Six Sates To Decide On Marijuana Measures On Election Day : NORML News

Ernst

Well-Known Member
Historic Propositions to Legalize Personal Use Amounts of Cannabis For All Adults Hold Double Digit Leads In Colorado and Washington
Washington, DC: Millions of voters will decide on Election Day in favor of ballot measures to legalize and regulate the use of cannabis by adults. Voters in three states - Colorado, Oregon, and Washington - will decide on statewide ballot measures to legalize the possession and distribution of cannabis for those over 21 years of age. Voters in three additional states - Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Montana - will decide on measures to allow for the therapeutic use of cannabis by patients with qualifying ailments. In Michigan, voters in four cities - totaling over a million people - will decide on municipal measures to legalize or depenalize the adult use of cannabis.
Ballot measures in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington hold double digit leads, according to the latest statewide polls.
Since 1996, 17 states have enacted legislation to allow for the limited possession of cannabis when a physician authorizes such use. In ten of those states, voters enacted medical cannabis legislation via the statewide initiative process. To date, no statewide proposal to remove criminal and civil penalties for the broader, personal possession and use of marijuana by adults has succeeded at the ballot box.
"Cannabis prohibition financially burdens taxpayers, encroaches upon civil liberties, engenders disrespect for the law, impedes upon legitimate scientific research into the plant's medicinal properties, and disproportionately impacts communities of color," said Paul Armentano, NORML's Deputy Director. "For these reasons, a majority of Americans are now in favor ending marijuana prohibition and replacing it with a legal, pragmatic regulatory framework. We expect that in several states, a majority of voters will express this preference at the ballot box on Election Day."
A summary of this year's more prominent statewide and local ballot measures appears below.
ARKANSAS: Voters will decide on Measure 5, The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act of 2012, which allows authorized patients to possess up to two and one-half ounces of cannabis for various qualifying medical conditions, including cancer, Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The measure also allows state regulators to establish not-for-profit facilities to produce and dispense cannabis to approved patients. Individual patients will also be permitted to privately cultivate limited amounts of cannabis (up to six flowering plants) if they reside further than five miles from a state-authorized dispensary.
COLORADO: Voters will decide on Amendment 64, which allows for the legal possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and/or the cultivation of up to six cannabis plants by those persons age 21 and over. Longer-term, the measure seeks to establish regulations governing the commercial production and distribution of marijuana by licensed retailers. Voters in the state approve of the measure by a margin of 53 percent to 43 percent, according to the latest Public Policy Polling survey.
MASSACHUSETTS: Voters will decide on Question 3, which eliminates statewide criminal and civil penalties related to the possession and use of up to a 60-day supply of cannabis by qualified patients. It would also require the state to create and regulate up to 35 facilities to produce and dispense cannabis to approved patients. Individual patients will also be permitted to privately cultivate limited amounts of cannabis if they are unable to access a state-authorized dispensary. Voters in the state approve the measure by a margin of 55 percent to 36 percent, according to the latest Suffolk University poll.
MICHIGAN: Voters in four cities - totaling over a million people - will also decide on Tuesday whether to legalize or depenalize the adult use of cannabis. Voters in Detroit will decide on Proposal M, which removes criminal penalties pertaining to the possession on private property of up to one ounce of marijuana by adults over age 21. In Flint, voters will decide on a citizens' initiative to amend the city code so that the possession on private property of up to one ounce of marijuana or cannabis paraphernalia by those age 19 or older is no longer a criminal offense. Grand Rapids voters will act on Proposal 2, which seeks to allow local law enforcement the discretion to ticket first-time marijuana offenders with a civil citation, punishable by a $25 fine and no criminal record. In Ypsilanti, voters will decide on a proposal to make the local enforcement of marijuana possession offenses the city's lowest law enforcement priority.
MONTANA: Voters will decide on Initiative Referendum 124. A 'no' vote on IR-124 would repeal newly enacted restrictions to the state's 2004 voter-approved medical marijuana law.
OREGON: Voters will decide on Measure 80, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, which provides for the state-licensed production and retail sale of cannabis to adults. The measure does not impose state-licensing or taxation requirements upon those who wish to cultivate cannabis for non-commercial purposes.
WASHINGTON: Voters will decide on I-502, which regulates the production and sale of limited amounts of marijuana for adults. The measure also removes criminal penalties specific to the adult possession of up to one ounce of cannabis for personal use. Voters in the state back the measure by a margin of 56 percent to 37 percent, according to the latest KING 5 poll.
What will happen..

We are down to 5 days...
 

