iPhone app iPad app Android phone app Android tablet app More

Lucia Graves
GET UPDATES FROM Lucia:

Majority Of Denver Republicans Vote To Legalize Marijuana

Posted: 03/15/2012 3:41 pm Updated: 03/15/2012 8:43 pm

Fifty-six percent of the delegates at the Denver County Republican Assembly voted in support of a resolution to regulate marijuana like alcohol in the Centennial State. While the initiative, known as Amendment 64, did not receive the two-thirds majority required to adopt it as a plank in the party's platform, advocates are hailing the vote as significant.

"It is impressive and encouraging that a majority of some of the most active Republicans in Denver voted to endorse the initiative," wrote the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in a statement. "As more and more Colorado citizens see their friends and neighbors voicing their opposition to marijuana prohibition, we expect support for the initiative will continue to grow."

The Assembly, which voted Saturday on the initiative, did adopt a resolution affirming that medical marijuana is a 10th Amendment issue that should be left to the states.

Under a medical marijuana law enacted in 2000, Colorado patients with a note from their physician can access marijuana from a dispensary. But federal prosecutors have ramped up enforcement around medical marijuana in recent months, resulting in the closure of dozens of dispensaries around the state.

The vote comes shortly after television evangelist Pat Robertson took to the airwaves on "The 700 Club" to condemn arrests for marijuana possession.

"On the heels of the Pat Robertson endorsement of Amendment 64, it is great to see increasing support for regulating marijuana like alcohol across the ideological spectrum," the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol added.

FOLLOW POLITICS
Subscribe to the HuffPost Hill newsletter!
Fifty-six percent of the delegates at the Denver County Republican Assembly voted in support of a resolution to regulate marijuana like alcohol in the Centennial State. While the initiative, known as ...
Fifty-six percent of the delegates at the Denver County Republican Assembly voted in support of a resolution to regulate marijuana like alcohol in the Centennial State. While the initiative, known as ...
 
 
  • Comments
  • 157
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Post Comment Preview Comment
To reply to a Comment: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to.
View All
Favorites
Recency  | 
Popularity
Page: 1 2 3 4  Next ›  Last »  (4 total)
04:12 PM on 04/23/2012
It is absolutely about time that we shed this ignorance, and start allowing room in our prisons for legitimate criminals. The people are coming out of the 'Reefer Madness' fog, and Colorado dispensaries vie to be the best dispensary in Denver, and are active, contributing members to Colorado's economy. Medical marijuana is proven the safe alternative to countless poisons from the pharmaceutical companies. It is time to embrace the plant, and every thing we can do with it, from plastic wrap, to rope, to fuel, to medicine. This will be a remarkable year for the plant, I believe. The end of greed-driven prejudice is near. At least this variation, anyhow.
02:41 PM on 03/24/2012
the end of the prohibition of Cannabis is near. The forces at be know this and are trying to figue other ways of revenue to replace the loss they are going to feel. It is going to take some time for them to figure it out. Instead of thinking if legalizing it and taxing it the revenue could go to the same places and they could go after the real criminals and not a bunch of sick people!
02:41 PM on 03/19/2012
Top 5 reasons for Medical Marijuana to be legalized are as follows:

1. It has beneficial healing properties for many mental and physical illness.
2. Save lots of money reducing prison, police and court costs.
3. Take a large amount of money out of the black markets and put it into the economy.
4. Tax and license it so people can grow, buy, sell etc.
5. It will create new industries and jobs.

http://bigbudsmag.com/lifestyle/medicine
03:09 PM on 04/05/2012
You forgot to mention it textile uses and the fact that it is non addictive
photo
Tomaniac
Science keeps us from lying to ourselves
02:36 PM on 03/18/2012
Next the Republicans will be voting to mandate drug testing before getting a drivers license or when stopped for a traffic violation and cite every cannabis user as failing even after two or three weeks without use with DUID and put them in the prisons for profit system or take away personal rights.

Watch, as cannabis legalization gets more serious, the GOP will start passing laws making it easier to take users kids from them, keep them from driving, and a host of other laws that will force cannabis users to 2nd class citizen status which has been the goal since Nixon was POTUS.
05:11 PM on 03/17/2012
Very smart way of tapping into a youth vote.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
kathismom
@saracsit , Boulderite
09:30 PM on 03/16/2012
I sure hope my state senator is watching this. He's democrat and he has voted for every medical marijuana bill that restricts anything since it's come along. Oh, and District 18, Nederland is in that district now. Bye bye Rollie...:)
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
patman77
07:20 PM on 03/16/2012
wow (R)'s with some sense of sanity. colorado is cool.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jose3
04:22 PM on 03/16/2012
Obviously the vote was taken using non-approved voting methods. Take the vote again with government approved procedures and equipment. The vote will go the other way.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
kleighhoff
Relief is the order of business...
05:31 PM on 03/16/2012
Time will telll.....I have to respectfully disagree with you. They all see the numbers and what the state is realizing in funding due to centers in Colorado.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jose3
06:25 PM on 03/16/2012
I'm not sure what you are disagreeing with. My belief is that free elections are more or less a thing of the past and that the vote counting is rigged. Using government controlled counting equipment the tally will be against marijuana.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jose3
07:00 PM on 03/16/2012
In the last California election on pot the polling showed a lead in favor of legalization until about a week before the election the polling mysteriously turned against it. It then went on to being soundly defeated. The same thing will happen in Colorado.

