A Landmark Proposition

I myself, am on the "Signature collecting" trail.

Petition drive update

The petition drive for the SAFER Colorado Marijuana Initiative was initiated on March 1.

More than 300 individuals around Colorado signed up to collect the approximately 68,000 signatures needed to put the initiative on the November 2006 ballot.

We have encouraged these volunteers to aim for 100 signatures by April 1, and we understand a few folks have far surpassed that number already!

If you are collecting signatures please do whatever you can to hit the 100 mark by April 1!

Our next big goal is for all 300 folks who signed up to collect at least 200+ signatures by May 1. If everyone can get this done we will be at about 60,000 with a couple months to go and in a really good position to hit our target of 100,000-120,000 total signatures.

We understand many of you have just received your petitions in the mail, so please do what you can to try to hit this 200 mark for next month. With just a few hours a week it can be done very easily!

Hick said:

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[/font] [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Help NORML and SAFER in Colorado![/font]

*** Please forward this alert widely to friends and family. ***
​

SAFER and NORML need your support to end marijuana prohibition in Colorado. Please continue reading to see how you can help.

In one of the more exciting developments in recent marijuana policy reform history, NORML is partnering with Denver-based Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) to make the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana legal in the state of Colorado. As part of this effort, we at NORML are asking our friends and allies to put their collective financial weight behind the initiative campaign. Our goal is to help SAFER raise enough money to ensure that this groundbreaking initiative qualifies for the ballot.

We are sending this alert to our entire subscriber list because this is not just a Colorado matter; rather, it is about fighting marijuana prohibition head-on and building momentum for full, nationwide repeal.

Please visit -- http://www.safercolorado.org/ -- today and make a contribution to the Colorado campaign. Funds that are raised from this alert will allow SAFER to employ the necessary staff to collect signatures on a full-time basis. These signatures will supplement those thousands of signatures being collected by volunteers from around the state.

Last November, SAFER sent a shockwave across the nation when it ran a successful campaign in Denver to make possession of up to one ounce of marijuana legal under that city's ordinances. Amazingly, SAFER spent less than $30,000 on this campaign. The victory was attributable to hard work and a relentless earned media strategy that kept the city buzzing about marijuana for two weeks leading up to the vote.

SAFER intends to carry out a similar strategy statewide. Colorado's governor and attorney general have already called for a "statewide marijuana showdown." SAFER's response: Bring it on! Debates such as these allow SAFER to promote its primary message: Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. From this message comes SAFER's core argument: Adults should not be punished for making the rational choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol.

But this statewide marijuana showdown will not occur if the initiative does not qualify for the ballot. In order to qualify SAFER needs to collect approximately 100,000 signatures in Colorado. They have people on hand ready to work full-time for $0.50 per signature, but they need the funds to pay them.

So visit – http://www.safercolorado.org – today! A $10 contribution will pay for 20 signatures, $25 will pay for 50, $100 will pay for 200, and so on. If everyone on this list sponsors just 10 signatures (with a $5 contribution), the initiative will be on the ballot in November!

If this initiative passes, we will have yanked the federal government's thumb out of the dike of marijuana prohibition. So this is no time to sit on the sidelines. Please take two minutes to make a contribution today!

Note: These contributions will go to the SAFER Voter Education Fund, a social welfare and lobbying organization that is supporting the initiative. Contributions to the Fund are not subject to public disclosure.

Thank you so much for joining us in this historic effort to end marijuana prohibition.

Sincerely,

Allen St. Pierre
Executive Director
NORML

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Can I mail in a ten dollar money order as I am not a Colorado resident. Anomynously? It'll be in the mail tomorrow if I can do it without having my signiture. My state is a mean MF when it comes to anything.

I do believe you can mutt. Click the "Safer CO" site, think there's a link for donations there. I'm sure someone will be willing to take your money..

I'm running into the same issue here occasionally. People willing to kick in a few bucks, but NOT willing to give a signature. I totally understand their apprehensive attitude. Few are more "security" conciuos(paranoid) than myself. However, "Registered voter" signatures are paramount in getting this initiative on the ballot this fall.
Signing the "Petition" is not a "vote for" a repeal, only a "vote to" get it placed on the ballot to LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE.
..."of the people, for the people, by the people"..

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]CO Initiative: Fundraiser and Debate next week (4/19)[/font]

Dear NORML supporters in Colorado –

Next Wednesday night (April 19), there are two important events for the Colorado Initiative campaign. Please continue reading for more information, and then forward this message widely to family and friends in the state…

Denver Fundraiser – Wed., April 19 at Quixote’s True Blue

Please come support the Colorado marijuana initiative at a "Pre-4/20" benefit concert next Wednesday, April 19, at Quixote's True Blue in Denver. Featured acts will be Polytoxic, who was recently named the "Best (local) Concert" of 2006 by Westword, and Denver's own Freak Street Project, who will open the show.

