes.
If you are outraged by these lies and bad faith arguments, would you please consider donating $10 or more today to the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (CSMP), which is running the campaign?
As demonstrably false as these claims are, they are being made by a prominent and respected organization with a bully pulpit, so the campaign will need substantial resources to counter the lies.
It's not hard to understand why the opposition has been reduced to these tactics. According to an independent poll released earlier this month, a whopping 71% of Massachusetts residents support the initiative to replace the state's current criminal penalties for possession of an ounce or less of marijuana with a system of civil fines. And Massachusetts voters have passed 30 out of 30 non-binding public policy questions (PPQs) calling for such a reform since 2000 â with an average of 62% of the vote in favor.
But this public support is not in itself enough to win. Between now and November 4, we expect well-financed and powerful groups to attempt to sway voter opinion with these sorts of exaggerations, scare tactics, and lies. Would you please consider donating what you can today to CSMP, so it has the funds to fight back and pass the initiative into law on Election Day?
As always, thank you in advance for your generous support.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
Press Release: Fayetteville Voters to Vote on Low Priority
71% in favor of marijuana decriminalization initiative?
Dear friends:
Wow.
We just got some encouraging news from Massachusetts: 71% of Massachusetts residents support a landmark ballot initiative to decriminalize marijuana possession in the state, according to a new statewide poll from Boston's Suffolk University and the local NBC affiliate.
The initiative will be on Massachusetts' ballot this November 4. If it passes, it would remove the threat of arrest or jail for possessing an ounce or less of marijuana, replacing it with a $100 fine â which could be paid through the mail without lawyers or court appearances, just like a speeding ticket.
71% support eclipses what we've seen in all previous polling â support has generally remained in the 60% range â and so these newest numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, these results clearly point to widespread support for marijuana law reform in Massachusetts and bode well for the initiative's chances this November.
Can you help capitalize on this unprecedented level of support? If you want the chance to help pass a historic marijuana policy, here's your chance.
Your help really matters, because victory is by no means assured. Powerful, well-financed organizations within the state â including the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association and the Massachusetts Family Institute â have publicly announced their plans to work against the initiative, and both are already marshalling their forces to prevent it from passing. So this encouraging poll is a double-edged sword: While it reveals the initiative to be enormously popular in Massachusetts, it will also motivate prohibitionist opponents to an even greater degree.
Would you please consider donating $10 or more to the campaign today, to help provide the resources to counter the coming attacks?
Thank you in advance for anything you can do to help the campaign capitalize on the groundswell of public support and fight back hard against those who want to continue jailing marijuana users.Â
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
Marijuana decriminalization initiative qualifies for Massachusetts' ballot!
[Courtesy of Marijuana Policy Project]Â
Dear friends:
The Massachusetts government has announced that it has certified a landmark marijuana decriminalization initiative for the November 4 ballot â which is the first time in history that an initiative to decriminalize marijuana possession will appear on any statewide ballot.*
When MPP polled Massachusetts voters in February 2007 on this question, we found that the initiative was supported by a 60% to 30% margin (with 10% undecided).
The initiative would reduce the penalties in Massachusetts so that the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana will be punishable only by a ticket and a $100 fine â similar to a speeding ticket â with no arrest, no jail or other penalties, no lawyer's fees, and no court appearances. Please visit http://www.sensiblemarijuanapolicy.org/ to learn more about the initiative.
MPP has been working closely with the Massachusetts campaign operation, the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (CSMP), to ensure the initiative's placement on the ballot. CSMP turned in more than 100,000 signatures last November and another 20,000 last month to qualify the initiative for the ballot.
Your help is now needed to wage a strong campaign between now and Election Day to ensure that this groundbreaking initiative passes. Would you please visit www.SensibleMarijuanaPolicy.org/donate.html to donate $10 or more today?
CSMP â led by campaign manager and long-time Massachusetts activist Whitney A. Taylor â is well-positioned to make history this November: In addition to completing both parts of the intensive signature drive, the campaign successfully lobbied the Massachusetts Legislature not to take any action that would harm the campaign, in addition to building a statewide coalition of opinion leaders who support the initiative and volunteers who will be working to pass the initiative.
Would you please visit www.SensibleMarijuanaPolicy.org/donate.html to make your most generous donation to the campaign today? I want to thank you in advance for anything you can do to help.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
* Seven out of seven statewide initiatives to end various aspects of marijuana prohibition have failed over the course of our nation's history â in California (1972), Oregon (1986), Alaska (2000 and 2004), Nevada (2002 and 2006), and Colorado (2006). At a minimum, all seven initiatives would have removed all penalties for marijuana possession. The Massachusetts initiative is polling much better than any of these seven initiatives because it seeks a more modest change â to treat marijuana possession like a speeding ticket, rather than imposing no penalty at all.
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #372: A Marijuana Decriminalization Initiative
Pagination
- First page
- Previous page
- …
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- …
- Next page
- Last page