According to the group Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the Colorado Secretary of State announced Friday the group was 2,500 signatures short of qualifying the marijuana legalization measure for the 2012 ballot. Here are the details.
* The group has until Feb. 15 to collect the required amount of signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. Following the Secretary of State's announcement, the group expressed confidence in its ability to collect the signatures. An average of 3,000 signatures a week were collected in the first six months of the petition drive.
* Secretary of State Scott Gessler said in mid-January the proposed measure would require a line-by-line review of the 163,598 signatures that were submitted on Jan. 4. A line-by-line review is statutorily required if a random sampling of 5 percent of the number of valid signatures falls between 90 percent and 100 percent of the signatures needed. The number of valid signatures from the 8,180 randomly sampled was 4,436, which created a presumed valid signatures percentage of 103.4 of the 86,105 needed for placement on the ballot. The number of valid signatures produced by the line-by-line review was just under the number needed.
* Initiative 30, concerning the "Use and Regulation of Marijuana" and also referred to as the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012, would make personal use, possession and limited home-growing of marijuana legal in Colorado for adults 21 years of age and older. It would also allow for the cultivation, processing and sale of hemp. The initiative would amend the state constitution by setting up a process by which marijuana could be regulated and taxed as alcohol is. The initiative would direct the Department of Revenue to regulate cultivation and production and to require the general assembly to enact an excise tax of up to 15 percent on the wholesale sale of non-medical marijuana, which would be applied at the point of transfer from the cultivation facility to a retail store or product manufacturer.
* The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol campaign is supported by a coalition that includes marijuana policy reform organizations such as Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation and Sensible Colorado. The coalition is also represented by the ACLU of Colorado, the Marijuana Policy Project and the Drug Policy Alliance, as well as the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
