Dana Larsen: Sensible B.C. still planning marijuana initiative campaign in 2013

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      Dana Larsen of Sensible B.C. sent today (November 22) the following statement to his marijuana-decriminalization campaign's supporters:

      Recent media coverage seems to have confused some people about our plan for the Sensible BC campaign.

      We submitted the Sensible Policing Act to Elections BC in September, in order to get approval and to confirm that the legislation was within provincial jurisdiction and suitable for a referendum

      As part of that process, Elections BC started the clock to count down the 90 days where we could collect official signatures.

      However, our intent was never to start trying to collect the official signatures right now. Although we know we have enough supporters out there, what we lack right now is the infrastructure and volunteers needed to collect the 400,000 needed signatures within 90 days.

      Our plan has always been to build support over the coming year, and then to refile the Sensible Policing Act with Elections BC in September 2013, to start the 90 day clock then, and to get the official signatures at that time.

      To save Elections BC some time and effort, we just withdrew our application for a ballot initiative once we had received their approval.

      It is a monumental effort to get 400,000 signatures in 90 days. The only way to succeed is to pre-register our supporters and get volunteers trained and in place well in advance.

      I have been on tour since October, putting on presentations and registering our supporters as I travel around the province.

      I am working to have most of our needed 400,000 supporters pre-registered and thousands of our volunteers in place before we start the official signature campaign next September.

      We have been giving out sign-up sheets, getting our volunteers to sign up more supporters, and building our database so that we will be ready to go in September 2013.

      The Recall and Initiative Act specifies that the next referendum is schedule for September 2014. So no matter when we collect the signatures, that's when the referendum will be held.

      I hope this clarifies our strategy. The Sensible BC campaign is going strong, everything is on track, and I am very pleased with our progress so far.

      Thanks for your support!

      Dana Larsen
      http://SensibleBC.ca

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