A minimum $10 contribution gets you in the door and all proceeds will benefit the campaign to make marijuana legal for adults in Colorado. So please be sure to come out and bring as many supportive friends as possible. The campaign needs your help to make this event successful!

What: A concert to benefit the initiative to make marijuana legal in Colorado

When: Wednesday, April 19, 7 p.m. - Midnight

Where: Quixote's True Blue, 2637 Welton Street, Denver (Map)

Who: Polytoxic, Freak Street Project, SAFER staff, volunteers and campaign supporters

SAFER Campaign Director goes head-to-head with Colorado Attorney General – Live!

If you can't make it to Quixote's, please be sure to tune in Wednesday night to KBDI Channel 12 from 8 p.m. - 9 p.m. to see SAFER Campaign Director Mason Tvert and Sensible Colorado Executive Director Brian Vicente square off with Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and Commander Lori Moriarty from the North Metro Drug Task Force on Colorado Inside Out Live.

This show provides the campaign with a great opportunity to educate the public. If you have friends and family members who are not sure whether they will vote for the marijuana initiative in November, please encourage them to watch this show on Wednesday.

Thank you for doing whatever you can to promote the campaign and to help spread the campaign’s "marijuana is safer than alcohol" message.

Have a happy and healthy 4/20!

Sincerely,

Allen St. Pierre
Executive Director
NORML
Washington, DC
[email protected]

Almost there!!..

The SAFER-supported initiative in Colorado to make the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana legal under state law is at the most critical point of the campaign. There are just 18 days until we must turn in all of the signatures we have collected for the purpose of qualifying the initiative for the ballot. We estimate that we need more than 100,000 raw signatures in order to end up with the 68,000 valid signatures needed to make the ballot. At the moment, we have more than 65,000 raw signatures on hand, plus another 12,000 in the hands of our volunteers (but not yet turned in).

We can make the ballot if you help us in one of the two following ways:

1. http://saferchoice.org/safercolorado/ There are people across the state collecting signatures on behalf of the campaign. Some of these individuals are volunteers (to whom we are deeply indebted). Others are being paid for their assistance. We have enough to pay for almost all the signatures we need, but to ensure that we can cover the final 23,000+, we need to raise at least an additional $5,000. If just a small fraction of the subscribers to this list contribute $10 each, we will be in good shape. We will also send a cannabis/can o' beer t-shirt (pictured below) to anyone contributing $50 or more. (Just send us a separate E-mail after making the contribution with your size and address, if you are interested.)

Another fun way to help the campaign financially would be to bid on http://cgi.ebay.com/Blues-Traveler-...QQihZ009QQcategoryZ104675QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem As noted below, Blues Traveler donated a number of items to SAFER recently. They have given us permission to auction off the nicest item -- a harmonica signed by band frontman Jon Popper -- along with a live CD and some other items. If you are interested in this package, please consider making a bid. And if you know someone who is a die-hard fan of Blues Traveler, please forward this E-mail along.

2. Help collect 100 signatures in your city or town. If you have not yet volunteered to collect signatures for the campaign, there is still time. Given our time constraints, however, we only want people to volunteer if they are CERTAIN they will be able to spend five hours or more collecting at a local grocery story, get the petition notarized at the bank, and mail it back to us (or drop it off in Denver) within 7-10 days. If you are willing to help in this manner, please E-mail your name, address, and phone number to mailto:[email protected].

With the spirit of helping the campaign in mind, we wanted to update you about an event we promoted a couple of weeks ago. On July 11, the campaign benefitted from the generosity of Jessica and Robert Corry, who opened their home to the SAFER Voter Education Fund (our lobbying arm) for a fundraiser. The stature of the event was given a boost by the presence of http://www.norml.org executive director Allen St. Pierre, who travelled to Denver for the event. We were also pleased to have Denver radio personality http://kbpi.com/pages/nasty.html in attendance. National touring act http://www.bluestraveler.com/ and Grateful Dead merchandise vendor http://www.gratefulgraphics.com donated items for the event, while http://www.thedessertqueen.com/ provided delicious, home-style cookies. Overall, it was a great event and we raised more than $4,000 for the Voter Education Fund.

We hope that you will lend us your support over the coming weeks. If this initiative qualifies for the ballot, there will be a major debate in Colorado (and perhaps across the country) this fall about the relative harms of marijuana and alcohol and the wisdom of punishing adults for choosing to use the less harmful of the two substances. We need to have this debate in order to undermine support for marijuana prohibition in this country. As we saw in Denver, when marijuana prohibition is viewed in this context, the majority of the voters are likely to agree that it does not make sense to punish adults for marijuana use.

Thanks in advance for any support you are able to give.

Sincerely,

Mason Tvert
Campaign Director, SAFER

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hope this works out if it does ill have to go visit colorado

Yesterday, the Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative Committee, supported by SAFER, submitted nearly 130,000 signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State in support of its statewide marijuana legalization initiative. This is nearly double the the number of valid signatures required to qualify for the ballot! Approximately 68,000 signatures must be from registered voters in the state.

