Idaho Mountain Express: Hailey voters say ?yes? to marijuana reforms

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Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Hailey voters say ?yes? to marijuana reforms

Results likely to lead to more litigation

By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Hailey's electorate approved three of four marijuana legalization or reform initiatives in a city election Tuesday, Nov. 6.

Voter returns that came in late Tuesday night showed close voting but approval of initiatives to legalize medical use of marijuana, to make enforcement of marijuana laws the city's lowest police priority and to legalize industrial use of hemp.

The initiative that failed would have mandated the city to regulate and tax marijuana sales and to establish a Community Oversight Committee to iron out the details for legalization.

The three approved initiatives also require the Community Oversight Committee to work out the details for implementation. The initiatives further require that the city of Hailey lobby other branches of government for the reform of marijuana laws.

The taxation and regulation initiative failed by a vote of 573-674, while the marijuana medical initiative passed by a vote of 687-581.

Hailey voters favored the police priority initiative by a margin of 637-601. The industrial hemp measure passed by 683-565.

Hailey City Clerk Heather Dawson said 1,288 voters of the city's 3,494 registered electorate turned out to vote in Tuesday's election.

Ryan Davidson, chairman of The Liberty Lobby of Idaho and the man who got the initiatives on the Hailey ballot, could not be reached for comment late Tuesday but said earlier that he was confident the initiatives would succeed.

The vote on the initiatives culminated more than three years of work on Davidson's behalf to put legalization issues before voters in the Wood River Valley. He started the project in August of 2004 when he presented initiating petitions for legalization to the cities of Hailey, Sun Valley and Ketchum. All three entities denied his petitions and a series of court actions ensued.

In September 2006, Davidson won a major victory when the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that municipalities do not have the right to determine the constitutionality of proposed initiatives. With that victory in hand, Davidson renewed his legalization efforts in 2007 and successfully landed the four initiatives on this year's Hailey general election ballot.

He continues to work his proposed initiatives in Ketchum and Sun Valley and hopes to have them on ballots in those cities as early as the primary elections in May of 2008.

His work in the Wood River Valley is part of a larger grassroots effort to reform marijuana laws statewide.

Meanwhile, the Idaho Attorney General's Office has declined to say what it will do if any of the Hailey initiatives pass, but issued a statement last week reminding voters that possession of marijuana is a crime under both state and federal law.

City Attorney Ned Williamson predicted prior to the election that the city will be subjected to future litigation if the initiatives pass and said that the costs could be high for Hailey taxpayers.

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drfelix

05/21/08 - 21:39

COOL

roy sandefur – hailey idaho

11/10/07 - 05:24

like my brother
most people with cancer
(possibly getting chemo-therapy)
can not eat
almost all cancer victims ACTUALLY DIE from starvation

just being sick from the cancer kills yer apetite
and then the chemo makes you so nauseous
you can't keep anything down
even if you WERE hungry

pot makes you hungry
and stops the nausea
[b]and hemp oil raises yer immunity higher than any known substance[/b]
because the vital lipids are in perfect ballance
despite what anyone says
science has NOT come up with any substitute that works as well as pot for doing these things
without cannabis
my brother would have starved
that's all there is to it

roy sandefur – hailey idaho

11/09/07 - 13:32

the caps were not intentional
worst typist in the world
looked up
and i had hit the caps button accidentally
so i left it all caps
no screaming or disrespect intended
my apologies
text and explanation here:
forum.dwylbtzle.info
come discuss this more here

you can all scream all you want
he heee heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

roy sandefur – hailey idaho

11/09/07 - 13:06

blog.sunvalleyonline.com
more

roy sandefur – hailey idaho

11/09/07 - 05:43

This comment has been removed.

The Administrator says:

All cap messages are not permitted.

All caps signifies yelling or screaming.

Be polite or be removed

carson clark – pocatello

11/07/07 - 10:01

Thank you Ryan Davidson for your brave and undeterd efforts in all of our favors You have shown that the American way is still alive and thriving despite of our current administration I applaude you as do many others

Reply to carson clark

L – hailey

11/07/07 - 14:23

What a Hero.............

Arne Ryason

11/07/07 - 09:58

The fourth issue failed because cannabis should not be taxed! Get it off the streets, away from kids. Eliminate the black market by allowing adult users to grow their own indoors in a secure location. Man cannot tax what God has created for us! "The Lord said ..Afore harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches." (Isaiah 18:4-5)

roy sandefur – hailey idaho

11/07/07 - 06:19

we're world famous
and we changed the world
I like it
no
DO NOT SMOKE POT, KIDS
it's illegal
and bad for yer lungs
and not conducive to yer task of growing up
BY YER WITS!
you are straightly charged!

the idaho liberty lobby
is three people
ryan davidson
robert blakely
and myself
no lawyer

ryan was our law scholar
a yeoman's effort

no town council dare deign to assume they are the gatekeepers of the initiative process
so sayeth the supreme court

AS IS MEET

Greg Francisco

11/07/07 - 05:04

Common sense and American values triumph in Idaho. Thank you voters of Hailey.

After 70 years of cannabis prohibition the only success the professional prohibitionists can point to is a guarantee of lifetime employment to those doing the prohibiting.

Drug abuse is bad, the War on Drugs, Inc. is worse, Prohibition is the cure that is worse than the disease.

Legalize, regulate, tax, control. There is a better way.