STOP PROSECUTING FOR POT?

November Vote Possible: Medical Cannabis Advocate Ready to Collect Signatures

A group of Tacoma residents led by a local medical marijuana advocate
is pursuing a city ballot initiative that seeks to make
cannabis-related offenses "the lowest enforcement priority of the
City of Tacoma."

The proposed measure, submitted to the city clerk's office this week,
received a ballot title Friday. That triggers a five-day waiting
period before supporters of the proposed Initiative 1 can begin
legally collecting signatures to get it qualified for November's
general election ballot, City Clerk Doris Sorum said.

They appear to need about 4,000 valid signatures.

The effort is led by Justin Prince, the former proprietor of THC - a
local medical marijuana dispensary raided by Tacoma police last year.
He said the initiative drive largely was sparked by the city's
efforts to eradicate businesses like his.

"We looked at what the city was doing in wasting limited resources in
these hard economic times by going after legitimate businesses that
serve a need," Prince said. "There are far better things they should
be going after like crimes that have actual victims."

A Tacoma police spokesman did not immediately return a phone call
seeking comment Friday.

Prince and co-petitioner Sherry Bockwinkel, a veteran signature
gatherer, said they based the measure largely on Seattle's Initiative
75, passed by city voters in 2003.

State and federal law trump the Seattle law, but Prince and
Bockwinkel say the citizens' will to minimize prosecution of adult
marijuana offenses is largely followed under the local measure.

"The report that's posted on Seattle's website is just glowing about
how well it's worked up there," Bockwinkel said. "It has seemed to
have a great positive impact on the community."

Prince added that while some marijuana crimes are still prosecuted in
Seattle, they tend to be more serious offenses.

"Right now, we just want to see Tacoma have a prosecuting attorney
that pays attention to the city's will on these matters," he said.

Prince, who opened Tacoma's first medical pot dispensary in November
2009, eventually agreed to a misdemeanor plea deal after last year's
raid and is now working through a deferred sentence, he said.

His dispensary was the first in a series of medical pot operations
targeted by the city. Authorities later began sending
cease-and-desist letters citing licensing violations rather than
using police force. They switched tactics after residents alleged
heavy-handed law enforcement against Prince.

In October, after hundreds of people filled City Hall, the Tacoma
City Council announced it would delay setting appeals hearings in
those cases until the end of the 2011 legislative session. All
parties hope state lawmakers will clarify parts of the state medical
marijuana law approved by a citizens' initiative and enacted in 1999.

Prince said the main reason his group wants the city initiative is so
Tacoma has protections in place regardless of what happens in the Legislature.

Under Tacoma's city charter, a citizens' initiative can qualify for
the ballot if petitioners submit a number of signatures "equal to 10
percent of the votes cast in the last mayoral election" within 180
days after a ballot title is confirmed.

That amount could range from roughly 3,800 to 4,100 signatures,
depending on how officials tally ballot counts in Tacoma's 2009 mayoral race.

City officials are trying to determine whether to include 2,439 over-
and under-votes from ballots cast but not counted in the election, Sorum said.

Regardless, supporters say they're confident they can collect enough
signatures.

"Everybody I've spoken to are very supportive of this," Prince said.
"This is not going away."