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Voter petition drives kickoff California Cities Campaign PDF Print E-mail
Written by Mikki Norris   
Petition drives have begun in four California cities to place citizen initiatives on local ballots that make adult marijuana offenses law enforcement’s lowest priority. Volunteers are needed in each city to reach the required number of signatures in time.

Inspired by Oakland’s Measure Z ballot victory in 2004 and Seattle’s I-75 in 2003, activists have formed committees to run initiatives in Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, West Hollywood, and Santa Monica.

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Ethan Kravitz, Heather Poet and Lauren Vasquez led an enthusiastic group discussion in Santa Barbara. Photo by Chris Conrad
Working as a consultant to the California Cities Campaign, I have been traveling up and down the state working with these local committees, and recently attended the recent petition drive kickoff events in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. My husband, Chris Conrad, the 1996 Prop. 215 petition volunteer coordinator who also helped Oakland’s 2004 Measure Z campaign, came along to train volunteers to collect valid signatures.

This is a strategy of “think globally: act locally.” Each city is part of a larger effort to gain support and build momentum around the state, with an eye towards getting reform legislation or even a statewide voter initiative in 2008 or soon thereafter.

Sensible Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is vital to the effort, as a city that is relatively conservative; a victory there would signal a mandate to reform state marijuana laws. Sensible Santa Barbara (SSB) is the committee running an initiative in that city. It held a very successful kickoff on Feb. 26 at the downtown Library. The event introduced the initiative and bought in volunteers to help collect petition signatures for the drive. Over 50 people attended; many enthusiastically signed up to help gather signatures to qualify the initiative for the November 2006 ballot.

Ethan Krawitz, SSB chair and UCSB NORML co-chair, facilitated and was joined on a panel by SSB committee members Heather Poet and Lauren Vasquez.

They gave background on the initiative process and explained that the initiative calls for Santa Barbara city law enforcement to officially treat marijuana possession and use by adults as a less serious offense than all other crimes. It creates a community oversight committee to ensure speedy implementation and track police arrests, prosecutions, incarcerations and property seizures. It requires the city clerk to transmit notification to state and federal representatives that the city has de-prioritized marijuana and wants other governmental bodies to make similar changes.

Santa Cruz Citizens

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Andrea Tischler explained how to register a new voter to sign a city ballot petition in Santa Cruz.
The Santa Cruz Initiative, like West Hollywood’s, makes all marijuana offenses law enforcement’s lowest priority, with the exception of sales and distribution to minors, offenses committed on public property, and driving under the influence. This initiative also creates a community oversight committee, and takes notification of its policy statement to state and federal representative a bit further. If passed, a letter generated by the city clerk would state “The citizens of the city of Santa Cruz have passed an initiative to deprioritize marijuana offenses and request that the federal and California state governments take immediate steps to tax and regulate marijuana use, cultivation, and distribution and to authorize state and local communities to do the same.” It would make it official city policy that it supports marijuana legalization.

Santa Cruz Citizens for Sensible Marijuana Policy held its volunteer kickoff event March 11 at the Louden Nelson Community Center. Interest has been generated around the initiative effort following an article on the Bay City News Wire, a news outlet servicing more than 150 radio, television and newspaper subscribers. Santa Cruz Citizens chair Andrea Tishcler, owner of the medical-cannabis friendly Compassion Flower Inn, has been inundated with media requests and interviews.

"There is great opposition to the way the Drug War is being done," Tischler said. "Many believe the drug war is a failure and those who use marijuana should not be criminalized. The money they spend investigating marijuana crimes is money misspent," she said. Initiative proponent and campaign spokesperson Theodora Kerry added, “If police work is about making the public safer, we really feel whether or not adults are using marijuana privately in their homes does not affect public safety.”
 
A large student population resides at UC Santa Cruz, and a volunteer coordinator came out to the kickoff to work on generating signatures on campus. With the turnover in student housing every year, student voters need to fill out a new registration form to keep their status current.

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Mikki Norris speaks at the Santa Cruz kickoff.
Santa Cruz petitioners have until April 20 to collect and submit their signatures. The other petition drives have until mid-May to complete gathering their signatures. Rainy weather conditions in February and March hampered petitioning efforts throughout the state, as fewer people are out and about to sign petitions. Organizers are hoping for better weather to pick up greater numbers of signatures. Ten to 15 percent of registered city voters must sign petitions to qualify for the ballot, a serious project.

The petitioning firm of Ken Masterton is also collecting signatures for the various local efforts.

Updates on the West Hollywood and Santa Monica kickoff events will appear in the next issue of the Oaksterdam News. The West Hollywood City Council has also unanimously voted to direct City Attorney Mike Jenkins to draft an ordinance that makes marijuana enforcement low priority.

For more information on the California Cities Campaigns initiatives and local efforts, please check the web sites: www.taxandregulate.org and www.sensiblesantabarbara.com

    Volunteers: Please contact the local committees to get involved and collect signatures:

 Sensible Santa Barbara: 805-698-5822. Contact: Ethan Krawitz, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Santa Cruz Citizens for Sensible Marijuana Policy: 831-466-0420. Contact: Andrea Tischler. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

West Hollywood Civil Liberties Alliance: 213-804-6121. Contact: Ngaoi Bealum. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Santa Monicans for Sensible Marijuana Policy: Contact: Kelsey Nunez. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

*     Mikki Norris is a board member of Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance and a consultant to the California Cities Campaign, www.taxandregulate.org.

 
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