Bob Young, courtesy Peninsula Press

Medicinal marijuana has become a controversial topic among Santa Clara government agencies.

A well-organized campaign to tax and regulate marijuana in Colorado may be sucking away campaign cash from the scattered efforts to put a legalization measure on the 2012 ballot in California. 

“What's missing still are the large donors,” Doug Linney, a consultant for the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform, which is struggling to find backers for one of two initiative efforts in California. “Some of the donors have been thinking that it’s Colorado’s year.”

In Colorado, signature gatherers have already hit the streets to get the Regulate Like Marijuana Like Alcohol Act on the 2012 ballot. Political consultants say that it costs about $5 million to pass a statewide measure in Colorado, half of what it costs in California.

“I think why it would be seen as a better investment here in Colorado is based on how things are going with medical marijuana regulations. Also the size of the state is just smaller,” said Mason Tvert, a lead organizer in Colorado. “Everything about California is far more expensive.”

Tvert said his campaign took lessons from Proposition 19's failure in California last year. Prop 19 would have allowed municipalities to regulate marijuana, a provision often criticized because it would have required local and state regulation. The Colorado initiative calls for uniform state regulation, Tvert said. 

Colorado’s medical marijuana regulations are already far more coherent than California’s. Colorado pot clubs can make a profit, while California's clubs must be run as non-profits. Colorado also allows dispensaries to grow marijuana and sell it commercially. California law is ambiguous, only specifying how many pot plants individuals can grow and warning pot club owners against generating excessive profits, creating a climate where dispensaries run the risk of criminal prosecution by misinterpreting the regulations.

While Colorado will only have one legalization initiative on the ballot, California may have two, raising the possibility that votes will be split between the competing measures.

One group has already submitted a measure to the state. Spearheaded by retired judges and police officers disillusioned by the drug war, the measure, called Regulate Marijuana Like Wine, proposes to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol, making it legal for those 21 and over. It also calls for statewide regulation.

Jim Gray, a retired Superior Court Judge from Orange County, said he supports the measure, because he thinks the government should stop spending money fighting marijuana –- and instead reap the benefits. 

“The largest untaxed source of revenue in the state is marijuana,” said Gray.

With the help of the Libertarian Party, the group is planning to hold its first fundraiser at a Newport Beach vineyard in September. 

But many of the same people behind Prop. 19 want to see a different measure on the ballot, arguing that the Libertarian-backed measure doesn't provide enough specifics on how legalized pot will be regulated.

They have formed a group called the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform, which includes the chief proponent and funder of Prop. 19, Oakland's Richard Lee. The group has 273,000 fans on Facebook, but has had trouble getting big financial backers. 

They have also not been able to agree on the language for an initiative, but they insist they will put one on the ballot next year, if they can afford to gather enough signatures.

Lee put $1.5 million of his own money into Prop 19 last year. His Oaksterdam University was the headquarters for the campaign –- and TV crews from all over the country descended there on election night.

But Lee said in an interview last week that he would not be funding the 2012 campaign. “That was savings from many years,” said Lee.