CA: Backers Of Local Pot Initiative Still Going Strong

Katelyn Baker;3020391 said:

Kern Citizens for Patient Rights has spent more than $75,000 to challenge Bakersfield’s medical marijuana dispensary ban, and with fewer than 60 days until petitions are due, a board member said Monday the group is confident it will make the ballot.

Just not the November ballot.

Organizers of the Medical Cannabis Initiative had 180 days, until 5 p.m. Oct. 25, to collect at least 15,438 signatures from registered voters who live within city limits and qualify their measure for a future ballot.

That’s at least 10 percent of the 154,375 people registered to vote in Bakersfield when signature-gathering began in the spring.

Given County of Kern deadlines, had they collected those signatures by roughly mid-July, they could have qualified it for the Nov. 8 general election.

They didn’t meet that deadline, but in the six weeks since have taken nearly 26,000 signatures. Kern Citizens board member Jeff Jarvis said more than 13,000 of those are considered to be verified signatures belonging to registered Bakersfield voters, adding, “I believe it’s much higher than that.”

“We’re taking everything very seriously. It only makes sense to be very diligent in the way we’re examining and counting and preparing for the registrar to present these. We’re still looking to turn in a minimum of 10 percent to 15 percent over what we need,” Jarvis said.

Voters this fall will confront a wide variety of ballot propositions without the Medical Cannabis Initiative, which would replace the City of Bakersfield's dispensary ban with regulation based on the state 2015 Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act.

Local attorney Philip Ganong, who represents Kern Citizens, said he thinks having to wait until the November 2018 off-year election - or possibly a special election if one emerges sooner - could be a good thing.

Ganong said he thinks Proposition 64, the statewide Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which would legalize marijuana and hemp for adults 21 and older, will engender a lot of negative publicity this fall and could cast a shadow over the Medical Cannabis Initiative.

“Maybe I’m just trying to sell lemonade but there’s, I think, some pretty strong reasons why it’s better for us to not be in the November election. If our initiative was also on the ballot, we would probably suffer the backlash from that and the fallout and would probably have to spend even more money to reverse that view,” Ganong said.

As of June, 59 dispensaries were believed to be operating within city limits. Dispensaries are illegal by city ordinance. Richard Iger, the deputy city attorney who prosecutes dispensaries in civil court, said he has 12 active cases in Kern County Superior Court and will file “a few more” in coming weeks.

Iger said 90 percent of dispensary owners in the Oleander / Sunset neighborhood now have lawsuits against them and those who don’t, he said, have told the city they intend to close their shops by the end of September.

Neighbors in that area are incensed at the number of pot shops and have signed petitions circulated by the group Bakersfield Residents Against Pot Shops, calling on the city to close them down.

“I’m hoping by the fall there will be no more dispensaries in that area,” Iger said.

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News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Backers Of Local Pot Initiative Still Going Strong
Author: Theo Douglas
Contact: (661) 395-7500
Photo Credit: Casey Christie
Website: Bakersfield

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