He wanted Montana voters to repeal medical marijuana law. Now he’s given up.
HELENA, Mont. The sponsor of a proposed initiative to repeal Montanas medical marijuana law said Wednesday he wont appeal a judges refusal to place the measure on Novembers ballot, but instead will focus on defeating a separate initiative to expand medical pot distribution.
Billings car dealer Steve Zabawa told The Associated Press in an interview that there isnt enough time for him to appeal to the Montana Supreme Court before Secretary of State Linda McCullochs office certifies the ballots and sends them for printing.
Instead, he said his Safe Montana group will focus on defeating I-182, a ballot measure that would ease restrictions on medical marijuana distribution.
Zabawa made the comments a day after District Judge Heidi Ulbricht denied his request to intervene and order McCulloch to place his initiative on the ballot.
The initiative fell more than 4,100 signatures short of qualifying. Zabawa claimed thousands of signatures gathered for the measure had been lost or improperly invalidated.
Well spend all our efforts now making sure people know what I-182 is all about, he said.
He also plans to lobby the state Legislature in 2017 to pass a bill that bans marijuana and all Schedule 1 drugs in Montana, and may consider another ballot initiative in 2018.
Zabawas measure, known as I-176, sought to repeal Montanas medical marijuana law and declare that any drug illegal under federal law is illegal under state law. The result would have been a ban on marijuana use and possession in the state, including the 13,170 medical marijuana patients on Montanas registry.
Zabawa spent $92,000 of his own money in the failed effort to place the measure on the ballot, according to campaign finance records filed with the Commissioner of Political Practices Office. He said he spent an additional $100,000 of his own money on audits and legal fees to contest the rejected and missing signatures.
Ulbricht in her order did not address Zabawas argument that county officials across the state improperly rejected about 3,200 signatures he said came from registered voters.
The judge also denied Zabawas requests for Flathead County officials to conduct an exhaustive search of their offices for more than 2,000 missing signature and for the initiative to be put ...
