A frank assessment of the Current Count of volunteer Coordinators, Circulators, and Signatures shows we are coming up short of the goals needed to put our initiative on the ballot. At this point it is time to pause and consider our options.

A popular idea is to revise our initiative to reflect the feedback received to date and re-file it to reset the calendar. We do have time to make these changes and this action not only improves our initiative but also provides more time to organize and raise funds.

Improvements will include stronger protections for medical cannabis, require regulation and taxation like beer and wine for commercial adult use sales only, and with help from our friends at VoteHemp, our revised initiative will have more comprehensive language for industrial hemp.  Our proposal will still have no possession limit on personal use or grow space, ban discrimination against cannabis consumers, expunge criminal cannabis records, require labeling, and repeal the criminal cannabis laws.

The current version, AG# 09-0022, will be withdrawn and a new timeline will be approximately as follows:

Filing deadline 11/21/2009
AG Title & Summary 1/21/2010
Circulate Petition until 6/21/2010
Election 11/2/2010

This plan of action requires that an accountant and election law professional join our campaign and that we raise sufficient funds to cover basic costs of a volunteer petition campaign. We have just a few days to gather these basic resources.

In the event we are unable to gather the basic resources needed to proceed another option would be to focus on the 2012 election to bring our proposal forward and use the time until then to build the organization.

The final option would be to terminate the Yes on California Cannabis Initiative committee and leave the matter to others to resolve.

Vote with your wallet because at the end of the day those are the most important. We also need an army of volunteers and the Current Count reveals that there are plenty of Chiefs and not enough Indians. Coordinators need to recruit volunteers! In fact, each Coordinator needs to organize about a dozen very ambitious people and everyone needs to gather an average of 1,000 signatures each. Less of an effort will bring us right back to where we are now.

Therefore, some goals are established that must be achieved BEFORE we re-file.

Goal 1: Coordinators need to affirm their commitment and we need about two dozen willing to publish their contact information and hold regular meetings in their respective counties.

Goal 2: We must raise or get commitments for $25,000 to cover basic overhead costs for the petition campaign phase.

Goal 3: We must engage an accountant and election law professional to help.

The final language of the revised initiative will be posted on the website and distributed to this email list soon. Please make a commitment and take action, real marijuana legalization will not be sponsored by a corporation. Real marijuana freedom will only come when The People rise up and take action. The internet will help our effort, but signatures must be gathered in person, time must be volunteered, and money must be donated.

Tim Castleman
Yes on California Cannabis Initiative

---