Efforts continue to place competing marijuana measures on June 2012 ballot

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CORRECTED REGARDING THE CULTIVATION REFERENDUM.


LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An effort to collect signatures in order place an initiative on next June’s ballot that would ban medical marijuana in Lake County is under way, while an effort behind a cultivation referendum gained the signatures it needs to go before voters.


Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said she delivered the ballot title and summary written by County Counsel Anita Grant for the “Lake County Act to Adopt Federal Marijuana Laws” to the group backing it on Dec. 9.


With the required affidavit of publication for the petition having been published in the Lake County Record-Bee on Tuesday, the group now can collect signatures, said Fridley.


However, they have a tight timeframe to qualify for the June 2012 ballot. Fridley said they must submit 2,015 valid signatures belonging to registered Lake County voters by Thursday, Dec. 22.


“We’re moving forward,” said Upper Lake resident Nancy Brier, one of the organizers of the effort to put the initiative on the ballot.


Community members, not paid signature gatherers, are circulating the petitions, Brier said.


Petitions also can be signed at BitSculptor, 901 S. Main St., Lakeport; Polestar Computers, 3930 Main St., Kelseyville; and the office of attorney Ed Riddle, 9439 Main St., Upper Lake.


In other initiative-related news, Fridley said her office verified that a referendum petition against the county’s medical marijuana cultivation ordinance, circulated by the Lake County Citizens for Responsible Regulations and sponsored by the Lake County Green Farmers Association, had enough signatures to qualify for the June 2012 ballot.


That proposed referendum is scheduled to go to the Board of Supervisors for discussion on Tuesday, Jan. 3, Fridley said.


At that time the board could choose to overturn its own cultivation ordinance, approved Oct. 11, or let it stand while voters decide on the initiative, according to Fridley.


Not headed for next June’s ballot is a proposed initiative to support medical marijuana dispensaries.


Weston Mickey, a professional signature gatherer who is working on that initiative, said he plans to begin the process after the holidays, meaning it would appear on the November 2012 ballot.


Mickey collected enough signatures this fall to place a referendum on the June ballot against the county’s dispensaries ordinance, passed in August.


However, rather than allow the referendum to go to the voters, the Board of Supervisors rescinded the county’s dispensaries ordinance in October.


This week the board ordered the Community Development Department to move forward with closing the county’s remaining dispensaries, now estimated at about six, after they were served with notices of violation last month.


Without a dispensaries ordinance in effect, the county’s position is that dispensaries are not allowed under county zoning law.

 

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Google+, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

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