Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Marijuana: Legalize 2012 initiative in final drafting stage, to be posted online soon - Denver News - The Latest Word

Marijuana: Legalize 2012 initiative in final drafting stage, to be posted online soon

Laura Kriho.
​We've been hearing a lot about the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012, whose petition passed the 130,000 signature mark last week and could be submitted to the state by year's end according to proponent Mason Tvert. But what about a rival measure, Legalize 2012? Laura Kriho, among its main backers, says it'll be reviewed by the public before officials take a look at it.

Kriho is a vocal critic of the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, which she sees as a sop to law enforcement rather than the sort of true legalization measure she envisions. Indeed, the Legalize 2012 forces formally objected to Regulate's name in a July action before the Colorado Title Board. In addition, Kriho argues that the guiding lights of the act -- including Tvert and Sensible Colorado's Brian Vicente -- should have shared the language of their proposal with the public prior to formalizing it. In response, the Regulate supporters say they did community outreach for months before settling on the text.

Whatever the case, Kriho says "we're almost done writing our initiative, and after we're done, we're going to put it up for comment" on the Legalize 2012 website. "We're not going to do what Mason and Brian did."

The timeline? "We hope to have it out before the holidays for comment from the public," she notes. Then, in early January, the initiative will be presented to the title board. She expects to gain approval in about a month's time. "Our goal is to hit the streets for signatures on February 6, six months before the petitions are due, and get them approved by the August deadline, ninety days before the November 6 election."

We'll let you know when the initiative is online.

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More from our Marijuana archive, from November 2010: "Photos: Colorado's Legalize 2012 marijuana campaign kicks off in Boulder."