DC
You Have 1 Week Left To Sign Our Petition!
The DC Cannabis Campaign has entered the home stretch in our circulating petition effort. So far we’ve collected over 45,000 signatures from DC voters, but we still haven’t reached our goal of 70,000 signatures. We hope you will help us reach that goal in the next week. So if you see a petition circulator in your neighborhood, please sign their petition!
Here are some answers to common questions people have asked the campaign’s petition circulators:
Q: I work for the government, can I sign the petition?
A: YES! Since the ballot initiative is non-partisan, you will not violate the Hatch Act as long as you sign when you are not working. This means if you see a petition circulator this evening while you are walking home after work, it’s your constitutional right to sign the petition. The campaign’s collected signatures from off-duty police officers, federal government employees with top secret security clearances, members of the military, congressional staffers, and even DC Councilmembers. As long as you are not “on the clock,” you should feel comfortable signing our circulating petition.
Q: If I sign this, am I going to be put on some government list?
A: NO! Your signature, address, printed name, date, and the ward you live in are not transcribed by any government agency. This personal information is required for the DC Board of Elections to verify that you are a qualified registered voter in the District of Columbia.
Q: Isn’t marijuana already legal?
A: NO! Unless you are one of the few DC medical marijuana patients, marijuana is still illegal to possess, consume, and cultivate in the District of Columbia. The DC marijuana decriminalization law does not take effect until mid-July and when it does, marijuana will still be illegal. Decriminalization simply removes the criminal penalties for marijuana, but if you are caught with marijuana the police will still take it from you, but instead of going to jail, you’ll get a $25 fine. Under Initiative 71, there will be no fine for possessing up to 2 ounces and you’ll be allowed grow a few plants at home.
Q: After marijuana is legalized, will I be able to walk down the street and smoke a joint?
A: NO! Although beer is legal, can you walk down the street drinking a beer? Nope. Our goal was to treat marijuana like alcohol, so with that treatment comes similar rules. You will be able to consume marijuana at home or at establishments that allow it- just like beer.
Q: I already signed the petition, can I sign it again?
A: NO! You only need to sign the petition once. If you really care about signing it again & again, maybe you should consider volunteering with the campaign so that you can get your friends and neighbors to sign.
Q: Now that I signed, what’s next?
A: The campaign will be turning in all the circulating petitions on Monday, July 7. The DC Board of Elections will review the circulating petitions to ensure that the campaign reached the signature threshold. Once the petitions are verified, ballot initiative #71 will be placed on the November 4 general election ballot and you will be given the option of voting YES or NO. We hope you vote YES!
Show Your Cannabis Pride with the DC Cannabis Campaign!
Join the DC Cannabis Campaign at the Pride Parade & Pride Festival!
On Saturday, June 7, campaign circulators are planning to line the Pride Parade route to collect signatures. If you are interested in helping out, please email Volunteer@DCMJ.org and include the number on the map above of where you’d like to be during the parade.
On Sunday, June 8, campaign circulators will be at Booth B429 at the Pride Festival, near the intersection of 4th St. NW and Pennsylvania Ave, from 12pm to 7pm. If you are interested in helping out at the Festival, please email Volunteer@DCMJ.org.
If you haven’t volunteered with the campaign yet and would like to collect signatures, you’ll need to come by the campaign HQ at 2448 Massachusetts Ave. NW and register with the campaign. Please bring your DC ID to provide proof that you are DC resident. If you are not a DC resident and would like to volunteer with the campaign, you need to stop by the DC Board of Elections (441 4th St. NW, Room 250N) to fill out a non-resident circulator form and bring the yellow carbon copy to the campaign HQ.
This weekend is going to be a lot of fun, so come and join us as we show off our cannabis pride!
It’s time to come out of the cannabis closet!
DCist: Marijuana Activists Hoping D.C. Won’t Leave Legalization Effort High And Dry
“I have to say, I’m a little nervous,” Adam Eidinger admits. “Based on the stack I saw downstairs, that’s under 2,000 signatures.” It’s Memorial Day and Eidinger, the chairman of the D.C. Cannabis Campaign, is fretting over the amount of signatures his petitioners have turned in for the week. His goal is to have at least 10,000 signatures by day’s end in order to be on pace with the July 7th deadline to collect at least 22,373.
