HAILEY TO VOTE ON POT INITIATIVES AGAIN

Same 4 Ballot Measures Were Considered Last November

As Hailey officials prepare to battle about marijuana in court, the
city's electorate prepares to go to the polls to vote once again on
four pro-pot initiatives.

The latest round in the city's ongoing cannabis dispute will be
settled Tuesday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. when the same initiatives
voted upon last November will once again be put to the ballot-booth
test.

Three passed last time and one failed. Approved were initiatives to
legalize medical use of marijuana, to legalize use of industrial hemp
and to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority for the
Hailey Police Department.

Not approved was an initiative to require the city to tax and
regulate distribution and use of the drug.

So why a second vote?

"Cause I knew that the city would pull something like this," said
Ryan Davidson, a former Bellevue resident and the man who got the
initiatives on the ballot. He is chairman of The Liberty Lobby of
Idaho and is often referred to simply as "the pot guy."

Davidson, who now lives in Garden City, was referring to the lawsuit
that the mayor, the police chief and a city councilman filed against
the city in Blaine County 5th District Court to have the previously
approved initiatives declared illegal.

Davidson described the new vote as "kind of an insurance
policy."

"If I hadn't put them on the ballot again, they probably would have
killed them all by now," he said. "It makes it politically less
viable for them to do something if they pass twice."

The marijuana issue has been relatively quiet as of late in Hailey,
with no pro or con groups surfacing publicly to campaign.

Davidson himself has been busy with the Ron Paul presidential
campaign in Boise and hasn't had a lot of time to spend on the pot
issue. He's hopeful that at least the same three voter-approved
initiatives will be approved once again.

"I'd think it's going to be close to the same percentages as last
time," he said. "If all four are approved, that would be great."

Last November, 1,288 voters, about 37 percent of the city's
registered electorate, showed up at the polls.

The medical marijuana and industrial hemp initiatives were approved
by about 53 percent of voters. About 51 percent of the voters
approved the lowest-police-priority initiative, while the regulation
and taxation measure failed with only 47 percent voter approval.

Following is a brief summary of the initiatives. The complete text
can be found at Hailey City Hall or on the city's Web site at
www.haileycityhall.org.

- - The Hailey Cannabis Regulation and Revenue Ordinance would require
the city to regulate sales and use of cannabis, a scientific name for
marijuana, and would allow it to tax the substance.

- - Davidson considers this the most important of the four initiatives.
It doesn't explicitly say that marijuana would be legal in the city,
but establishes a framework to come up with the details. The
framework would be created by a Community Oversight Committee, which
would be allowed to deliberate for a year before finalizing
legalization specifics.

This and other initiatives would require the city to lobby other
levels of government for reform of marijuana laws.

- - The Hailey Medical Marijuana Act would legalize medical use of
marijuana. Details of legalization would be worked out by the
Community Oversight Committee.

- - The Hailey Lowest Police Priority Act would make investigation of
adult marijuana use the city's lowest law-enforcement priority.
Davidson thinks this one has the greatest chance of approval.

- - The Hailey Industrial Hemp Act would legalize industrial use of
hemp, a different variety of the cannabis plant not usable by
marijuana smokers since it's low on THC, the chemical that induces a
high.

Pot Vote

The polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 27. Hailey
voters can cast their ballots on the marijuana initiatives in Room
903 at the Community Campus (the old high school) on Fox Acres Road.