State officials alleged medical marijuana petitioners fell 2,338 signatures short of qualifying for the November 3 ballot after completing a line-by-line check of the more than 88,000 signatures gathered in support of the proposal. The state Supreme Court ordered the review after state officials appealed an earlier ruling ordering the initiative on the November ballot.
Medical marijuana proponents, Coloradans for Medical Rights, said that they are conducting their own review to double-check the Secretary of State’s signature count. In August, petitioners discovered that state officials had made several mistakes when conducting a random sample check of some 4,500 signatures.
“We will be checking every bit of work that [Secretary of State Vikki Buckley’s office] did to make sure there aren’t massive errors like we found before,” said CMR spokesman Luther Symons. “Should we find any legal basis for challenging this ruling, for example that she made a large number of errors, we will pursue all of our legal remedies.”
The Colorado initiative sought to allow seriously ill patients who have a doctor’s recommendation to possess up to two ounces of marijuana or grow three plants for medical use. Voters in Alaska, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington will decide on similar medical marijuana initiatives this year.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup of NORML @ (202) 483-5500 or Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.