Columbia – After winning his fight to legalize marijuana in Oregon, Anthony Johnson is rooting for the same to happen in Missouri, where an effort to place the issue on the 2016 ballot is underway.
Johnson, a former Missouri resident and MU graduate who took an interest in the reform of marijuana laws while a student in Columbia, worked for more than two years on the marijuana campaign in Oregon. That effort culminated in approval of the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. He's planning to help a similar measure pass in Missouri.
"It'll be important for people living in Missouri to take the lead, but I will definitely provide advice from my experience," Johnson said.
Johnson sits on the board of Show-Me Cannabis but will stay in Oregon to work on the implementation of the newly passed drug policies there. The most important thing to sustaining Oregon's legalization law, which appeared on the ballot as Measure 91, is to ensure that it is successfully regulated and that marijuana is taxed similar to how alcohol and cigarettes are, Johnson said.
Marijuana will not be formally legalized in Oregon until July 1. People who want to sell marijuana could wait as long as mid-2016 to get business licenses.
Johnson said the efforts of reform advocates are often misunderstood.
"I think over the course of the marijuana legalization campaign, the proponents of legalizing marijuana are often portrayed as being pro-marijuana," he said, "when the truth is, no one is advocating for marijuana use. It's really a pro-regulation position."
Oregonians passed the measure with just more than 56 percent of voters' support. On the same day, voters in Washington, D.C., and in Alaska passed marijuana legalization with 69 percent and 52 percent approval, respectively, according to the Associated Press.
Columbia attorney Dan Viets is chairman of the Show-Me Cannabis board and recently submitted the statewide marijuana measure for approval by the Missouri Secretary of State's office. He's optimistic Missourians will approve the ballot issue.
"(Statewide) marijuana reform has been on the ballot in five places in the past two years, and it's passed," Viets said. "It's won every one of those elections."
Johnson: 'It's been a long road.'
Viets and Johnson have known each other since about 2003. After growing up in Lexington, known for the Battle of the Hemp Bales in 1861, Johnson graduated as class president and captain of his school's football and wrestling teams. He heard Viets talk about marijuana reform for the first time when he was a student at MU.
"It turned out that Dan Viets was helping the NORML chapter at the University of Missouri," Johnson said. He viewed Viets as "someone who was knowledgeable about the issue, was articulate, and (I) started volunteering for the cause then."
Johnson went to law school to become a criminal defense lawyer. He and Viets co-authored the decriminalization and medical ordinances passed by Columbia voters in 2004.
"I had been working on the issue for about 15 years, starting when I was in a dorm room at the University of Missouri," Johnson said. "I saw firsthand African-American friends treated more harshly for marijuana than my white, middle-class friends, and that was what started my activism."
After graduating, Johnson moved with his wife, Sarah Duff, to live with friends and to study for the Oregon bar exam. He practiced law for two years before specializing in marijuana policies.
"For me, first and foremost it's a civil liberties issue," Johnson said, adding that states also can gain revenue through regulating marijuana.
What's next? #009
Viets and Johnson both named Missouri, Massachusetts and California as the states they expect will vote on legalization in 2016. Viets said he also expects Maine, Nevada and New Hampshire to have marijuana reform measures on the ballot.
Listed as "#009" on the Missouri Secretary of State's office website, the Missouri petition is in the midst of a 30-day public comment period that expires Jan. 2. If approved for circulation, the petition would require the signatures of at least 8 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the 2012 election for governor in at least six of the eight Missouri congressional districts, according to the Missouri Secretary of State's office. That's a minimum of 157,788 valid signatures.
Spencer Pearson of Columbia, a host of the cannabis podcast "Bowl after Bowl," is optimistic despite the task ahead.
"Momentum is definitely on our side," Pearson said. "We anticipate that by 2016, support will only get stronger."
Lessons learned in Oregon
The three most important things Johnson said helped win the Oregon election were having a law that contains sound regulations, adequate campaign funding to "effectively educate voters about the measure" and mainstream political support.
Johnson said the Oregon law received endorsements from state officials, conservative media outlets and well-known figures in Oregonian public service that helped moderate voters "feel comfortable that it was a well-regulated system."
Endorsements came from the Register-Guard, Oregonian, Mail Tribune, East Oregonian, a former Oregon Supreme Court judge, former members of law enforcement and the retired director of Oregon's Addictions and Mental Health Services division.
Johnson said marijuana legalization "cuts across political affiliation" and that Alaska provides a good example for campaigning in conservative-leaning states. Still, he said, Missouri might face its own challenges given the differences in the Oregon and Missouri landscapes. Oregon had effective mail-in ballot policies, high voter turnout and an existing framework of legalized medical marijuana.
