Not Enough Marijuana Supporters
A proposed ballot measure which would’ve mandated that marijuana-related crimes be the lowest law enforcement priority in Portland has failed to gather enough signatures [PDF] to be put on the ballot.
I know there’s plenty of ganja-friendly folk in town, so I have to wonder, are they all out buying Doritos? Or, perhaps the element of society which would push for less marijuana enforcement probably aren’t the most active and likely to be on the voter registration lists?
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I think you hit the nail on the head with that later statement.
I personally find the war on drugs as a whole a bad technique, and any many ways useless on a large scale. Thus I signed that petition, but many of those I saw that where wanting to sign it are the same part of the population that don’t care, feel alienated, and are apathetic as a whole.
I think it’s more a sign of our growing irritation with the signature gathering process.
It’s one I would have signed, but I believe that’s what the guy was carrying who my husband scared away by growling “sorry registered felon” after we were hit up like 5 times in a 2 block walk.
Yeah, people need to stop with the Doritos/apathy chiches (I know lots of professionals, alpha-types, and parents that dabble). The fact is, people are too wary of signature gatherers. The only way a proposal gets on the ballot anymore is if gets passed around at churches… the us-against-them pulpit of political opportunism seems to have more credibility. And advantage.
I wonder sometimes if people know they’re being ‘had’. That it’s natural for political forces to try to align with the voice of God, in places where people congregate to hear what’s right and wrong. It’s like a weekly political caucus rather than objective worship.
I wouldn’t sign that precisely because of the signature gathering process. On my walk to and from PSU every day, I must get hit up three or four times for a signature. That doesn’t include the signature gatherers who hang out on MAX walking up and down the train, gathering signatures.
I wouldn’t mind if these people knew what the heck they were having people sign. Something’s got to be changed about that process — it’s obnoxious, and it’s turning people off of otherwise good proposals.
Buy Pot at Pike Place Farmers Market’s Steinbrueck Park, a Seattle Public Marijuana Marketplace.