Initiatives Filed with the Secretary of State
By John Payne
Last Tuesday, December 3, Show-Me Cannabis Regulation board chairman Dan Viets filed ten different drafts of an initiative to legalize, tax, and regulate cannabis in 2014 with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office. You can read all those drafts (they are numbers 68 through 77) and submit comments about them to the Secretary of State’s office on this website from now until December 19.
Then, sometime in January most likely, we will receive ballot language back for all the drafts, and we will conduct polling to determine which, if any, of them are politically viable in 2014. If one of our drafts polls near 60 percent or more among likely 2014 voters, we will likely begin collecting signatures to put the measure on the ballot next November.
This is very exciting, but I want to reiterate that we will only pursue a campaign if the polling research indicates that we would very likely win on Election Day. Stay tuned to this newsletter for more developments.
Finally, polling does not come cheaply. It will cost over $30,000 to conduct a thorough poll, so please contribute now to help cover that expense!
Saint Joseph Town Hall on Wednesday, Poplar Bluff on Thursday
By John Payne
Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. Show-Me Cannabis Regulation board member Amber Langston, former Johnson County, Kansas, assistant prosecutor Brian Leininger, and I will host a town hall meeting at the East Hills Public Library at 502 N. Woodbine Road in Saint Joseph. Join that event page here.
On Thursday at 6:30 p.m., we will hold our Poplar Bluff Town Hall in the Tinnin Center at Three Rivers College. Former medical marijuana patient Daryl Bertrand, local criminal defense attorney Dan Moore, Dr. Gil Mobley, and I will all speak on the panel. Finally, Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley tells me that, unless his law enforcement duties prevent him from attending, he will participate on the panel to defend cannabis prohibition! Invite your friends here!
And don’t forget about my debate with President of the Missouri Narcotics Officer’s Association Jason Grellner in Saint Louis on December 18! The debate will take place at the Ethical Society of Saint Louis, located at 9001 Clayton Road, 63117 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., and the event page is here.
Also included in this newsletter: “The Kansas City Star Catches Reefer Madness” by John Payne.