"These type of issues tend to do better when there is a big turnout," Johnson said.
Johnson also said campaigning in two large media markets, St. Louis and Kansas City, would be much more expensive than what he experienced in Oregon.
Missouri's advantage: volunteers
Despite potential challenges, Johnson said Missouri has a strong advantage because it will start with a much larger volunteer base than Oregon did two years before the election.
"We are prepared, and we are confident that we will legalize in 2016," Pearson said. With organized groups in Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia, Jefferson City, Springfield, Joplin, Kirksville, Cape Girardeau and other cities, it is also one of the most organized volunteer bases, Viets said.
Other volunteer groups that have confirmed participation in the campaign are the MU National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the MU Students for Sensible Drug Policy, founded by Johnson more than a decade ago.
MU NORML President Benton Berigan and Duell Lauderdale of Students for Sensible Drug Policy said they will be helping register voters, collect signatures and host public forums and educational events to get the marijuana initiative on the ballot. Berigan said it's an important public policy issue.
"Last year over 20,000 people were arrested in Missouri, and Missouri spent close to $50 million prosecuting people for possessing a drug less harmful than alcohol, to the user and society as a whole," Berigan said.
The Missouri Department of Public Safety has estimated more than $200 million in new revenue if cannabis were to be taxed and licensed in Missouri, according to the Missouri State Auditor.
"With our current policies, we are also losing the potential for revenue by not taxing purchases of cannabis," Berigan said.
It remains unclear whether Missouri will receive money from political action committees for a campaign to legalize marijuana, as other states have. Johnson said the Oregon campaign got nearly half its money, about $1.9 million, from the Drug Policy Alliance, $1.2 million from the New Approach Oregon and an additional $900,000 in private donations, mostly from Oregon residents.
Viets said money will be one of the most important factors to a successful campaign. He expects the bulk of the money to come from Missouri donors.
Johnson thinks the measure will resonate in the Show-Me State.
"You have a population that is using marijuana – a substance that is less harmful, less addictive than alcohol and tobacco – and they can have their freedom and property taken away for that," Johnson said. "That provides the motivation for volunteers to be active, while better prioritizing law enforcement resources and generating millions of dollars in new revenue should appeal to mainstream Missouri voters."
News Moderator: Shandar @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Columbia Missourian
Author: Rebecca Greenway
Contact: About the Missourian - Columbia Missourian
Website: Leader of Oregon's marijuana movement sets sights on Missouri - Columbia Missourian
Johnson, a former Missouri resident and MU graduate who took an interest in the reform of marijuana laws while a student in Columbia, worked for more than two years on the marijuana campaign in Oregon. That effort culminated in approval of the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. He's planning to help a similar measure pass in Missouri.
"It'll be important for people living in Missouri to take the lead, but I will definitely provide advice from my experience," Johnson said.
Johnson sits on the board of Show-Me Cannabis but will stay in Oregon to work on the implementation of the newly passed drug policies there. The most important thing to sustaining Oregon's legalization law, which appeared on the ballot as Measure 91, is to ensure that it is successfully regulated and that marijuana is taxed similar to how alcohol and cigarettes are, Johnson said.
Marijuana will not be formally legalized in Oregon until July 1. People who want to sell marijuana could wait as long as mid-2016 to get business licenses.
Johnson said the efforts of reform advocates are often misunderstood.
"I think over the course of the marijuana legalization campaign, the proponents of legalizing marijuana are often portrayed as being pro-marijuana," he said, "when the truth is, no one is advocating for marijuana use. It's really a pro-regulation position."
Oregonians passed the measure with just more than 56 percent of voters' support. On the same day, voters in Washington, D.C., and in Alaska passed marijuana legalization with 69 percent and 52 percent approval, respectively, according to the Associated Press.
Columbia attorney Dan Viets is chairman of the Show-Me Cannabis board and recently submitted the statewide marijuana measure for approval by the Missouri Secretary of State's office. He's optimistic Missourians will approve the ballot issue.
"(Statewide) marijuana reform has been on the ballot in five places in the past two years, and it's passed," Viets said. "It's won every one of those elections."
Johnson: 'It's been a long road.'
Viets and Johnson have known each other since about 2003. After growing up in Lexington, known for the Battle of the Hemp Bales in 1861, Johnson graduated as class president and captain of his school's football and wrestling teams. He heard Viets talk about marijuana reform for the first time when he was a student at MU.
"It turned out that Dan Viets was helping the NORML chapter at the University of Missouri," Johnson said. He viewed Viets as "someone who was knowledgeable about the issue, was articulate, and (I) started volunteering for the cause then."
Johnson went to law school to become a criminal defense lawyer. He and Viets co-authored the decriminalization and medical ordinances passed by Columbia voters in 2004.
