Sensible Washington is a political committee dedicated to ending marijuana prohibition in Washington State and to enacting sensible civil regulation of marijuana in Washington State. Sensible Washington is sponsor of a proposed initiative for the November 2010 General Election that would remove criminal penalties from the adult use, possession and cultivation of marijuana in Washington State. Petitions for initiative 1068 are being circulated now.
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@steve, @philip:
The mainstream media attention we got was great… BUT there are a lot of people (myself included) that generally don’t give a hoot about mainstream media as a primary source or filter of news information. I belong to the segment where people don’t own a TV subscription, don’t have land lines, and don’t heavily participate in dead tree media.
Philip, please don’t be too defensive about criticism of the online component of the campaign. The website and Facebook page were active, but could have been much more effectively organized and managed. (And WILL be much more effectively managed for the next iteration of the campaign). Active is not always the same as effective.
These are details that a lot of people care about, and that people are already mobilizing to work on. This campaign pulled off an awesome feat: 200,000 all-volunteer signatures on a shoestring budget with near-zero ramp-up time! Many people (such as Mr. Potts) joined in too late and/or were too new to the initiative process to have a strong effect.
Next round, we’ll be VERY prepared.
here’s a thought for you: our campaign was in the media statewide on so many occasions i’ve lost count and we’ve had a very active website and facebook page. why did you just find out about us today? don’t you read the media or watch tv news or use the internet much? don’t chip us up if you weren’t paying attention.
Here is a thought, I live in Vancouver, today is July 04,2010 and this is the first I heard or read of this under taking of yours. Im average joe blow who lives in a small town in SW Wash, works and raises a family, and would have keenly supported you on this. Maybe next go around lesson for you to learn is you might need to get out the word more and sooner of your intentions. Just a thought.
Here is what I posted in both the PI and the Seattle Times blogs, from the articles that told of the demise of I-1068:
Well people, we lost this battle this year. So, we need to get things in place for next year. Here are some suggestions:
SensibleWashington.org should NOT disband. They need to keep people organized so that when we go to put this on the ballot next year, they can organize a little better, hopefully with more supporters. Hopefully, we can raise awareness in parts of the state that we may not have had sufficient time or resources to organize in.
Those of you that signed the petition, do NOT be discouraged! Please sign the ballot again next year. And tell friends who didn’t get a chance to sign that there will be another opportunity for it next year, and to stay tuned.
Above all, to those who may have felt paranoid about signing I-1068 for whatever reason (mainly from seeing what happened with Ref. 71), DON’T BE. Just because you support legalization, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you partake. And even if you do, I believe that there may be legal pitfalls for those who punish or harass you due to your views toward a cause. Should you lose (FYI people, there’s only one “O” in lose, the opposite of find. Loose [two "O"'s] is the opposite of tight – I see that error all the time) a job due to your support, get legal counsel and with a little luck, if you can’t get reinstated in your job, you may be able to SUE!!!
We did manage to get 80% of the signatures that we needed this year, so let’s keep the momentum going. Look at any blog following any article concerning a marijuana arrest and you will find that for every blogger praising law enforcement, there are at least 10 that think the arrest was a crock.
Also, shame on MPP (Marijuana Policy Project) for not supporting us at all!
Hang in there, my brothers & sisters. In 2011, WE WILL PREVAIL!!!
you heard wrong michael. we’re still all over this and no reliable source we know of has said anything about 50,000 signatures short. keep pushing people and keep mailing in your signed sheets.
From what I heard, I-1068 is not going to get the signatures to get on the ballet this fall. It looks like they will be short by less than 50 thousand signatures. So close yet so far from the finish line. Better, luck to you all, two or four years from now.
cowboy,
Or anyone needing petitions.
You can download the petition, burn it to a data CD (be sure to finalize the CD when burning) and take it to someplace that can print PDFs in the correct size and format. It’s also possible to get the PDF printed online though if you don’t pick it up at the local store it will cost a lot for delivery. Use only 11″x17″ paper, double-sided, black and white, to print petition. No exceptions.
In April I had 100 printed at whatever Kinko’s is called now. FedEx OfficeMax or something like that. I’m sure other places can do it also. Search for photocopy shops in your area, then phone to be sure they can print from PDF and can print 11″ by 17″ before driving to a photocopy shop as many can’t do either or can’t do both. Doublesided seems like something any photocopy shop can do but the 11″ by 17″ size is more limited and printing from PDF is even more limited. A hundred 11″ by 17″ , double sided, black and white petitions cost me $39.06 with tax, cost per petition will probably be higher for smaller quantities.
Alternately, Sensible Washington seems willing to mail small numbers of petitions to people who can’t get them from a local Sensible Washington source. Every valid signature matters as long as it’s turned in on time and the petition says where to mail them. Be sure you and everyone else who signs is registered to vote in Washington, follows the directions for signing and writes clearly. When anyone makes a mistake like putting their signature in the box for printing their name I ask them to cross out that line and sign on the next line instead to be sure the signature will be counted. Don’t abbreviate city or county names, I don’t know for certain if that will make a signature invalid but don’t take chances. Any signature the Secretary of State won’t accept as valid is a wasted signature.
Someone more knowledgeable may have something to add to my comment or some correction to make if I’ve written anything incorrect.
I’ve got severl people that would sin th I-1068 but does not have a way to the place to sign how can I get it up to black diamond area. E-mail me at coyote1369@hotmail.com . So we canget this done
I’ve been experiencing and Internet Explorer and PDF link problem the last couple days and want to give a heads up in case others are also experiencing the problem. What I seem to see with a direct click on such a link is nothing happens, there’s a brief flashing or a blank window opens and disappears but the PDF won’t open in the IE8 browser. The problem is not unique to this site. One workaround is to right click on the link and download the PDF to the computer. Such links work fine to open in Firefox and perhaps most other browsers; possibly something to do with IE using Active X and other browsers using a different type of script.
I don’t know the cause of this sudden problem but thought I should mention it in case it’s related to some IE or Adobe update, a browser add-on change or something common and others are experiencing it. If so, the petition and other PDFs can be viewed and used by downloading them or using a different browser such as Firefox.
UUDPR Discussion Points (http://www.uudpr.org/discussion.htm) addresses much broader drug policy reform than removal of existing Washington state marijuana related penalties for adults but is useful to review for I-1068 petitioning talking points.
Local Elections offices have ACLU pamphlets on Restoration of Voting Rights in Washington State which explain the law which took effective last year. I’ve found many people with the right to vote are unaware they have had that right automatically restored by this change in state law. I carry copies of this pamphlet with me and when people tell me “I can’t vote.” or “I don’t vote.” I ask if they know about the change in the law last year. If they react with any interest I hand them the pamphlet and say something to the effect, “This may be important information for you to know.” I always try to have copies of the pamphlet and voter registration forms as well as petitions with me. This helps me get signatures and helps me perform a public service.
I just skimmed http://www.drugscience.org/States/WA/WA.pdf and it has information and statistics about enforcement costs, effects on allocation of police resources and other matters.
I like to suggest the Sensible Washington site add a section for information and links to information that is relevant for voters who feel they “don’t know enough” to sign the petition to qualify I-1068 for the ballot. I don’t understand how they can feel this yet feel they know enough to continue supporting unjust laws by inaction. I geuss because “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right” as Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense.
It looks like http://www.mpp.org/states/washington/ has some information and statistics that may help provide talking points while petitioning or writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper. I’ve got to get out and gather some signatures now but will try to look this over more thoroughly later and make a more informed comment about it with pointers to good links that I may find there if it is a useful source of talking points.