|
Measure Z-style reforms set to blossom around the state |
|
|
|
|
Written by Mikki Norris
|
|
Wednesday, 08 February 2006 |
Inspired by the success of Oakland’s Measure Z campaign, activists in
four other California cities have formed local committees to run
similar initiatives on the November 2006 ballot.
The Next Generation (TNG), the Oakland-based
political consulting group that ran the Measure Z campaign, is
overseeing the California Cities project. They analyzed the
demographics and voting records of various areas in the state, and
looked particularly to areas where activists have expressed an interest
in running Z-style initiatives.
As a result, local activists formed exploratory
committees in Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, West Hollywood, Santa Monica,
and San Francisco. Polls were conducted to further determine the
feasibility of running and winning cannabis reform initiatives in each
of these cities.
According to the polls, voters in all of these
cities were overwhelmingly receptive to making cannabis offenses law
enforcement’s lowest priority, and a majority were interested in also
legalizing, taxing and regulating cannabis for adults. Communities in
the southern part of the state were of special interest to broaden
support for future statewide reform efforts.
The next step was for the committees to draft initiatives to reflect
the sensibilities and political climate of each area. Safeguards are
built into the initiative language to avoid the bureaucratic
foot-dragging that has plagued Oakland’s implementation.
“We made sure that these initiatives had teeth, and
are not simply symbolic,” said a campaign spokesperson. “We are
especially excited to help activists advance cannabis reform in
Southern California, It is vital that the southern part of the state
gets on board and stop criminalizing good, productive members of
society who happen to be cannabis consumers, if we ever want to make
changes to our state marijuana laws – which, of course, we do.”
“We made sure these initiatives had teeth.”
Each measure includes an oversight committee that is
responsible for its implementation with twice-yearly written reports.
They include substantive and timely reporting requirements to make sure
that the police comply with the voters’ intent to stop cannabis arrests
and prosecutions and to enable local law enforcement to concentrate
their resources fighting violent and serious crime.
Measures reflect localities 
Activists in two Southern California communities,
Sensible Santa Barbara and Santa Monicans for Sensible Marijuana
Policy, drafted initiatives similar to I-75, the highly successful
Sensible Seattle initiative passed in 2003 that deprioritized personal,
adult cannabis use.
The West Hollywood Civil Liberties Alliance
(WeHoCLA) filed an initiative that goes a bit further by making all
adult cannabis offenses law enforcement’s lowest priority. In addition,
it requires the city clerk to regularly send letters to all its state
and federal representatives and the US President, informing them that
the city of West Hollywood’s official policy is for deprioritizing
cannabis and that its voters support legalizing, taxing and regulating
cannabis for adults.
Santa Cruz Citizens for Sensible Marijuana Policy
filed an initiative that is very similar to West Hollywood’s.
The San Francisco committee decided against an
initiative and plans to work with members of the Board of Supervisors
on a cannabis reform ordinance that gives extra protection and rights
to all adult, cannabis consumers — not just patients. At a recent ASA
benefit where Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi was given an award for his work
on the SF medical marijuana dispensary ordinance, when asked if he was
“burned out” on the cannabis issue following his recent struggle,
Mirkarimi replied, “Never!” adding that, on this issue, he is
“tireless.”
Nuts and bolts of policy change
Once an initiative is filed in their respective
cities, city clerks offices have 15 days to look them over and issue
titles and summaries that will appear on the petitions. The petition
drives begin in February and will continue into April or May, depending
on the local deadlines. The Marijuana Policy Project has committed to
provide some financial backing for these efforts, but committees are
asking local constituents to also donate and raise funds for their
campaigns.
TNG is looking for people in other areas with
progressive and receptive city councils that might be interested in
local ordinances to deprioritize cannabis offenses. Sebastopol and
Arcata, which have “Green” city councils, are considered good
candidates for this kind of effort.
For more information, or to volunteer to collect
signatures in an area, please send an email to
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
* Norris is a board member of OCLA, the Oakland
Civil Liberties Alliance (the sponsor of Measure Z), and a consultant
for this project.
|
Mikki Norris |
| About the author: |
| Mikki Norris has been an activist for drug policy reform since 1989 when she formed the American Hemp Council along with her husband Chris Conrad. In subsequent years, they took several cross-country trips to educate the public on the many uses of hemp, and to network and strategize with activists and businesspeople on how to advance the movement. In 1993, she and Chris moved to Amsterdam to design exhibits for and curate the Hash Marijuana Hemp Museum, which they updated in 2000. As community action co-coordinator for Californians for Medical Rights, she helped organize petitioners to qualify the medical marijuana initiative (Prop. 215) for the 1996 ballot. |
| Read More >> | |
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 August 2006 )
|
The Men's Wearhouse George Zimmer
