It's coming down to the wire in California!

Californians are casting their votes on Proposition 19, the initiative to make marijuana legal and regulate it similarly to alcohol, and the latest polls show it is neck and neck heading down the stretch.  Voter turnout could very well be the deciding factor in this close race, so it's time to crank up the effort to get out the vote.

There are just about 10 days left before Election Day, and regardless of whether you live in California YOU CAN HELP!

 Call Women Voters

SAFER and its project, the Women's Marijuana Movement, have teamed up with Just Say Now to create an on-line phone banking tool that allows female marijuana activists across the country to place phone calls to women voters in California. 

Click HERE or visit http://fdl.me/Prop19Women to find out more and begin placing calls to female voters in California.

Call Young Voters

SAFER allies Just Say Now and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) have set up a system that allows people in any state to contact young voters in California and urge them to get out to vote for Prop. 19.

Click HERE or visit http://tinyurl.com/25xxms8 to find out more and begin placing calls to young voters in California.

The following was posted to FireDogLake by Michael Whitney of Just Say Now:

After an insanely successful weekend of Just Say Now activists making thousands of calls for Prop 19 and marijuana reforms, we’re proud to announce a brand new phone banking effort to target other key voters.

Together with the Women’s Marijuana Movement, Just Say Now is rolling out an online phone banking tool for women marijuana activists from across the country to place phone calls to women voters in California, a key demographic to turn out for Proposition 19.

“If Prop 19 is going to pass in California, it needs the votes of women and mothers,” said Jeralyn Merritt, a criminal defense attorney and board member of Just Say Now. “Prop 19 is the safe, smart choice for California communities. Thanks to this new organizing tool, women marijuana activists can speak directly with women voters in California about the benefits of Prop 19 and get out the vote. This is a great way to  empower women voters and let them know their votes not only count, but can make a real difference on a critical issue facing California communities.”

Activists from Just Say Now have already made nearly 6,000 calls to voters for marijuana reform in the last week, and expect thousands of more calls in the final two weeks of the campaign. Members of the Women’s Marijuana Movement earlier organized events across the country in October to encourage women to speak out in favor of Prop 19 and marijuana legalization. We’re working with the Yes on 19 campaign to target top priority voters for turnout, and comes as the campaign rolls out its own effort to showcase moms who support Prop 19.

“Women across the country are standing up to end marijuana prohibition,” said Eva Enns, the project coordinator of the Women’s Marijuana Movement. “The facts are clear: compared to alcohol, marijuana is the safer alternative. Marijuana is less toxic and it does not have the same association with domestic abuse, sexual assault and other acts of violence that alcohol does. By passing Prop 19, we can take marijuana out of the hands of street dealers and drug cartels and make it more difficult for children and minors to have access. Yes on Prop 19 is the smart choice for women and families in California, and we’re proud to spread the word to these voters.”

Our phone bank is open – if you’re a woman and a marijuana activist, take a couple minutes to call women voters in California and help get out the vote for Prop 19!

Disappointed yet emboldened by Proposition 19's eight point loss a week ago, state and national marijuana legalization leaders are already planning to push for initiatives in as many as five states in 2012. Meetings in California and Colorado in the past few days are laying the groundwork for legalization initiatives there, and similar efforts are being talked about for Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

With election post-mortems already yielding to pre-planning the next moves, the legalization movement smells victory in the air not too far down the road. And the Yes On 19 campaign team is hitting the ground running...

...And it doesn't have to be California.In Colorado, SAFER (Safe Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation) and Sensible Colorado last Thursday announced that they were pushing ahead with a legalization initiative for 2012. And Saturday, a statewide conference brought national movement figures including SSDP head Aaron Houston, Drug Policy Alliance head Ethan Nadelmann, Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project, and Prop 19's Jeff Jones to Denver to help lay the groundwork. The Saturday summit was also the scene of the announcement of a second initiative campaign, Legalize It 2012, a Jack Herer-style "freedom based" measure, led by Laura Kriho of the Boulder-based Cannabis Therapy Institute.

"There is a great deal of interest in a 2012 statewide initiative to regulate marijuana and start treating it like alcohol," said SAFER's Tvert.  "I think we're poised to make this happen. We've seen support go up dramatically over the past five years and internal polls had it at about 50% this year. Attitudes here have reached a point where this is very realistic," he said.

Read the entire story at: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/nov/09/marijuana_legalization_movement