Listen Up! New York State Voters. Vote Yes – It’s Do or Die this November 7th.

Jerome W. Dewald, Executive Director of Restrict & Regulate in NY State 2019 (RRNY), spoke to simLeaf at The Jacob Javits Center during the Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo in June.  He discussed at length of how the New York State Constitutional Convention ballot this November 7 provides a pathway to full adult-use cannabis legalization in NY State in 2019.   So, for all those New York Voters… get to the polls, and vote YES.

Click here for more information on how the New York State Constitutional Convention works [PDF].  The illustration helps to clarify the complicated process.

– Video Transcript

“Okay. So, we’re here because over the last 21 years, the cannabis industry has successfully brought out of the illegal side and into the legal side, medical marijuana and marijuana for adult use in 29 states.  They’ve done it exclusively through the voter initiative ballot measure process. And so a lot of people are wondering, you know, “what the fuck’s up with New York state?”  

You know, it’s a big state, it’s a liberal state. If you walk around in Manhattan, anywhere, people are smoking pot on every street corner. So, what’s up New York? Well…okay, the problem is that New York has no voter initiated ballot process in its constitution; it’s simply not possible. So we’re stuck with the legislature or the legislature or the legislature. But, New York has in its constitution a clause that occurs in only 14 other states, or 14 states altogether I think, which requires that the voters, every 20 years, have a vote on the very simple question, do you want to have a constitutional convention, a state convention, not a federal convention.

So the question on the ballot, this November 7th is, shall we have a convention to revise the constitution and amend the same? Yes or no? So, by a simple majority, 50%+1 this November, we will decide if we want to have a constitutional convention or not. If we get a no, then the process dies for 20 years, and we go back to the legislature or the legislature or the legislature, right?

If we get a yes, that triggers a two year process. In the first year, we would have, we would elect our delegates . . . in this . . . 2018, midterm election. In the second year, we would hold a convention; we would start the convention on April 2nd of 2019, that’s another off-year election, just like this year, this year. And the convention would report out to the people, one or more ballot proposals, constitutional amendment proposals, in just the same way that we would do if we had a . . . voter initiated ballot system, see. So it’s kind of the same idea, but it’s a little more complex. The parts that we know occur in little different sequences.

But, you know this is an industry that has developed virtually a machine in over 20 years. All you have to do is look at 2016, where we got 8 out of 9 proposals, and we woulda got 9 out of 9 if we hadn’t gotten ambushed at the last minute. So, you know we got that machine in place; we know how to do this. This process is not as scary as some people make it sound because they just don‘t know the process, right. So that’s what we’re doing.

We’re advocating right now for that yes . . . our job is to get the yes, and then once we get the yes on November 8th to be in a position to that we can hit the ground running to elect the delegates that will support our platforms, to give them the tools they need to get elected, to give them the support they need to get elected, to give them the tools they need to make sure that their signatures don’t get thrown off their ballots, that their paperwork is all in order. And then once that’s all done, and our delegates will embedded in all the parties. We got our delegates in the democratic slate, and our delegates in the republican slate. Then the next job is to understand how a convention is organized.

Now, unlike what most, the common thinking about convention, we think about democratic and republican presidential committees— conventions, where everybody’s got sign and they’re marching around dadada.

Well this is not that at all . . . This is a legislative session. It’s an extraordinary legislative session; it only occurs once; it has no history; it doesn’t occur again; it’s a one time deal where the people get together and of course they elect the delegates, which are legislatures, right. So that process in April 7th is just like calling an extraordinary session in the legislature. It’s not one of those conventions with signs. So we have to understand how do we work inside of that framework, you know, because we are not naturally legislatures . . . we do ballot measures; we do voting; we do messaging. We don’t normally sit in chambers and do legislation. So, there’s that training piece there about how we work inside the structures, to make that when there is a convention, that we are properly positioned in the right committees and in the right leadership positions so that we get our agenda done, because we can get sabotaged along the way, right?

The vote, the important vote is November 7th, at 2017. That’s in 4 months, in New York state, it’s a yes for a constitutional convention, a state constitutional convention. If we don’t get a yes, we’re dead for 20 years. If we do get a yes we have the process I just told you . . . Vote YES, November 7th. Please, it’s do or die.“

To learn more about Restrict & Regulate in NY State and how you can get involved please check out their website at cannabis4ny and follow them on social media.

You can down this simple brochure if you would like to print & distribute this information. Download Brochure

For information on how you can register to vote please check out the NYS Board of Elections website.