By Michael Roberts | Westword.com | Feb. 27, 2012

​The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act has reached its goal of qualifying for the November 2012 ballot. Organizers like proponent Mason Tvert needed 86,105 valid signatures to win approval from the Secretary of State's office, but initially fell 2,409 shy. So they gathered more than 14,000 additional signatures to cure the shortfall -- and they wound up with room to spare.

According to the Secretary of State's office, the Regulate campaign initially submitted 163,632 signatures, but 79,936 of them were rejected for one reason or another. Hence, just 83,696 signatures were blessed by the office, leaving the initiative 2,409 of the magic number.

Backers had just over two weeks to solve this problem, and on February 17, several days prior to the deadline, they delivered another 14,151 signatures. The number of signatures deemed invalid from the second batch was over 50 percent: 7,381 of them received a thumbs-down. But that meant 6,770 made the grade, bringing the overall total to 90,466 -- 4,361 more than necessary.

The Regulate forces will mark this achievement tomorrow with a press conference scheduled for 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol headquarters, 1177 Grant St., 3rd Floor. Check back for a preview of that event, staged on behalf of a measure that will appear on the ballot as Amendment 64 -- a measure that former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson said could eventually lead to the end of marijuana prohibition not just in Colorado, but across the globe.