CALIF. POT PROPONENTS GIRD FOR 2012

LOS ANGELES - Despite Proposition 19's loss at the polls this month,
marijuana-legalization advocates in California are already working on
their comeback plan for 2012 and are almost giddy about their prospects.

They see the election as a trial run that could lead to a campaign
with a better message, a tighter measure and more money.

Both the winning and losing sides say California's voters rejected
this specific initiative but remain open to legalizing the easily
obtainable drug.

The proponents have a huge head start compared with where they were
two years ago. At that time, regulating and taxing marijuana was the
dream of a handful of Oakland activists.

Now, the campaign has a broader base of supporters, including labor
and civil rights leaders. Big-money donors have shown a keen
interest. And the state's electorate and media have seriously debated
the issue.

In addition, the presidential election is expected to draw far more
young voters to the polls. If they had shown up Nov. 2, supporters
say, Proposition 19 might have come close to passing.

Even so, they also point out with amusement, legalization outpolled
Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina.

"The question about legalizing marijuana is no longer when, it's no
longer whether, it's how," said Ethan Nadelmann, the executive
director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a national advocacy group that
will play a pivotal role in any 2012 ballot measures in California
and elsewhere. "There's a really strong body of people who will be
ready to pull the lever in the future."

California voters rejected Proposition 19, 54 percent to 46 percent.
But a post-election survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner found they
favor legalization 49 percent to 41 percent, with 10 percent
uncertain. And 52 percent said that marijuana laws, like alcohol
prohibition, do more harm than good.

The consultants who ran the opposition campaign found that voters who
were undecided were susceptible to arguments for legalizing
marijuana. They also reacted negatively to "reefer madness" arguments
that pot was inherently dangerous or a gateway drug. "Our best
opportunity to beat it was on the merits of 19 itself," said Wayne
Johnson, the strategist for the No on 19 campaign. Bankrolling the campaign

A key issue for legalization supporters in 2012 will be to find the
money to run statewide television advertising. "The Yes campaign
always has the burden of proof. We have to make the case that things
should change," said Doug Linney, the strategist for the Yes on 19 campaign.

The campaign hoped to spend between $7 million and $15 million but
brought in about $4 million. More than $1.5 million came from Richard
Lee, the main proponent, who owns a medical marijuana dispensary,
nursery and trade school in Oakland.

A few wealthy businessmen and young Silicon Valley entrepreneurs
wrote sizable checks. "I think we found a lot of friends along the
way that we will want to include from the get-go this time," Linney said.

A few days after the vote, Nadelmann told a conference on marijuana
policy in Denver that the big donors who supported past measures
would step up if the polls looked favorable. "They want to be in this
to win," he said.

He noted that George Soros, the hedge-fund multibillionaire, donated
$1 million to help Proposition 19 to clearly indicate his support for
legalizing marijuana, and that Peter B. Lewis, a retired insurance
company executive, has decided to focus his philanthropy on marijuana reform.

Lewis, who donated more than $218,000 to pass Proposition 19, paid
for Greenberg Quinlan Rosner to poll California voters.

"Ballot measures are an option in 2012, but I can't speak to specific
strategy at this time," Lewis said in a statement.

The next campaign in California will also start with a base of support.

The measure was backed as a job-creation plan by the state leadership
of the Service Employees International Union and the United Food and
Commercial Workers, but the unions were focused intensely on the
races for statewide office.

The state NAACP and the Latino Voters League embraced Proposition 19
as a way to end a drug war in which blacks and Latinos are arrested
at much higher rates than whites, although the California exit poll
showed both groups voted against the measure. 'Poised to win'

The campaign had also counted on young voters. Voters under 25
supported Proposition 19 by two to one, but they did not turn out in
big numbers.

The measure would have allowed adults 21 and older to grow and
possess marijuana. "As a motivator, it was always a big question,"
Linney said. "I always thought myself it was a little overrated."

But Anna Greenberg with Greenberg Quinlan Rosner said that if young
voters turn out in 2012 in numbers typical for presidential
elections, legalization "is poised to win."

Legalization advocates are also rethinking the measure. A provision
designed to protect people who smoke marijuana from discrimination
was assailed by opponents who said it would prevent employers from
firing stoned nurses or bus drivers. Speaking in Denver, Nadelmann
said it might have to be sacrificed.

The Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll found that voters, by 50 percent to
44 percent, think employers should be able to fire workers who test
positive for marijuana even if they smoked it in their off hours.

The strongest message for Proposition 19, Linney said, was that it
would control marijuana better than prohibition. But it allowed
cities and counties to set the rules for marijuana sales and taxes,
and opponents seized on that uncertainty to predict a chaotic
patchwork of regulations.

Linney expects a vigorous debate among supporters over whether to
keep a local approach. "That will be the central issue in drafting
the next one," he said.

The Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll found that the issue splits voters,
with 44 percent trusting city and county governments more to control
marijuana, and 38 percent trusting the state more.

Johnson, the opposition strategist, said undecided voters seemed most
intrigued by the promise that the measure would raise billions of
dollars in tax revenue. But he said they became disillusioned when
they learned there was no way to estimate how much would be raised.

"When that went away," he said, "they went away."