POT LEGALIZATION BALLOT MEASURE HITS THE STREETS

SAN FRANCISCO -- Limited personal marijuana possession and cultivation
would become legal, and the drug's commercial regulation and taxation
would become an option, under a proposed ballot measure now being
circulated for petition signatures.

Oakland marijuana activists Jeff Jones and Richard Lee, proponents of
"The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010," kicked off their
petition drive Friday with a news conference at the national
convention of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws, or NORML.

The measure would legalize personal possession of up to an ounce of
cannabis, and would permit up to 25 square feet of cultivation per
home. It also would let local governments decide whether to allow,
regulate and tax commercial sales, a system somewhat like how alcohol
is or isn't sold in "wet" and "dry" counties in some states.

Lee, president of the Oaksterdam University cannabis training college,
said he always has believed cannabis is safer than alcohol and that
it's unfair and hypocritical to prohibit its use. Jones, executive
director of the Patient ID Center -- formerly called the Oakland
Cannabis Buyers Cooperative -- said the measure would stiffen penalties
for those providing cannabis to minors while shoring up legal access
for medical users as well as recreational users.

Federal law still bans all marijuana possession, cultivation and use,
but Jones said he believes the federal government wouldn't rush in to
shut down commercial marijuana sales regulated by local governments
under this measure because the Obama administration already has said
it won't bust medical pot operations that conform with state law. Most
federal raids these days are requested by local authorities anyway, he
said, and a local government that regulates and taxes the drug's sales
surely wouldn't ask federal agents to come bust sellers for it.

Oakland mayoral candidate and former state Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata was scheduled to attend Friday's news conference and voice
his support, but was unable to attend because of "unforeseen
circumstances of a personal nature," said Dale Clare, executive
chancellor of Oaksterdam University. Perata did send a statement that
Clare read to reporters, noting the budget crisis and down economy
have left the state, counties and cities unable to pay for schools,
universities, health care, roads, environmental protection and other
key services.

"In this time of economic uncertainty, it's time we thought outside
the box, and brought in revenue we need to restore the California
dream," Clare read from Perata's statement.

Perata's support of the measure could be a shrewd electoral move:
About 80 percent of Oakland voters casting ballots in a July special
election approved a tax on cannabis businesses.

That applies to Oakland's four city-licensed medical marijuana
dispensaries for now; Jones and Lee said if their measure passes and
Oakland so chooses, the tax could apply to future recreational
marijuana businesses, too.

The proponents must collect signatures of 433,971 registered voters by
Feb. 18 in order to qualify the measure for the November 2010 ballot.
Lee said they've hired the Masterson and Wright petition drive
management firm, expecting to spend about $1 per signature.

"We've already raised a good portion of the amount we need," Lee
said.

Jones said a legislative bill to legalize and tax marijuana, now being
revamped by author Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, could
become "enabling legislation" that fills in details of a state
regulatory scheme allowed under this measure.

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said his organization hasn't
endorsed the Jones-Lee measure over other marijuana legalization
measures that might appear on the same ballot next year, but he
believes there's "a genuine zeitgeist in the United States" to
legalize the drug once and for all.

"As usual," he said, "California is leading the way on an important
social issue."