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Measure Z-style reforms set to blossom around the state PDF Print E-mail
Written by Mikki Norris   
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 Image

    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.
 
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