Today the Colorado Secretary of State announced that a marijuana legalization initiative has qualified for the 2012 ballot, ensuring voters will have a chance to make history this November by ending marijuana prohibition in the state. Proponents of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol are emboldened by recent polls indicating that a slight majority of Colorado voters support the legal regulation of marijuana for adult use.
The campaign initially fell 2,400 valid signatures short, triggering a 15-day "cure period" allowed under state law to gather the additional signatures needed to qualify. The campaign kicked into high gear and obtained another 14,000 total signatures, surpassing their own goal of 9,000. Moreover, the volunteer efforts during the cure period netted more signatures than the paid effort -- a good sign of strong grassroots support in the state.
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol -- now known as Amendment 64 - would eliminate criminal penalties statewide for adults who possess up to one ounce of marijuana. It also encourages the Department of Revenue or local jurisdictions to devise a system of regulation and taxation for the production, distribution and retail sale of marijuana to adults.
Nationally, public support for making marijuana legal has shifted dramatically in the last two decades, especially in the last few years. For the first time, a recent Gallup poll has found that 50 percent of Americans support making marijuana legal, with only 46 percent opposed. Majorities of men, 18 to 29-year-olds, 30 to 49-year-olds, liberals, moderates, Independents, Democrats, and voters in Western, Midwestern and Eastern states now support legalizing marijuana.
Yet, over the past year, the federal government has relentlessly attacked the implementation of medical marijuana regulatory systems in many of the 16 states that allow for the medical use of marijuana. In fact, on this very day, as the Secretary of State announced the qualification of the non-medical initiative, 23 medical marijuana dispensary owners were forced to shut their doors.
The specifics of Amendment 64 have been designed with this reality in mind. It is not a mandate to implement a legal regulatory approach in every Colorado jurisdiction, but it does open the door for the Department of Revenue to do so. If voters decide to legalize marijuana this November, lessons learned from regulating the medical marijuana industry will provide valuable insights. The Colorado Department of Revenue will know better than any agency in the country how to implement a legal regulatory framework that is as fed-proof as possible.
The amendment is a moderate approach to marijuana legalization, as it places limits on possession and does not allow for public use. It is also important to note that the proposal does not impact current traffic and workplace safety laws. But by simply allowing adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana, the proposed law will compel law enforcement and Colorado's judiciary system to redirect their resources to combat serious crime. This is the essence of legalization.
Amendment 64 puts forth the question of whether this widely-used commodity can be regulated in ways that enhance public safety, public health and the state's bottom line. It begs whether we should continue to spend upwards of $80 million as a state to prohibit a substance that can bring in up to $40 million annually -- a gross savings of $120 million. Ultimately, it drives home the point that prohibition is more harmful than the drug itself.
Prohibitionists often cite the "gateway theory" -- yet the science simply does not support it. To say that teenage marijuana use leads to hard drug use and addiction is like saying riding a tricycle as a toddler leads to higher incidents of fatal bike accidents for pre-teens. There is a correlation, but no proof of causation. In fact, the evidence shows that most people who try marijuana as a teen don't become habitual marijuana users, let alone users of other "hard" drugs.
Marijuana prohibition, under the current system, is the primary gateway into the criminal justice system for our youth. After seventy-five years of sensationalized rhetoric, typified by "Reefer Madness" and its progeny, law enforcement and educators have lost credibility in the eyes of our youth. We should ask the same question as our allies in Washington state, where voters will also decide whether to legalize marijuana this November: "Isn't it time for a new approach?"
Art Way is Colorado Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance.
I pledge to travel to the first state in the United States to legalize the purchase, possession and consumption of small amounts of cannabis.
I pledge to spend a minimum of $300 in the state (hotel, meals, entertainment, etc.) when I visit the first state to legalize cannabis. I’ll bring friends too.
I am an adult, over 21 years of age. I am a law abiding citizen and make this pledge only on the condition that when I visit the first state to legalize it I can enjoy cannabis without breaking any laws and without danger of being harassed, cited, arrested, ticketed, or fined.
The purpose of this pledge is to call attention to the enormous revenues to be gained by governments and businesses in the first state to legalize cannabis–both directly from taxes and tourism, and indirectly from ancillary service businesses. Perhaps the promise of millions of dollars of legal revenue is the only way to overcome decades of anti-cannabis (“marijuana”) propaganda.
I believe cannabis should be treated no differently than alcohol—regulated, controlled, yet legally available to adults for enjoyment in controlled situations, such as a bar, club, or Amsterdam-style “coffee house,” or in private spaces. It’s time to end the prohibition of cannabis that defies logic and good public policy.
Please share and post the Cannabis Travel Pledge widely to forums and blogs.
Who funds the moronic " Drug Free " scammers? The alcohol and tobacco industries of course, as well as cop unions and others who make money from a shameful and harmful practice. Right wing dullards always take the Fox news line and swallow any ridiculous falsehood no matter how it defies reality, and the elderly who never ahd much exposure to cannabis tend to resist anything that resembles a tolerance for new and " weird' concepts...after all, if they got along without it for all those years why can't others?
America is a backward nations, really...when politicians openly promote intrusive and dangerous policies, whether with a womans body or the method one uses to medicate ones' self, and brag about being even more hard line than their opponents, we know that shame has no place in their vocabulary and that they pander to special interests to the detriment of the people without any sense of irony, and conscience is something they left at the door when they wiped their feet on the Constitution as they took office.
NOT the easiest state to grow industrial cannabis in, but, if legal, it beats anywhere else!
Someone really should tell President Obama that he's missing the boat.
I would hate for a racist like Ron Paul to win, but, any major faltering from the present administration could bring in Gary Johnson...IF he's still running.
I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky
Friends around the campfire and everybody's high
Rocky mountain high
Colorado!