BrownBagSB

Active Member
wow, hmm I dont know, call me crazy, but that might be the birth of cannabis legalization. I would think once there a state the offers legalization, that state will flood with people. States not wanting to lose people ( aka taxpayer dollars) will soon follow the lead. We live in a very interesting time indeed.
 

no clue

Well-Known Member
You bet. More important in many ways than the Presidential election! Thanks for the info on this.
 

borbor

Well-Known Member
honestly, it's been hard to think of much else other than amendment 64 here in Colorado. Enough to the point I started lurking here after over a year, first post back =)

Does anybody have any guesses as to post "legalization" prices in CO?
my honest guess-without any stores we can buy it at or anything like that, after ONE YEAR maybe we'll see 1.5 grams or half 8ths going for 10 bucks?

I'm pretty sure 64 will pass, so the rest of this post will be assuming it will for the sake of my comments and questions.
I'm guessing that IF the feds come down on it, the result would basically be that we don't get cannashops like we do liquor stores. I know the feds couldn't possibly go after everybody who would be growing should this pass. I've started getting a setup ready, as have most of my friends and coworkers. My whole family plans on growing. otherwise, unless your town bans it we have one or two years of growing our own and supplementing our stashes with friends' who've grown higher weights than they can smoke with 6 plants.

my three big questions are;
what's it gonna look like in the store? I'm guessing it's gonna be close to our dispensary model. I wanna know from you guys-do you think it's gonna be closer to the dispensary model or to the liquor store model?
basically, will I need to identify myself before going to the back room full of herb? After that, do I just bring my product up to the counter for checkout? or do I point at products behind the counter or in glass cases and ask for them?

how many dispensaries do you think I might be allowed to walk into and buy cannabis from as a citizen without a med card?

also, what do you think of my assumptions? including my assumption the amendment passes, Obeezy gets reelected, Obeezy doesn't screw up what his constituents elect to pass, prices on the black market post 64? prices in the stores? What happens if it doesn't pass? What happens if it does pass and Obama isn't reelected? What happens if it passes and Romney is elected? If either one crack down, what would that look like? would I still be allowed to grow, but not buy at a store, or vice versa, or both or neither?

There are a lot of questions left here.
 

beuffer420

Well-Known Member
Behold the evolution of cannabis! Let's keep breaking ground and paving the path for a better America!
 

Ernst

Well-Known Member
From what I have read Colorado has the best chance...

Richard Lee just asked me for money to help with it but I'm not Rich Uncle Pennybags at this time.

All I can say is in California Weed is the unofficial State Flower and the Official largest cash crop of the State.

The war here continues with bans of outdoor growing. So if they can't stop it they don't want to see or smell it.

We will be nit picking down to the death of the children born today about cannabis. Another 100 years and I think we will "flush" the political crap out of society but we are still passing the turd of cannabis prohibition and the Schedule 1 status has us constipated. I need to find out how that review went..
 

Ernst

Well-Known Member
@ borbor

The Federal Government has the right to regulate interstate and international commerce as well as a hell of a lot of other things.

We can only weaken the beast that is cannabis prohibition but we can weaken it!

So Colorado passes hey it's okay with me.. It's a queer feeling for the Feds.
 

iHarbinger

Member
I dream of the day I can grow my cannabis next to my tomatoes, beans, and sunflowers...

A Joesph Smith America would likely see against this... But then so would Bronco Bamma.

Gary! Gary! Gary!
 

borbor

Well-Known Member
I'm really shocked this thread isn't way more poppin' right now. Seriously, I got less than 24 hours before it's confirmed that I'm gonna be allowed to smoke and grow, and rollitup.org doesn't give a crap? We're on the very edge of a legalization avalanche in the next 4-6 years and one of the largest sites on the web centered around the propagation, usage, and medical value of cannabis doesn't really have anybody all over its forum, excited as hell, maybe not because they live here or Washington, but excited for us, excited to visit our states and enjoy the freedoms soon to follow within their own states, or excited that finally a battle has begun in the public eye. You've got two states, about 12 million people looking at almost (admittedly not full) legalization (because of the regulations) and nobody that posts here has anything they wanna say about how we're kinda sitting, right here at this moment in space and time, looking at a very historic moment, which will be decided over a period of a few hours, nothing in comparison to the amount of time the country has existed, that will determine if a regular person with a normal job who contributes to society can come home at the end of 12 hour shift with no breaks like mine and not be worried that someone might smell that he lit up a joint to relax? Everybody in Colorado and Washington are about to be allowed to grow 6 plants and nobody here gives a crap? this affects the weed market for every state in the US...
 
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