Posted: August 1, 2012 at 7:11 am
New Billboard Campaign on Medical Marijuana Initiative
A billboard that reads “Welcome to Yellowstone County, Where the Will of the People Doesn’t Count” us up on Montana Avenue in Billings. The billboard encourages Montanans to vote “NO” on IR-124.
Initiative Referendum 124 (IR-124) is the voter initiative that will appear on this year’s ballot. It allows voters keep or reject the new medical marijuana law passed by the infamous 2011 “Bat Crap Crazy” Montana legislature. (An initiative referendum is the process for citizens to put bills passed by the legislature on the ballot for everyone to vote on.) The new law, Senate Bill 423, sponsored by Billings Republican Jeff Essmann, repealed the citizen initiative voters passed in 2004 in favor of medical marijuana. A “YES” vote is to keep the Jeff Essmann law, a “NO” vote is to reject it. (An easy way to remember how to vote on the ballet items this year is to vote “NO” on everything except the one about Citizens United.)
During the 2011 session, the Governor called SB 423 “unconstitutional on its face,” and issued an amendatory veto to fix the parts he considered legally defective. The legislature rejected his changes.
Essmann had thought to run for Governor on the Republican ticket, but he ended up quickly dropping out of the race. Everywhere he went, the state Senator from Billings was hounded by by large numbers of angry protestors, upset with Essmann over the his notorious medical marijuana stance. It got so bad that when the Republican announced his campaign for Governor, Essmann did it the only way he could find to avoid the angry crowds: on a conference call.
So voters got together and collected the signatures to get IR-124 on the ballot to let Montanans have the last word–the chance to vote “YES” or “NO” on whether Jeff Essmann’s medical marijuana bill should stand.
The billboard was put up by the Montana Cannabis Industry Association, best known for its legal challenge to the current medical marijuana law:
“Through their repeal efforts, the legislature ignored the will of the people and claimed to be abiding by it all at the same time,” says Chris Lindsey, President of the MTCIA. “First, they rushed to repeal the original law and leave patients with nothing. When that failed, the same group of people came up with their current back-door effort at repeal – by making participation in the state program as painful and risky as possible. Voters need to regain control of this issue, repeal the current terrible law and demand a realistic set of regulations. No one wants to go back to the way things were, but what we have now is worse for patients.”
I hope Essmann, & our Mayor see it daily.
Both have blinders on….probably from sticking their noses between the witch Brady’s tits.
Vote against Tim Fox. Fox plans to institute a major state crackdown on cannabis in Montana, thinking to solidify the religious right. If you stay home this election cycle, the loss is not only yours, but will be felt by everyone.
KTVQ did a story last night on the billboard.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ktvq.com%2Fvideos%2Fq2-5-30-news-top-headlines-8-1-12%2F&h=ZAQExyx5n
Nice! That’s great. Essmann is such a tool.
Nobody wants to go back to the way things were? You mean the free for all where a hangnail would get you a card?
While plenty of “motivated” tokers signed the petition drive, there are plenty of motivated non-tokers out there who felt betrayed by the “cannabis industry” and annoyed by the apparently righteous Federal busts….
I’ll be voting yes.
This new law is horrible. Cash Hyde’s family is having hard times as are many patients. True patients who are helped with cannabis are being harmed.
Those you refer to with a hangnail to get a card are doing fine on the Blackmarket.
http://wcax.images.worldnow.com/images/1729754_G.jpg
I agree completely that legit patients are being hosed. But that’s the fault of the tokeheads. I support genuine medical pot for people in hurt.
But I refused to sign the ballot petition after I’d read the language, voted against it because I figured it would be a circus.
A shame, really. It all went straight to the lowest common denominator and a huge opportunity has been wasted. Koff.
I agree with Dave. Vote YES to repeal the initiative. Pot sales should be kept criminal, to support the Mexican drug cartels. They, in turn, support our fine American firearms manufacturing industry.
A vote YES is a vote for American jobs.
The legislature ignored the issues in 05, 07, & 09. Then instead of our input on fixing, they went on a rampage of repeal. Once it was vetoed they did a pseudo-repeal with 423. All in the last week. They didn’t fix anything but made it worse.
Blame Helena’s ineffectiveness.
Remember we did pass 148 but the government agency implemented the rules. So I don’t think we can blame the voters for what people see as a mess. There are such things as administrative rules.
One thing that is important to remember is that administrative rules can only be made within the confines of the law, so if a law lacks structure, administrative rules can’t put it in. It just means that the ballot initiative could have been better written. Obviously that isn’t the voters’ fault, rather that is the fault of the drafters of the initiative. I’m sure they didn’t intend to make it have unintended consequences. That’s where the legislature should have made minor tweaks so that administrative rules could have fixed things. the 2005 legislature, the 2007, and 2009 legislature did nothing, so when the 2011 legislature–and all its foibles, came to town, the problems started.