NEW EFFORT TO LEGALIZE POT IS DEBATED

Prop. 19 Lost Support of Some Pro-Marijuana Groups. Its Backers Aim
to Write an Initiative With Wider Appeal.

The drive to put another marijuana legalization initiative on the
California ballot took a step forward Saturday when activists from
across the state squeezed into a crowded conference center here to
launch the debate over writing the next ballot measure.

The campaign for Proposition 19, which lost 54% to 46% in November,
wants to start drafting a new initiative in the spring and to
complete it by July, turning then to the expensive and time-consuming
task of building support and qualifying it for the November 2012 ballot.

Saturday's conference, sponsored by the California chapter of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, was aimed at
reaching out to marijuana legalization activists, medical marijuana
growers and dispensary operators, many of whom opposed the last measure.

"We knew there was a lot of dissatisfaction," said Dale Gieringer,
the organization's California director who organized the conference,
the first in more than a decade. "A lot of people felt excluded
because the writing process of Proposition 19 was very closed."

The initiative was spearheaded and financially backed by Richard Lee,
a successful Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur who made the key
decisions on the legal language. It drew opposition from some
prominent defense lawyers who said it did not go far enough to
decriminalize marijuana, and from some operators of medical marijuana
dispensaries who worried that it would undercut their lucrative
businesses and lead to more bans on stores.

The initiative would have allowed adults 21 and older to possess and
grow marijuana, and it would have authorized cities and counties to
pass ordinances to legalize sales.

"Truly, this is a planning exercise," Dale Sky Jones, the spokeswoman
for the Proposition 19 campaign, told the crowd at the David Brower
Center near the University of California campus. "We're here to hear
you. This is the building process."

The conference drew about 300 attendees, including Yamileth Bolanos,
a dispensary operator from Los Angeles. Like others in the business
who came to the event, she said she wants to be sure that medical
marijuana is not undercut by a legalization initiative. "We shouldn't
be stomped on or used as a stepping stone to get to where they want
to go," she said.

Jones said medical marijuana patients are crucial to the success of
any initiative because they can reach out to voters to dispel myths
about marijuana. "It's largely going to be the messaging through the
medical community and those that love them that can put this over the
top," she said.

The campaign intends to create a broad-based committee to oversee the
next initiative, replacing the singular role played by Lee, who did
not attend the conference. "It's not about him anymore. It's about
the issue, which is what he always wanted," Jones said.

Jones said the campaign has not yet named the committee because it is
does not want to create an early target for critics. "When you start
planting your flag in the ground, people find reasons not to stand
under that flag," she said.

The state Legislature's two most marijuana-friendly lawmakers dropped
in to tell activists they will continue to press for changes in
Sacramento. State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) noted that he
introduced a bill last week to prevent employers from firing most
medical marijuana patients who test positive for the drug and pledged
to reintroduce a bill to allow California farmers to grow industrial
hemp. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) said that he would
try again to move his bill to legalize marijuana sales, but that he
was also considering a piecemeal approach.

Although Saturday's conference offered activists a chance to air
their views, it also underscored how difficult it will be to write a
measure that pleases the diverse community. Ethan Nadelmann,
executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which has played a
major role in California's drug reform initiatives, warned that
activists were going to have to balance their principles with what
will be possible to pass. "All I can think is, God, this is
complicated," he said.

Dennis Peron, who led the campaign to pass the medical marijuana
initiative in 1996 and has become an irritant to legalization
activists, said that activists should focus on bringing medical
marijuana to other states. Peron believes anyone who uses marijuana
is doing it for medical reasons, so anyone who wants to get it
legally in California already can. "We've got to do it for the other
people, not just for ourselves. These people are all about money," he said.

Jeff Jones, who was a co-proponent of Proposition 19 along with Lee,
said he is anticipating that the process of shaping the next
initiative will be arduous and heated. "I view the drafting phase as
a little like the British Parliament, a lot of screaming and
yelling," he said.