COEUR d'ALENE - A new organization has been formed in Idaho to promote the legalization of marijuana.

The new organization, called New Approach Idaho, was founded by former members of Moms for Marijuana and the now-dissolved Compassionate Idaho.

Co-founder Bill Esbensen said the group formed to continue past efforts to legalize the drug in Idaho.

"The problem with the last two attempts is there wasn't enough funding to keep things going," Esbensen said. "We all know that to get anything done in government, you need money."

In the last attempt to get a citizen initiative on the ballot, Esbensen said the group only collected 11,000 signatures, but they needed 60,000 from across the state.

According to Esbensen, Idaho law requires signatures from 6 percent of the registered voters in every Idaho county to qualify for placement on a statewide ballot.

The new group is actively seeking volunteers and plans to raise awareness and increase discussion about marijuana throughout the state holding town hall meetings, awareness rallies and community meet and greets.

Esbensen wants to educate Idahoans on how to distinguish between recreational, medical, industrial and agricultural aspects of the cannabis plant.

He said a new citizens initiative will be drafted with a focus on full legalization, but the group is focused on raising awareness first.

Esbensen said he has talked with legislators and the governor about the issue, but he said the effort has proved futile.

"I call those guys cotton swabs; they just need to retire," he said.

New Approach Idaho has a Facebook page with more than 22,600 likes on it, and its New Approach Idaho Volunteers page has 110 volunteers from all over the state - at least 20 of them are based in North Idaho.

There are 23 states with some form of legal marijuana available to its residents and eight of those states, Esbensen said, legalized the use of medicinal oils derived from cannabis.

Esbensen points to a study commissioned by former President Richard Nixon, called the Shafer Report. Raymond Shafer was the chairman of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Use, which recommended decriminalizing the possession of marijuana.

Instead, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 and had marijuana classified as a Schedule 1 drug, the most restricted category of all drugs.

He also points out the U.S. Health and Human Services patented several methods of using marijuana to treat specific health issues in 2001. The U.S. Patent Office issued patent number 6,630,507.

"We are getting this double-talk from our government," he said. "We should be using this plant."

Esbensen said because of the patent and Schedule 1 listing, cannabis cannot be legally studied in Idaho or the other 21 states where it is illegal.

He said Idaho is surrounded by two states that have legalized the recreational use of the drug, and one that has legalized its medicinal use.

"We have become an island in Idaho," he said. "If you live in Idaho and get cancer, you have to move out of state if you want to treat it with marijuana."

Esbensen said the New Approach Idaho Facebook page is open to the public. The web address is: www.facebook.com/NewApproachIdaho.