Perhaps there’s more support for marijuana legalization in Colorado than many people thought.
Much more support.
A group of marijuana advocates pushing for cannabis legalization submitted 160,000 signatures to the state this morning – nearly double the number needed to get the issue on the fall ballot.
Election officials now have to validate just 86,000 of the signatures, which involves confirming that they are from registered voters in the state. There’s little to no doubt that the measure will sail through this part of the process, as the buffer of extra signatures is exceptionally large.
“Finishing the petition drive is a huge accomplishment and we couldn’t have done it without the roughly 500 volunteers and more than 150 businesses that signed on to help collect signatures,” the group wrote on its web site. “This is not to mention the support of thousands of people throughout Colorado and around the nation.
The initiative – called The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act – calls for a constitutional amendment that would allow adults over the age of 21 to buy and use cannabis for whatever reason they’d like, medical or not. They could also grow as many as six plants, and individual communities could ban dispensaries and pot shops.
Attorney Brian Vicente, a major player in the local medical pot scene and a key force behind the legalization effort, recently said that the measure would be a boon to the MMJ sector should it pass. In a guest column that ran in Medical Marijuana Business Daily, Vicente said that creating a much larger market and allowing patients to more easily get their medication.
This could be a key issue for the MMJ industry this year, as it has the potential to rearrange the landscape. If the measure makes the ballot and voters give it the green light, Colorado would become the first state in the nation to legalize the use of marijuana for recreational purposes.
