PROPONENTS SAY THEY HAVE SIGNATURES TO PUT POT LEGALIZATION ON BALLOT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Proponents of a ballot measure that would legalize
marijuana in California said they have collected enough signatures to
qualify the initiative for the state's November 2010 ballot.

The measure's supporters said they have collected 650,000 signatures,
exceeding the 433,971 required for the ballot.

"Today we're declaring an overwhelming victory in this important
first stage of taxing and regulating cannabis," said proponent
Richard Lee in prepared remarks. He runs an Oakland, Calif., school
that teaches people to be pot entrepreneurs.

Law-enforcement groups will oppose the measure, said John Lovell, a
lobbyist for California police associations. Mr. Lovell said he
expected the initiative to make the ballot, but he said it would be
easily defeated. "At the end of the day, I think voters' good sense
will prevail."

The initiative would legalize marijuana possession for adults 21 and
older. It would also allow local governments to tax and regulate the
drug's sales. One of the supporter's main arguments is that taxing
pot could generate more than $1 billion a year for California, which
is projected to face annual $20 billion budget shortfalls until at
least June 2015.

An April Field Poll found that 56% of Californians supported
legalizing and taxing marijuana as a way to reduce the state's budget
deficit. A November Capitol Weekly poll that asked if marijuana
should be legalized, without referencing the state's fiscal woes,
found that 38% of Californians supported legalization, versus 52% again.

Thad Kousser, a Stanford University political-science professor, said
polls taken before the language of a ballot measure has been set tend
to be unreliable. But he believes the measure faces challenges,
including the possibility that the mood of voters in 2010 will be
much less liberal than in 2008.

"It's not impossible, but it's very hard to (campaign) against cops
and prosecutors, because people trust cops and prosecutors in
California," Mr. Kousser said.

California's Secretary of State must certify signatures gathered by
proponents of a measure before placing it on the ballot, a process
that can eliminate some signatures found to be invalid. Supporters of
the marijuana-legalization measure said they plan to gather even more
signatures before submitting them in January.