This is a truly amazing feat and we would like to extend our most sincere thanks to everyone who has supported and gotten involved in this effort over the past six months.

First, we would like to acknowledge all of the volunteers in Colorado who hit the streets to collect signatures from fellow citizens. More than half of the signatures submitted yesterday were collected by more than 500 individuals who volunteered to help us by signing up on our campaign Web site.

We also owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who has made a financial contribution to support the campaign. Without this support, we could not have hired the professional circulators needed to help put us over the top. If you were one of the many donors, please know that your contribution made a huge difference.

The Colorado Secretary of State is expected to determine by the end of this month whether the initiative will appear on the November ballot. If adopted by the voters, the initiative will amend state law so that the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana is legal for anyone 21 years of age or older.

Last year, we made Denver the first major city in the United States to eliminate all penalties for marijuana possession. With hard work and a little luck we will be similarly successful this fall and Colorado will be the first state to eliminate penalties for the private use and possession of marijuana.

We are looking forward to kicking off the official campaign in September, so It should be an exciting two months from there. If you are interested in helping the campaign in any way, please http://www.safercolorado.org to volunteer or to donate to the campaign.

Sincerely,

Mason Tvert
Campaign Director, SAFER

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The initiative was mentioned in the Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, and other local Colorado newspapers, as well as on the ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, WB and Univision affiliate stations.

From KMGH ABC 7:

Voters Will Likely Decide Whether To Legalize Pot Statewide

DENVER -- Voters could be deciding on whether to legalize marijuana statewide this fall.

Members of the group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation dropped off 129,000 signatures at the Secretary of State's office Monday morning. The signatures of 68,000 registered Colorado voters have to be verified before the measure can be placed on the ballot.

"The fact that we collected nearly twice as many signatures as are required under statute highlights the widespread support for ending the madness of marijuana prohibition in Colorado," said SAFER Campaign Director Mason Tvert.

The measure, if approved by voters, would make possession of one ounce of marijuana legal in Colorado for those 21 or older.

SAFER helped get a similar measure on last fall's ballot that made the same amount of marijuana legal in Denver. Initiative 100 was approved by a majority of Denver voters and made the city the first in the country to vote to remove all penalties for private adult marijuana possession.

However, state authorities had said Denver's Initiative-100 was virtually meaningless because of state and federal laws that make even small amounts of marijuana illegal.

Tvert said even though Denver voters had expressed their opinion that a small pinch of pot should be legal, people were still being arrested and prosecuted under state law and he wants that to stop.

The statewide proposal would get rid of the state's prohibition of marijuana and allow cities to make the rules about pot use.

"Last year's victory in Denver clearly demonstrated the support we're receiving in the state Capitol," Tvert said. "But tens of thousands of signatures poured in from Colorado Springs, Grand Junction and other areas of the state outside the Front Range. This just goes to show that regardless of Colorado citizens' political persuasions, many agree that punishing adults for using a substance less harmful than alcohol is an absurd waste of time, money and life."

The state's attorney general, John Suthers, does not buy the argument that pot is safer. He and the governor feel the measure would be defeated in the fall. Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff -- a Denver Democrat -- opposes changing the state law. He thinks drug use in the state is already too high and said the matter would wind up in the courts.

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Unfortunately, not all the news these past few days has been good news.

On the evening of Friday, August 4, a 22-year-old Boulder-area man suspected of growing marijuana was killed by the Taser of a Lafayette police officer following an investigation by the Lafayette Police Department in conjunction with the Boulder County Drug Task Force.

Family members of the man, Ryan Michael Wilson, are rightfully upset by what they believe to be law enforcement's excessive use of force in detaining the 132-pound man who they say "could never hurt anyone." They clearly do not think the 11 small plants he was allegedly growing in a field warranted such treatment by police, and we could not agree more.

Yesterday, SAFER released the following statement:

We are saddened by the tragic death of Ryan Wilson. While many of the facts of this situation remain unknown, it appears as if a young man was killed because he was allegedly growing a few marijuana plants in a field. This use of lethal force -- regardless of whether it was supposed to be "non-lethal" or "less-lethal" -- was in response to the possibility that he was growing a non-lethal plant, and it is utterly unacceptable.

No act could more clearly illustrate the failure the marijuana policies in this state and in this nation. We arrest, prosecute, jail, and sometimes even kill people for using or possessing a substance that is inarguably less harmful than alcohol. This would be an irrational policy even in a nation where alcohol was illegal. But in a society where we tolerate and even celebrate the use of alcohol, it is simply absurd.

We did not know Ryan, and we do not necessarily know all the circumstances surrounding the incident this past weekend. But we do know the government's war against marijuana is responsible. We send our best wishes to Ryan's family and friends, and we will continue to fight to end marijuana prohibition and such preventable tragedies under the guise of protecting people.