For the past several years, Eidinger and what’s now known as the Cannabis Campaign have been working diligently to get marijuana legalized in the District of Columbia. In January, they introduced a ballot initiative to legalize the possession and home cultivation of small amounts of marijuana. After some delay from the Board of Elections, the ballot initiative was approved and the group started collecting signatures on April 23, several months after they hoped to begin.
Click here to continue reading…
SOURCE: Matt Cohen, DCist.com
Super Sunday Signature Gathering Blitz
On Sunday, June 1st, at 1 pm, the DC Cannabis Campaign will join DC Councilmember David Grosso at Stanton Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood for some old-fashioned, door-to-door canvasing.
The plan is to have a brief rally at 1pm, then break up into small teams for some old fashioned door knocking to collect as many valid signatures as possible! We will have walk sheets to maximize the effort.
After we finish our signature collection blitz, we’ll regroup at 5pm at the DC Cannabis Campaign HQ at 2448 Massachusetts Ave. NW for some well-deserved pizza and organic snacks.
::THE PLAN::
8am to 12pm – Famers Markets across the city
1pm – RALLY in Stanton Park followed by door-knocking
5pm to 7pm – Pizza Party at DC Cannabis Campaign HQ
Click Here to RSVP on Facebook
Questions? Call 202-733-4640 or email Volunteer@DCMJ.org
Thank you to everyone who volunteered!
A big thank goes to Councilmembers Grosso & Wells who took time out from their busy schedules to speak at our short rally!!
Here’s a short video that was produced on June 1:
NBC Washington: Campaign to Legalize Home Marijuana in D.C. Hits Hurdles
Source: Tom Sherwood, NBC Washington
Also Read:
Washington City Paper: Don’t Bogart that Ballot, Dude*
* The DC Cannabis Campaign does not want people to think Adam Eidinger’s comment at the end of the article is reflective of everyone working on the campaign. He has apologized for his remarks.
What are you waiting for?
Volunteer with the DC Cannabis Campaign!
Send an email to Volunteer@DCMJ.org
WJLA: New petition aims to legalize pot in D.C.
Formulation of the short title, summary statement, and legislative text for Initiative No. 71, the “Legalization of Possession of Marijuana for Personal Use Act of 2014.”
On Friday, April 5, 2014, the DC Board of Elections published their formulation of the short title, summary statement, and legislative text for Initiative No. 71, the “Legalization of Possession of Marijuana for Personal Use Act of 2014.” Up next, the campaign will soon receive petitions that will need to be signed by nearly 25,000 registered DC voters in order to be on general election ballot on November 4.
You can download the official ballot initiative text here, here, or read it online here.
Please volunteer & donate to the campaign!
DC Board of Elections Approves Ballot Initiative Language
Today we received word from the DC Board of Elections that our ballot initiative has been approved!
SO WHAT IS NEXT? According to Section 1002 of the DC Elections Laws, the Board of Elections now has up to 20 calendar days to create a summary of the initiative, a short title of the initiative, and amend the initiative to conform to any laws that were passed since we submitted the initiative back in January. Once completed, the Board of Elections has 5 more days to notify the DC Cannabis Campaign of any changes and then submit the finalized ballot initiative to the DC Register for publication. Finally, once published in the DC Register, the public has 10 days to challenge the summary, short title, or the legislative form of the ballot initiative. After the expiration of the challenge period, the Board of Elections will issue the DC Cannabis Campaign the nominating petitions, and we’ll have until July 7 to collect more than 25,000 valid signatures from DC voters.
We hope the Board of Elections will work quickly to finalize the ballot initiative so we can start collecting signatures as soon as possible!
Here’s the approval letter from the DC Board of Elections:
Washington Post: Advocates press for marijuana legalization measure on D.C. ballot
The District should set aside the warnings of its attorney general and let voters decide whether they want to legalize marijuana possession in the nation’s capital, advocates for the measure argued Tuesday before the D.C. Board of Elections.
The band of marijuana advocates is seeking to make the District one of the first East Coast cities to legalize marijuana possession. If it successfully gets the measure on the November ballot, legalization has a strong chance of being approved, according to a recent Washington Post poll, and it could hasten the arrival in Washington of a debate that has simmered mostly in Western states.
SOURCE: Aaron C. Davis, Washington Post
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