As of Monday, February 20th, we supposedly have two months left for signature gathering before the final deadline of April 20th. However, with an avalanche of 65 statewide petitions competing for signatures, we can forget about the last 30 days, since signatures will be three to four times what they are now. Any campaign that expects to pay for signatures in the last month had better have at least $5 million to get the job done.
So, for all intents and purposes, all the current cannabis initiatives have until March 20th to turn in 805,000 signatures.
Thankfully, our goal with the 'Like Wine' campaign of matching or exceeding the Prop. 215 and 19 campaigns has been accomplished. Regardless of what the funders decide, we can honestly say that in every category, this campaign team has already achieved unprecedented success:
- We are polling at an all-time high of 62%. In contrast the highest Prop. 19 ever polled was 52%, while Prop. 215 won with 56% in the 1996 election. Our historic polling shows that an impressive majority of voters trust the regulatory system used for wine to properly and safely regulate marijuana.
- Our poll also shows that we were wise to keep the age limit at 21 years old, since our results show over 70% opposition to allowing anyone under 21 to legally use cannabis. That corresponds with other surveys that have found 75-77% negative polling for reducing the drinking age below 21.
- Endorsements for the 'Like Wine' campaign includes conservatives who have opposed previous initiatives, but strongly support this effort. Furthermore, we have won the support of L.E.A.P., the Libertarian Party, as well as distinguished leaders of the cannabis community.
- The Like Wine campaign has collected more signatures than the 215 campaign had collected when we got the word that Zimmer, Soros, Lewis and Sperling were ready to give us the money to qualify for the ballot.
- The 'Like Wine' campaign has collected $150,000 so far, which exceeds the amounts raised, at this stage, by both the 215 campaign and, if you subtract Richard Lee's personal contribution of $1.2 million, the Prop. 19 campaign as well.
- Our campaign has also created the new legal tools we will need to defeat the Federal attack on our Constitutional rights and state sovereignty. Those tools include: Banning cooperation with the Feds, prohibiting grants from the Feds, ordering the state to opt out of the Controlled Substance Act, and requiring the state to defend the new measure against all legal challenges, local, state or federal.
Obviously, we can't control what the major funders will decide, but we know that they are all aware of our campaign and our poll. We also know that everyone we have spoken to has told us that they are already heavily invested in other initiatives in other states.
Apparently, nobody believed we could poll so high in California, especially after the defeat of Prop. 19. As a result, it caught all of the major funders by surprise.Now the ball is in their court and we must patiently and respectfully await their decision. Meanwhile, I'd like to thank our volunteers, contributors, supporters, staff, advisors and our distinguished executive board for a job well done.