PETITIONS TO GET BALLOT MEASURE ON LEGALIZING POT NEED REVIEW

The petition signatures of a campaign seeking to legalize limited
possession of marijuana in Colorado will need a line-by-line review,
the Secretary of State's office announced today.

Earlier this month, the campaign turned in nearly 160,000 signatures
in an effort to put the measure on the 2012 ballot. The proposal only
needs 86,105 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

When Secretary of State staffers began reviewing a sample of the
signatures, though, they did not find enough valid ones to be able to
project with certainty that the measure would meet the threshold. The
office projects, based on the sample, that the measure will have
about 89,000 valid signatures - or only 103 percent of the needed
amount. The office requires a projection of 110 percent or more of
the needed amount of valid signatures in order to certify a measure
without a signature-by-signature review.

The office now has until Feb. 3 to verify the petition's signatures.

If approved, the proposal would become the first measure certified
for the 2012 ballot. It seeks to legalize possession of up to one
ounce of marijuana for any purpose for people 21 and older. It would
allow for marijuana stores but it would also allow communities to ban
such businesses.

The measure is backed by a number of prominent national drug reform
advocacy groups.

This week a different group of marijuana activists backing a separate
legalization proposal - one that would prohibit judges from imposing
penalties on anyone for marijuana possession of any amount - received
a go-ahead from a state board. They may soon begin collecting signatures.

A third group of marijuana activists has said it also intends to file
a legalization initiative.