File photo | Associated PressMedical marijuana clone plants are shown at a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
BOSTON – Peter B. Lewis, the chairman of insurance giant Progressive Corp., is bankrolling the effort to legalize medical marijuana in Massachusetts.
Lewis – a wealthy and noted medical marijuana supporter – contributed $525,000, or virtually all the money raised by the Committee for Compassionate Medicine, the group seeking to place the question on the Nov. 6 ballot. Lewis is a founder and currently chairman of Progressive, based in Mayfield Village, Ohio.
In a report filed with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, the committee said it spent $350,000 collecting signatures for the effort, paying a firm called Spoonworks Inc. in Brookline for gathering the signatures. In December, the organization submitted 80,710 signatures to clear a big hurdle for qualifying for the ballot.
Between August and the end of last year, the committee reported raising a total of $526,000 and spending $518,000.
In addition to paying for collecting signatures, the Committee for Compassionate Medicine also spent $130,000 on public relations, paying the money to Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, Inc. of Boston.
The ballot question would make Massachusetts the 16th state, including Maine and Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia, to have laws allowing the medical use of marijuana.
The ballot question follows one in
Article source: http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/01/chairman_of_insurance_giant_pr.html