Massachusetts voters may be asked next year to settle policy standoffs over legalizing marijuana for chronically ill and suffering patients, permitting certain terminally ill residents to self-administer life-ending medication and forcing auto dealers to send diagnostic information to repair shops, according to campaign organizers who say they’ve gathered enough signatures to advance their proposals closer to the ballot in 2012.
Ballot campaigns were required to file 68,911 valid signatures with city and town clerks by last week, the toughest, most expensive hurdle to placing a policy question before voters. Activists need to bring those signatures to Secretary of State William Galvin’s office by next week for final certification. A successful signature drive opens a six-month window for state lawmakers to support their own versions of any of the proposals if they wish to prevent them from moving toward the ballot.