cannabisnews.com: Initiatives a Sign of Distrust





Initiatives a Sign of Distrust
Posted by FoM on April 22, 2000 at 11:44:58 PT
By Mike McCloy, The Arizona Republic
Source: Arizona Central
Forget the Legislature. The people of Arizona are taking government into their own hands. A dozen initiatives and referendums are making their way toward the Nov. 7 ballot. Voters may decide on proposals to limit growth and taxes, legalize drugs, deregulate telephone service and spend billions in tobacco-settlement money. 
Weighty issues. Are the voters smart enough to resolve them effectively? Or will they bungle budgets and monkey-wrench Arizona into California-style chaos? Pundits such as Washington Post columnist David Broder say California has been tarnished by a decline in education, police protection, libraries and other services. It started with a 1978 property tax revolt of the people. Critics say Proposition 13 spawned an "initiative industrial complex" where campaign professionals combine cash and media savvy to cram every ballot with proposals that hogtie government from the capital to the farthest fire district in the forest. And if they're doing it in California, can Arizona be far behind? The Grand Canyon State already has seen what a few people with big money can do with a catchy issue, like legalizing marijuana for people suffering from cancer. "The harm is that one person can change the law in Arizona," said Bruce Merrill, Arizona State University political science professor and pollster. "Does John Sperling speak for the people of Arizona?" Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix, pooled more than $1 million with international financier George Soros and Cleveland businessman Peter Lewis to declare war on the war on drugs in 1996. It's become a war on government, as well. Major medical marijuana initiatives were approved for Arizona in each of the past two general elections, and another one is headed for the Nov. 7 ballot -- all of them opposed by law enforcement officials and most state leaders. Sperling, Soros and Lewis have kicked in $200,000 apiece, said Sam Vagenas, spokesman for the Drug Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act of 2000. A good chunk of the money goes toward paying people who circulate petitions; the circulators command up to $1.50 for each of the 101,762 required signatures on petition drives to place an initiative on the ballot. "We're almost there," Vagenas said. "It'll qualify for the 2000 ballot." The latest proposal would parole everyone in Arizona serving prison sentences for simple drug possession. It also orders Attorney General Janet Napolitano to distribute marijuana to anyone with a doctor's excuse. "This is a law office," Napolitano said. "It's a prosecution office. It is not a pharmacy." Police and prosecutors have hired a consultant to campaign against the initiative. They have little other choice. After law enforcement lobbyists gutted the first medical marijuana initiative at the Legislature in 1997, supporters rallied. "The People Have Spoken" was the name of a referendum group in 1998 that rebuked lawmakers and restored most of the drug-legalization initiative. And in what many interpret as a "Power to the People" message, Arizonans also passed the Voter Protection Act, requiring a three-quarters majority vote of the Legislature to change or kill any popular initiative. This year, the Legislature struck back at the electorate. By a single vote in the House and Senate, lawmakers posted a referendum that would limit the people's initiative power under the state Constitution. Backed by hunters and hated by animal lovers, the referendum asks voters to decide whether a two-thirds supermajority should be required to pass initiatives on contest hunts and other wildlife-management issues. "This proposal sets a terrible precedent which empowers a minority of voters to block the will of a majority," said Sen. Chris Cummiskey, D-central Phoenix. The majority is capable of abusing the power of initiatives as well. High on TV commercials bought by anonymous millionaires, the majority can stampede past the Legislature to the ballot box, trampling the constitutional rights of the minority. In his book, Democracy Derailed, Broder calls initiatives "a weakening of our republican form of government." But the Arizona Legislature is already paralyzed by partisan infighting, arrogance and intrigue, according to Dennis Burke, director of the state chapter of Common Cause. Burke admitted that initiatives may not be the best way to handle some issues, such as tax and revenue allocation. But lawmakers struggled 100 days this spring and barely began the job of parceling the state's $3 billion tobacco settlement. "There is no honest deliberative process at the Legislature," Burke said. "They'll listen to the lobbyists. They'll listen to themselves. They'll laugh at the public and go home." Rep. Jerry Overton, R-Litchfield Park, knows that feeling. He is sponsoring an initiative to require voter approval of virtually all tax increases, after he introduced unsuccessful bills year after year. "There is a problem with the initiative system," Overton acknowledged. "If you can raise $200,000, you can get 200,000 signatures. After you get it on the ballot, if you've got enough money and can convince the newspapers, you can get it passed. That's wrong. "But it's also wrong for something as big as my initiative is, it's wrong that the Legislature doesn't allow it." Environmentalists say they launched the Citizens Growth Management Initiative because they couldn't get governors or lawmakers to see that growth is part of a serious air pollution problem in the Valley. "We couldn't get the