“We’re going to give it our best shot,” Zabawa said. “We’ve got great support around the state.“

Zabawa said he’s optimistic that volunteers can obtain the 25,000 signatures in slightly more than three weeks. He said the group actually is shooting for 100,000 signatures.

“We’re just doing this with concerned parents with families and concerned business owners,” he said.

The initiative would have no impact on the state general fund.

Earlier this spring, Chris Lindsey of Missoula, legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project and spokesman for the Montana chapter of the National Organization for the Reform Marijuana Laws, spoke against the proposed initiative.

“Marijuana prohibition has been just as ineffective, inefficient and problematic as alcohol prohibition,” he said. “It’s a colossal failure. And Steve wants to be the champion of that failure.“

After Montanans passed the medical marijuana initiative in 2004, the number of people legally using the substance remained fairly low until mid-2009.

A series of “cannabis caravans” around the state signed up thousands of people for so-called green cards authorizing them to get medical marijuana.