{"id":5831,"date":"2016-04-08T20:58:49","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T20:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/?p=49026"},"modified":"2016-04-08T20:58:49","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T20:58:49","slug":"maine-judge-reverses-state-decision-to-keep-marijuana-legalization-off-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/maine-judge-reverses-state-decision-to-keep-marijuana-legalization-off-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine Judge Reverses State Decision to Keep Marijuana Legalization Off Ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/maine-judge-reverses-state-decision-to-keep-marijuana-legalization-off-ballot\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>The effort to legalize marijuana in Maine appears to be back from the dead.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, a judge reversed Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap&#8217;s decision to invalidate thousands of signatures needed to qualify a legalization initiative for the November ballot.<\/p>\n<p>Last month\u00a0Dunlap\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/blog\/news\/2016\/03\/maine-marijuana-legalization-initiative-fails-to-qualify-for-november-ballot\/\">threw out<\/a>\u00a0a large batch\u00a0of voter signatures because, he said, the signatures of a single\u00a0notary on the petitions did not match the one on file with the state.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the cannabis initiative did not have enough valid signatures to meet the threshold of\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">61,123 needed to qualify.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">Advocates behind the initiative <\/span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/blog\/news\/2016\/03\/maine-marijuana-legalization-advocates-sue-over-ballot-access\/\">sued<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">, asking the courts to overturn the decision.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Justice Michaela Murphy agreed, ruling that state officials did not actually review every petition in question.<\/p>\n<p>The requirement that a notary&#8217;s signature on petitions must exactly match the one on file is &#8220;vague, subjective, and unduly burdens this unique and fundamental right&#8221; for citizens to petition, Murphy wrote. &#8220;While the State of Maine has a compelling interest to ensure that all petitions submitted for consideration in a direct initiative are valid, requiring a Notary&#8217;s signature to appear identically on every petition signed is unreasonable and abridges the Constitutional right to initiative.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The judge ruled that the\u00a0Secretary of State&#8217;s office must now go back and review the disputed petitions. If it is found that enough signatures on those petitions are valid, Mainers will join voters in as many as four or five other states in getting a chance to end marijuana prohibition this November.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are extremely pleased with the court\u2019s decision to send our initiative back to the secretary of state for re-review,&#8221;\u00a0David Boyer, campaign manager for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulatemaine.org\/\">Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol<\/a>, said in a press release. &#8220;As was the case when we submitted our signatures to the secretary of state originally, we know that a sufficient number of registered voters signed the petition to qualify for the ballot. So this re-review should now be a mere formality. Once the Secretary of State\u2019s Office has completed its work, we look forward to launching the formal part of our campaign and educating Maine voters about the benefits of regulating marijuana like alcohol.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kristen Schulze Muszynski, a spokesman for Dunlap, told Marijuana.com in an email that her office is reviewing its options, including the possibility of appealing Murhpy&#8217;s ruling to a higher court.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The decision is under review right now, however, and I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll have a statement today on how we will be proceeding,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>The office has three business days to file an appeal, beginning on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>If the measure qualifies for the ballot and is approved by voters, it\u00a0will\u00a0allow adults over 21 years of age to possess up to two and a half\u00a0ounces of marijuana and grow up to six flowering plants and 12 immature plants.\u00a0The state\u00a0Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry will\u00a0regulate the newly legal cannabis industry, and the measure will\u00a0impose a 10% tax on retail sales. Cities and towns will\u00a0have the right to prohibit marijuana businesses.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">Scott Gagnon, Maine director for Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an anti-legalization group, called Murhpy&#8217;s ruling &#8220;disappointing and unsettling&#8221; in a press release.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will certainly be examining all options and strategies for the weeks and months ahead, and we will be prepared should this indeed find its way to the ballot in November,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We will continue to share with Mainers the risks of commercialized marijuana to youth, families and communities. We are confident that if this does come to a vote, Mainers will reject the out of state, Big Marijuana agenda to profit off of addiction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">A\u00a0poll last spring <\/span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5\" href=\"http:\/\/bangordailynews.com\/2015\/11\/04\/opinion\/contributors\/marijuana-legalization-can-build-on-maines-medical-cannabis-model\/\">found<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\"> that 65 percent of likely Maine voters\u00a0support legalizing marijuana.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>If a sufficient number of signatures are deemed valid following the Secretary of State&#8217;s re-review, Maine will be\u00a0the second state to officially qualify\u00a0a legalization initiative for this year\u2019s ballot, after Nevada.<\/p>\n<p>Florida officials have also certified\u00a0a medical cannabis\u00a0amendment. It is expected that advocates will soon secure full legalization initiatives in Arizona, California and Massachusetts, while medical marijuana seems likely to qualify in Ohio. Local activists\u00a0are also pushing a full legalization initiative in Michigan and medical cannabis ones in Arkansas and Missouri, but those efforts have not to date\u00a0secured major funding from national organizations with track records of\u00a0qualifying ballot measures.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere in New England, lawmakers in Vermont and Rhode Island are considering legislation to end marijuana prohibition. Vermont\u00a0could be the first state to enact legalization through the state legislature instead of via a ballot initiative. The state&#8217;s Senate in February\u00a0approved a bill to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis, but it has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/blog\/news\/2016\/04\/vermont-marijauna-legalization-in-jeopardy\/\">encountered roadblocks<\/a> in the House of Representatives. Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) has pledged to sign a\u00a0legalization bill into law\u00a0if it reaches his desk.<\/p>\n<p>Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/307454059\/Maine-Judges-Revives-Legal-Marijuana-Effort\">full ruling on Maine&#8217;s marijuana petition signatures<\/a>\u00a0below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"\/\/www.scribd.com\/embeds\/307454059\/content?start_page=1&#038;view_mode=&#038;access_key=key-t0hvP7GVITohM4IxuLZA\" data-auto-height=\"true\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"scribd_307454059\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size:10px;text-align:center;width:100%\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/307454059\">View this document on Scribd<\/a><\/div>\n<p><em>Photo courtesy of Allie Beckett.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The effort to legalize marijuana in Maine appears to be back from the dead. On Friday, a judge reversed Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap&#8217;s decision to invalidate thousands of signatures needed to qualify a legalization initiative for the November ballot. Last month\u00a0Dunlap\u00a0threw out\u00a0a large batch\u00a0of voter signatures because, he said, the signatures of a single\u00a0notary [&#8230;] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2417,9,1,3],"tags":[2419],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}