A California initiative that has failed once this year to collect enough signatures to put recreational marijuana on the ballot in November has been resurrected … but its future looks grim.

On Monday, California’s Secretary of State approved language for the “Marijuana Legalization. Initiative Statute”:

Legalizes under state law marijuana and hemp use, possession, cultivation, transportation, or distribution. Requires case-by-case review for persons currently charged with or convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses, for possible sentence modification, amnesty, or immediate release from prison, jail, parole, or probation. Requires case-by-case review of applications to erase records of these charges or convictions. Requires Legislature to adopt laws to license and tax commercial marijuana sales. Allows doctors to approve or recommend marijuana for patients, regardless of age. Limits testing for marijuana for employment or insurance purposes. Bars state/local aid to enforce federal marijuana laws.

The sponsor of the initiative’s earlier incarnation, Berton Duzy, tried and fail in February to turn in enough signatures. On the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative website, he stated:

CCHI did not qualify for the ballot, but is entering a pledge drive phase to attempt to qualify for 2014. CCHI is the legalization vision of Jack Herer and allows more freedom for Cannabis patients, users, and providers than any other proposed law.

Taking a cold look at the prospects for this revised version or any of the competing version of legalization initiatives to hit the ballot this year is the LA Weekly:

CCHI has nowhere near the $3 million in cash it takes to get professional signature gatherers on the streets. Duzy said the group has less than $100,000 on-hand. “We’ll have to have a million dollars to get it done by paid professionals by April 18, the last day to qualify, the last day to turn in signatures to make it to 2014,” he told us. “If we didn’t raise the money, then we could still try to qualify for 2016.” The last proposed initiative apparently standing, the Marijuana Control, Legalization & Revenue Act, is also looking at April 18, with basically none of that $3 million or so it would take to make the ballot. Backer Dave Hodges told us, “We’re still looking for a miracle.”

The secretary of state adds that the initiative would save the state a bunch of money:

Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Reduced costs potentially exceeding $100 million annually to state and local governments related to enforcing certain marijuana-related offenses, handling the related criminal cases in the court system, and incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders. Potential net additional tax revenue of a few hundred million dollars annually related to the production and sale of marijuana and industrial hemp, a portion of which is required to be spent on marijuana-related research and other activities. (14-0008.)

Duzy must collect signatures of 504,760 registered voters by Aug. 18 to qualify it for the ballot.

Meanwhile, an legalization initiative will be on Alaska’s primary election ballot on Aug. 17. And, as The Oregonian reports:

Backers of an Oregon marijuana legalization measure received some welcome news from the state Supreme Court this week — no one filed a legal challenge to the ballot title for the latest version of their initiative. That means they can soon complete the paperwork allowing them to begin gathering the 87,213 signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot.

Happy trails, you trailblazers!

Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.

If Google Plus is your thing, check out our marijuana coverage here.