"I had been working on the issue for about 15 years, starting when I was in a dorm room at the University of Missouri," Johnson said. "I saw firsthand African-American friends treated more harshly for marijuana than my white, middle-class friends, and that was what started my activism."
After graduating, Johnson moved with his wife, Sarah Duff, to live with friends and to study for the Oregon bar exam. He practiced law for two years before specializing in marijuana policies.
"For me, first and foremost it's a civil liberties issue," Johnson said, adding that states also can gain revenue through regulating marijuana.
What's next? #009
Viets and Johnson both named Missouri, Massachusetts and California as the states they expect will vote on legalization in 2016. Viets said he also expects Maine, Nevada and New Hampshire to have marijuana reform measures on the ballot.
Listed as "#009" on the Missouri Secretary of State's office website, the Missouri petition is in the midst of a 30-day public comment period that expires Jan. 2. If approved for circulation, the petition would require the signatures of at least 8 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the 2012 election for governor in at least six of the eight Missouri congressional districts, according to the Missouri Secretary of State's office. That's a minimum of 157,788 valid signatures.
Spencer Pearson of Columbia, a host of the cannabis podcast "Bowl after Bowl," is optimistic despite the task ahead.
"Momentum is definitely on our side," Pearson said. "We anticipate that by 2016, support will only get stronger."
Lessons learned in Oregon
The three most important things Johnson said helped win the Oregon election were having a law that contains sound regulations, adequate campaign funding to "effectively educate voters about the measure" and mainstream political support.
Johnson said the Oregon law received endorsements from state officials, conservative media outlets and well-known figures in Oregonian public service that helped moderate voters "feel comfortable that it was a well-regulated system."
Endorsements came from the Register-Guard, Oregonian, Mail Tribune, East Oregonian, a former Oregon Supreme Court judge, former members of law enforcement and the retired director of Oregon's Addictions and Mental Health Services division.
Johnson said marijuana legalization "cuts across political affiliation" and that Alaska provides a good example for campaigning in conservative-leaning states. Still, he said, Missouri might face its own challenges given the differences in the Oregon and Missouri landscapes. Oregon had effective mail-in ballot policies, high voter turnout and an existing framework of legalized medical marijuana.
"These type of issues tend to do better when there is a big turnout," Johnson said.
Johnson also said campaigning in two large media markets, St. Louis and Kansas City, would be much more expensive than what he experienced in Oregon.
Missouri's advantage: volunteers
Despite potential challenges, Johnson said Missouri has a strong advantage because it will start with a much larger volunteer base than Oregon did two years before the election.
"We are prepared, and we are confident that we will legalize in 2016," Pearson said. With organized groups in Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia, Jefferson City, Springfield, Joplin, Kirksville, Cape Girardeau and other cities, it is also one of the most organized volunteer bases, Viets said.
Other volunteer groups that have confirmed participation in the campaign are the MU National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the MU Students for Sensible Drug Policy, founded by Johnson more than a decade ago.
MU NORML President Benton Berigan and Duell Lauderdale of Students for Sensible Drug Policy said they will be helping register voters, collect signatures and host public forums and educational events to get the marijuana initiative on the ballot. Berigan said it's an important public policy issue.
"Last year over 20,000 people were arrested in Missouri, and Missouri spent close to $50 million prosecuting people for possessing a drug less harmful than alcohol, to the user and society as a whole," Berigan said.
The Missouri Department of Public Safety has estimated more than $200 million in new revenue if cannabis were to be taxed and licensed in Missouri, according to the Missouri State Auditor.
"With our current policies, we are also losing the potential for revenue by not taxing purchases of cannabis," Berigan said.
It remains unclear whether Missouri will receive money from political action committees for a campaign to legalize marijuana, as other states have. Johnson said the Oregon campaign got nearly half its money, about $1.9 million, from the Drug Policy Alliance, $1.2 million from the New Approach Oregon and an additional $900,000 in private donations, mostly from Oregon residents.
Viets said money will be one of the most important factors to a successful campaign. He expects the bulk of the money to come from Missouri donors.
Johnson thinks the measure will resonate in the Show-Me State.
"You have a population that is using marijuana – a substance that is less harmful, less addictive than alcohol and tobacco – and they can have their freedom and property taken away for that," Johnson said. "That provides the motivation for volunteers to be active, while better prioritizing law enforcement resources and generating millions of dollars in new revenue should appeal to mainstream Missouri voters."
News Moderator: Shandar @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Columbia Missourian
Author: Rebecca Greenway
Contact: About the Missourian - Columbia Missourian
Website: Leader of Oregon's marijuana movement sets sights on Missouri - Columbia Missourian
