California marijuana activists will attempt to gather enough signatures to get an initiative to legalize marijuana on the 2014 ballot. 

The initiative, called the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative 2014 was cleared for signatures on Friday by California’s Secretary of State, Debra Bowen.

“The initiative would decriminalize the possession, use, cultivation and sale of marijuana and hemp, the plant from which marijuana is made. It would instruct the Legislature to pass laws licensing and taxing commercial sales of marijuana and setting a standard for determining when a driver is impaired and should barred from driving.”http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_24190081/voter-initiative-legalize-marijuana-california-cleared-signature-gathering

Supporters of the initiative now need about 500,000 signatures in the next 150 days to get the initiative on the ballot.  Currently the effort is being  led by a core group of 10 to 15 volunteers, backed by a statewide network that now numbers 500 volunteers and they are hoping to get 3000 volunteers to get the job done.

Last week the Public Policy Institute of California  released a new poll on  9/25 showing that amongst registered voters 52{2b4a1a3f3bbc9c5a43771f34362679a3afcf9df24c0d9f4fe2fa80a69d802033} of Californians now favor marijuana legalization. That number jumped to 60{2b4a1a3f3bbc9c5a43771f34362679a3afcf9df24c0d9f4fe2fa80a69d802033} for those likely to vote.

The DOJ also recently released a memo stating the feds would not interfere with states that legalized marijuana providing they had strict regulation of the drug.

Supporters of the new initiative are optimistic and feel it’s time to let the people decide.

Still, national marijuana advocacy groups are advising California to wait until 2016 when a higher voter turnout would be more favorable for a marijuana legalization initiative to pass.

So it is not likely that the the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative will receive any funding from these groups. It now remains to be seen if the group can gather the needed signatures with volunteer workers, or if anyone will step forward to fund the new initiative.

(c) Medical Cannabis News – Read entire story here.