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Marijuana advocates debate a new legalization effort
Prop. 19 lost support of defense attorneys and medical marijuana distributors; its
backers hope to write a legal pot initiative with wider appeal. All sides agree it'll be a
complicated endeavor.
By John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times
January 30, 2011
Reporting from Berkeley

The drive to put another marijuana legalization initiative on the California ballot took a
step forward Saturday when activists from across the state squeezed into a crowded
conference center here to launch the debate over writing the next ballot measure.
The campaign for Proposition 19, which lost 54% to 46% in November, wants to start
drafting a new initiative in the spring and to complete it by July, turning then to the
expensive and time-consuming task of building support and qualifying it for the
November 2012 ballot.
Saturday's conference, sponsored by the California chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, was aimed at reaching out to
marijuana legalization activists, medical marijuana growers and dispensary operators,
many of whom opposed the last measure.
"We knew there was a lot of dissatisfaction," said Dale Gieringer, the organization's
California director who organized the conference, the first in more than a decade. "A
lot of people felt excluded because the writing process of Proposition 19 was very
closed."
The initiative was spearheaded and financially backed by Richard Lee, a successful
Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur who made the key decisions on the legal
language. It drew opposition from some prominent defense lawyers who said it did
not go far enough to decriminalize marijuana, and from some operators of medical
marijuana dispensaries who worried that it would undercut their lucrative businesses
and lead to more bans on stores.
The initiative would have allowed adults 21 and older to possess and grow marijuana,
and it would have authorized cities and counties to pass ordinances to legalize sales.
"Truly, this is a planning exercise," Dale Sky Jones, the spokeswoman for the
Proposition 19 campaign, told the crowd at the David Brower Center near the
University of California campus. "We're here to hear you. This is the building
process."
The conference drew about 300 attendees, including Yamileth Bolanos, a dispensary
operator from Los Angeles. Like others in the business who came to the event, she
said she wants to be sure that medical marijuana is not undercut by a legalization
initiative. "We shouldn't be stomped on or used as a stepping stone to get to where
they want to go," she said.
Jones said medical marijuana patients are crucial to the success of any initiative
because they can reach out to voters to dispel myths about marijuana. "It's largely
going to be the messaging through the medical community and those that love them
that can put this over the top," she said.
The campaign intends to create a broad-based committee to oversee the next
initiative, replacing the singular role played by Lee, who did not attend the
conference. "It's not about him anymore. It's about the issue, which is what he
always wanted," Jones said.
Jones said the campaign has not yet named the committee because it is does not
want to create an early target for critics. "When you start planting your flag in the
ground, people find reasons not to stand under that flag," she said.
The state Legislature's two most marijuana-friendly lawmakers dropped in to tell
activists they will continue to press for changes in Sacramento. State Sen. Mark Leno
(D-San Francisco) noted that he introduced a bill last week to prevent employers
from firing most medical marijuana patients who test positive for the drug and
pledged to reintroduce a bill to allow California farmers to grow industrial hemp.
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) said that he would try again to move
his bill to legalize marijuana sales, but that he was also considering a piecemeal
approach.
Although Saturday's conference offered activists a chance to air their views, it also
underscored how difficult it will be to write a measure that pleases the diverse
community. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which
has played a major role in California's drug reform initiatives, warned that activists
were going to have to balance their principles with what will be possible to pass. "All I
can think is, God, this is complicated," he said.
Dennis Peron, who led the campaign to pass the medical marijuana initiative in 1996
and has become an irritant to legalization activists, said that activists should focus on
bringing medical marijuana to other states. Peron believes anyone who uses
marijuana is doing it for medical reasons, so anyone who wants to get it legally in
California already can. "We've got to do it for the other people, not just for ourselves.
These people are all about money," he said.
Jeff Jones, who was a co-proponent of Proposition 19 along with Lee, said he is
anticipating that the process of shaping the next initiative will be arduous and
heated. "I view the drafting phase as a little like the British Parliament, a lot of
screaming and yelling," he said.

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