The SensibleBC marijuana decriminalization campaign is nearing half the needed 2,500 signatures in Columbia River–Revelstoke.
Ashlee Taylor, the Kimberley-based organizer in this riding, said the campaign will be targeting Revelstoke because our petition count is lagging behind other communities in the riding.
“I am thinking advertising,” Taylor said of the poor response in Revelstoke, where about 200 petition signatures had been counted and filed at headquarters as of last week. “It was even hard for me in Kimberley to find out how [to participate].”
Since taking over from a regional organizer, Taylor has signed up 41 canvassers, but has only two in Revelstoke; neither were prepared to go door to door.
Taylor appealed to Revelstoke locals to get involved, and said the SensibleBC’s mobile campaign headquarters – the Cannibus – was likely visit Revelstoke soon to bolster their campaign here.
The minimum of about 2,500 – or 10 per cent of registered voters – will be needed by the end of November.
Despite being less that half-way there at the mid-point of the qualifying period, Taylor is confident they will make it. She said the local campaign didn’t get off the ground for weeks, and has been ramping up since. She also said a lack of local online presence had hurt the campaign, but they’ve got that taken care of now.
“[The petition numbers] should start going up really quickly,” she said.
The SensibleBC campaign hopes to force a referendum that, if it passes, would decriminalize cannabis possession by directing police not to try to prosecute possession of marijuana, amongst other details.
The strategy amounts to a provincial end-run around federal drug laws.
More information on their campaign is available through their website at sensiblebc.ca.