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Thursday, August 17, 2017 - 9:45am

Utah Patients Coalition to Launch 2018 Signature Drive for Medical Cannabis Ballot Initiative

 

Patients, advocates, and volunteers will host news conference to launch the signature drive in downtown Salt Lake City

 

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The campaign to place a medical cannabis initiative on the November 2018 ballot will hold a news conference on Thursday to announce the official launch of signature gathering efforts. The event will take place at 10:30 a.m. MT at the Gallivan Center, featuring campaign leaders, patients, and supporters. Volunteers will begin collecting signatures in downtown Salt Lake City immediately following the event.

The Utah Medical Cannabis Act received approval from Lt. Governor Spencer Cox on August 10 to begin gathering signatures after supporters held 10 public hearings across the state and met with various state departments and stakeholders. More than 113,000 valid signatures are required to qualify for the ballot.

The initiative would allow patients with certain qualifying conditions to legally and safely access medical cannabis with the recommendation of their doctor. It limits the number of dispensaries and cultivators, allows local zoning for medical cannabis facilities, prohibits using medical cannabis in public view, maintains the illegality of driving while intoxicated, and closely mirrors the legislation passed by the Utah Senate in 2016. Home cultivation and smoking medical cannabis would not be permitted. The full text of the initiative is available at utahpatients.org/initiative and a summary is available at utahpatients.org/initiative/summary.
 

WHAT: News conference to launch the Utah Patients Coalition’s signature drive to place a medical cannabis initiative on the 2018 ballot

WHEN: Thursday, August 17, 10:30 a.m. MT

WHERE: Gallivan Center, 239 Main Street, Salt Lake City

WHO: DJ Sanz, campaign co-director
Alex Iorg, campaign manager
Patients and supporters

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The Utah Patients Coalition is a political campaign committee formed to support a 2018 ballot initiative to establish a comprehensive medical cannabis program in Utah. For more information, visit https://www.utahpatients.org.

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Yesterday, we made a mistake. A big one. If you read Newswire (our weekly newsletter), you know that we compared the wrong years on a new poll from Education Next.

Today, in a thoughtful op-ed, our founder and chief executive Jeanne Allen reflects on the error, the poll, and how it all relates to the ed-reform movement we had the privilege to help to launch.

Here’s an excerpt. The full piece is available on our website.

 

 

The EdNext Poll: The Case for a Moral Imperative

By Jeanne Allen

In the wake of the national disgrace known simply on social media today as #Charlottesville, and in the face of so many students and families being ill-served by our public institutions (the least of which is public education), it’s hard to get worked up about polling data that shows mixed and, in some cases, declining public support for the very reforms intended to expand effective education to more students — particularly students of color. But worked up we were at the Center for Education Reform (CER) when by 7 am on the day of its release, we began to analyze the results of the annual Education Next poll. By mid-day, we’d issued a statement showing that the news reports figuratively declaring the death of charter schools were wildly exaggerated.

But we made a big mistake. We were comparing the wrong years. And as the founder and CEO of the institution that helped start the charter-school movement, I’m responsible and accountable for the work we do, and it wasn’t good. Our friends at the AP and Politico were right in their coverage, and now, given some time to reflect on the findings of the Education Next poll, there is much more to say.

Click here to continue reading.

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