EAST BAY EXPRESS: …This weekend, major reform groups will likely discuss plans to coordinate efforts on a 2016 legalization initiative. “I think the big players realize that 2016 is the realistic option,” [Dale] Gieringer said. Some hardline activists will press for a 2014 initiative, but they are not well positioned, Gieringer said. “It’s not realistic to do in the 2014 timeframe,” he said, noting that in 1996, the last time state voters approved a major cannabis initiative, activists were much further along in their planning than they are now. “At this point in the Prop 215 campaign, we had our language in hand,” Gieringer explained. “We had a bill that had passed the legislature only to be vetoed by the governor.”
But while a serious referendum campaign will likely skip the next election cycle, the federal medical marijuana crackdown rolls on. “Ending the 100-Year War” also will feature key figures in the ongoing crackdown in a session called “Responses to Federal Interference.” Mendocino County Supervisor John McCowen will speak on the “Federal Sabotage of Mendocino’s Ordinance,” and dispensary operator Stephen DeAngelo will provide an update on the tax and forfeiture cases proceeding against Harborside Health Center in Oakland.
US Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske stated on January 8 that the country “is in the midst of a serious conversation about marijuana.” And in late December, leading drug czar staffer Tommy Lanier began walking back the charge that drug cartels are growing in national forests. “It sounds sort of like they are backing off more,” Gieringer said. “They’ve been less than aggressive.”… (more)