Maybe if you organize a posse of citizens with helmet cameras and live wi-fi feeds you can keep some honesty in the counting.

Personally I don't think it is possible for it to pass but this is one situation I would be overjoyed to be wrong. It would do a lot to restore my pessimistic view of freedom in America.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Thinking Clearly
Communication is the key to understanding
03:35 PM on 03/16/2012
There is no doubt that it's America's elected officials who are the ones behind the times on the subject of marijuana.

With more than half of America favoring the legalization of marijuana, all of our legislators both State and Federal should take the time to educate themselves and find out why.
photo
HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
rascalcat
Lover of liberal women and cheap wine.Or was it...
03:29 PM on 03/16/2012
The first state to legalize will be in for a tourist boom of millions of additional tourists every year.  Look at the  Netherlands if you doubt this.
03:35 PM on 03/16/2012
As a resident of WA, where we just qualified a legalization petition, I couldn't agree more. The first state to legalize will not only see a tourist boom, but also a residency boom, imo.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jose3
04:25 PM on 03/16/2012
It's best not to use the tourism argument. Countries that have decriminalized it like to keep a low profile to avoid attracting the drugee crowd.
photo
HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
rascalcat
Lover of liberal women and cheap wine.Or was it...
04:30 PM on 03/16/2012
That "drugee crowd" is as much middle aged professionals as it is phish fans, maybe more.  I see mostly an older crowd in the dispensaries.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Nicon
05:00 PM on 03/17/2012
Damn those junkies and all their vacation spending.
01:00 PM on 03/16/2012
This was a poor presentation by a “drug expert” that makes money from the courts forcing kids into addiction programs that they don’t want or need to lessen their sentences. When only 3% of people in treatment for marijuana addiction are self referred it does not make for a realistic argument to force the other 97% to comply. The few that continue to support the War on Drugs (primarily a war on marijuana) are those who benefit from drug war money in one way or another. When both our government and the Mexican cartels support the continuation of this racist war on the American people we should be very concerned. Before you believe any of his statements, do what the author should have done and Google medical marijuana and have the strength of conviction to make up your own mind. Ask yourself if you would feel different if marijuana provided a treatment for cancer and ask why some would deny our citizens a natural, plant based treatment that really does work for many medical conditions. To deny this plant to those who benefit from it is truly inhumane and barbaric.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
fumes
Midnight Toker
11:02 AM on 03/16/2012
next thing you know..

goopers will be listening to jazz!

"Muggles" is the title of a recording by Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra, recorded in Chicago on December 7, 1928. The title refers to the use of the word "muggles" as a slang term for marijuana amongst jazz musicians of the 1920s and 1930s. Armstrong was an enthusiastic user of marijuana, which was legal in most American states at the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muggles_(recording)

"We used to roll our cigarettes right out in the open and light up like you would on a Camel or a Chesterfield. To us a muggle wasn't any more dangerous or habit-forming than those other great American vices, the five-cent Coke and the ice-cream cone, only it gave you more kicks for your money." ~ an excerpt from jazz clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow's memoir "Really the Blues"

"It's the summer of 1923. We took two quarts of bathtub gin, a package of muggles, and headed for the black-and-tan joint where King Oliver's band was playing." ~Hoagy Carmichael

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2011/07/jk-rowling-muggles-were-joints/39980/
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
heikhali
11:00 AM on 03/16/2012
Republicans? Marijuana addicted RINO's is more likely.
photo
Milo B
Don't be so humble...you're not that great...
12:01 PM on 03/16/2012
Dopey comment..everyone with two working synapse knows that cannabis is very low on the addiction scale...both sugar and caffeine have a greater potential for addiction...
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
heikhali
06:18 PM on 03/16/2012
Republicans do not endorse marijuana legalization because it produces schizophrenia, hallucinations, and compulsive violence in test subjects of valid scientific analysis.

You must use marijuana, since I don't know any coffee drinkers, nor sugar consumers that exhibit these symptoms. Marijuan is illegal for a reson. It's dangerous, and so are the people who use it. (Like you).
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
claygooding
10:57 AM on 03/16/2012
With a majority of Americans supporting legalization it doesn't matter whether politicians and bureaucrats believe it should be kept illegal,,and especially medical marijuana,at 80% support is being ignored.

Hold all political candidates up at every political debate/rally,,,city too federal level,and make them tell their constituents it doen't matter what America believes,
10:32 AM on 03/16/2012
Marijuana should be legal everywhere in the US not just a few states . The feds need to be spending our money on more important things then busting a pot dispensary. Patients are not criminals.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jose3
08:27 PM on 03/16/2012
The Feds are doing important things like getting ready to bomb Iran, the only country in the world where marijuana is actually legal.

Other countries have only decriminalized pot because legalizing it would invoke United Nations mandated sanctions. Iran is one of the few countries on earth that doesn't bow down to the reefer madness promoted by the US through the mouth piece of the UN.