political leaders, except at the local level, to realize that it all related to land use," campaign spokeswoman Renee Guillory said. "Not even a study committee could get through the Legislature." So it goes. The people don't trust government to represent them. The government doesn't trust the people with initiatives. This thread of distrust twists through the proposals that will crowd the Nov. 7 ballot. But by the end of Election Day, Burke trusts Arizona voters to tie it all together. His group is pushing a ballot proposal for a citizens commission to replace the Legislature as the agency that will redraw legislative and congressional districts after the 2000 census. "It's rare that a bad initiative gets passed," Burke said. "When something goofy gets on the ballot, it gets an awful lot of attention. I don't worry . . . the way some people worry about it." Reach the reporter at: Mike.McCloy ArizonaRepublic.com or (602) 444-8111. Published: April 22, 2000Copyright 2000, Arizona CentralCannabisNews Articles On Initiatives: http://google.com/search?lc=&num=10&q=cannabisnews+Initiatives+site:cannabisnews.com
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Comment #3 posted by dddd on April 23, 2000 at 14:32:15 PT
Complex
It is extremely disturbing to hear what this article is saying about ballot initiatives. I think the worst problem is,that while it is a way to let voters battle demagogery,It also has a high potential for abuse from corporate and big money interests,who can clandestinly fund huge media campaigns,and propaganda,making their causes appear as "grassroots".Furthermore,another problem is many of these initiatives are worded such,that they are nearly incomprehendable to the average voter......dddd
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on April 23, 2000 at 05:10:04 PT:
Those who govern inevitably become contemtuous
of the governed. After all, if the governed allow the governors to get away with all kinds of high crimes and misdemeanors, then they must be fools, and deserving of no respect, right?'Police and prosecutors have hired a consultant to campaign against the initiative. They have little other choice. After *law enforcement lobbyists* (emphasis mine) gutted the first medical marijuana initiative at the Legislature in 1997, supporters rallied. "The People Have Spoken" was the name of a referendum group in 1998 that rebuked lawmakers and restored most of the drug-legalization initiative. And in what many interpret as a "Power to the People" message, Arizonans also passed the Voter Protection Act, requiring a three-quarters majority vote of the Legislature to change or kill any popular initiative. This year, the Legislature *struck back at the electorate*. (again, emphasis mine)By a single vote in the House and Senate, lawmakers posted a referendum that would limit the people's initiative power under the state Constitution.' This is extraordinary... and ominous. Prior to the disgraceful actions of Bob Barr and his ilk in Washington DC over their attempt to prevent the ballot being counted for MMJ, we had this spectacle; we had the precursor of the Arizona legislature denying the 'will of the people' by invalidating their vote on Prop200. The people (the People, mind you! The voters!) went *back* to the voting booths and made it plain that they knew EXACTLY what they were doing the first time. It wasn't the lobbyists pulling the levers in those voting booths (unless they were quick change atrists, masters of disguises a la the old Mission Impossible series, replete with phony IDs out the wazoo) it was the People. And still the pols don't listen.This almost unthinking contempt of lawmakers for their *employers*, for the E Pluribus, I refer to as the Potomac Disease. I used to think that no matter how well WSSC filtered the water, somehow the pols were infected by something there. But this is endemic... or *pan*demic. There's only one way to get rid of the disease; and that's to get rid of the carriers, a la -hoof-and-mouth. Come November, it's time to put these uncivil Civil Servants out of office. And remember... they've made it real easy; they've done everything shy of painting big orange bull'seyes on their stuffed shirts. Their voting records are public knowledge. 
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Comment #1 posted by observer on April 23, 2000 at 02:23:35 PT
Distrust Government, Question Authority
Experience [has] shown that, even under the best forms [of government], those entrusted with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.-- Thomas Jefferson: Diffusion of Knowledge Bill, 1779.I think it is a duty in those entrusted with the administration of their affairs to conform themselves to the decided choice of their constituents.-- Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1785.Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.-- Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801. ME 3:320 Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law.--Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1819. Mistrust those in whom the urge to punish is strong. -- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.-- Albert Einstein (1879-1955) ...also remember FIJA:"FIJA [Fully Informed Jury Association] is a non-profit educational association whose mission is to inform all Americans about their rights, powers and responsibilties when serving as trial jurors. FIJA also seeks to restore the political function of the jury as the final check and balance on the American system of government..."http://www.FIJA.org 1(800)TELL-JURY or 1(800)TEL-JURY
We're from the government and we're here to help you
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