The ‘Campaign to Regulate Marijuana’ in Alaska looks like they have more than enough signatures to qualify a marijuana legalization initiative for the 2014 election. Alaska’s state election laws require 31,169 valid signatures to qualify an initiative for the ballot. The Alaska legalization campaign has 44,845 signatures according a media report out of Alaska.
There’s of course still the verification process, which can be as low as 50% sometimes. But the deadline for the final signature turn-ins is not until January 21, so there’s still time to submit even more signatures. With so much momentum in Alaska, I’d expect out of state money to start rolling in at an increasing rate. If they don’t have the required valid signatures on hand yet, they should be the end of the deadline.
As I’ve said many times before, I think Alaska, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Maine have stellar chances for legalizing marijuana during 2014. Other states sound like their campaigns are either waiting until 2016, or in the case of California, have a lot of different initiatives gathering signatures. I hope California can get behind one solid effort. Only time will tell.
To read the full initiative, go to this link here. A survey by Public Policy Polling found that 54 percent of Alaskans would support legalizing marijuana. The poll found the strongest support among voters ages 18 to 34, at 62 percent, and the lowest among voters 65 and older, at 43 percent. To donate to the campaign, go to this link here.
