Posted on 08/10/2005 12:59:24 PM PDT by Know your rights
While a marijuana ordinance has received more than enough support to place it on the November ballot, it was the initiative's opponents who were most vocal at the Telluride Town Council meeting Tuesday.
Speaking passionately about their opposition to marijuana use, about a half-dozen opponents spoke out about the negative implications of an ordinance that would relax the enforcement of marijuana laws and support a statewide system of legalization, distribution and taxation.
A number of supporters also spoke during a half-hour debate that ended without consensus.
The town council had two options: it could either endorse the ordinance and therefore put it on the books, or place the ordinance on the November ballot.
The council showed no inclination toward passing the measure themselves. Instead, they chose unanimously to let voters decide.
"Whatever council votes today, it's neither an endorsement or a denial of the initiative," said council member Andrea Benda.
"There's been a lot of back and forth on this, and that's what an election is all about" said council member Stu Fraser. "By Nov. 1, everybody will have heard every aspect of this ... And then the folks in the community will vote on it."
The debate was not broadcast on KOTO, since a power outage forced the meeting out of Rebekah Hall and into the firehouse next door. But the 30 or 40 people who attended the meeting heard several sides of the arguments for and against the proposed ordinance, America's Drug War, medical marijuana and marijuana use in general.
Opponents cited a variety of concerns.
Richard Kearney, a former member of the Positive Alternatives Team, which works to provide area youth with alternatives to drug and alcohol use, wondered whether the ordinance might lead to increased violence, because, he said, a large portion of "violent crime is substance related."
Marrene Reagan, a family therapist, said that while she supports medical marijuana to ease pain, de-criminalizing marijuana would be bad for families.
"Children are confused because many of the people that they look up to and respect are very comfortable using marijuana," Reagan said. "They question this use of a substance to fill these emotional holes we have in us. There are ways to fill these emotional holes that allow us to grow and are positive, and I don't think using substances is an answer. I just think this is a highly unusual step that I don't think addresses many of the issues and I don't think it's necessary."
The ordinance would not, in fact, legalize marijuana. It would merely make it the Town Marshals' "lowest law enforcement priority."
Some saw that as a problem in itself.
"I think it's inappropriate to create a priority" for the marshals, said Mike Dorsey, a former lawyer for the federal government. "Law enforcement is a flexible matter. The marshals work with the town attorneys to make their own priorities.
"You guys are trying to send a message to the state, if not the nation, that marijuana should be legalized," Dorsey said. "I think that's inappropriate for the families of Telluride. If we pass this ordinance we're saying that Telluride supports the decriminalization of marijuana."
But Peggy Rose, a registered medical marijuana patient from Grand Junction, said she would like to have a "sanctuary" where she can use her medicine without worrying about prosecution. She said she suffers from chronic nausea and cannot eat if she does not smoke the herb.
Ron Gilmer, a member of the Colorado Advisory Counsel on AIDS, said he supported the medical marijuana initiative as a way of relieving the pain of terminally ill patients. He said he especially supported the second part of the ordinance, which supports a method of marijuana distribution that would give patients easier access to the drug.
Successful pot-heads have to hide their hobbies if they want to stay successful (unless they are already rich and famous.)
-kaotic133
dean's list
national political science honor society
student government committee chair
pot-head AND bass player!
(Sometimes, a wake 'n bake was the only way to stay sane in a liberal professor's propoganda production class! And stoned outta my skull, I could still run logical circles around them! I love disagreeing with a professor so effectively they have no choice but to give you a good grade, lest you use your mental faculties to expose their bias.)
So, they tell you we're lazy then they put us in jail so we can't prove them wrong. Ignoring this law, I call civil disobedience. I call it anti-federalism! I call it being a conservative.
And until the federal laws change (or dissapear altogether.. I wouldn't miss DC much), I'll continue to support states and communities that thumb their noses at federal intrusions like the war on drugs.
Dr. William Halsted, father of American surgery, founder of Johns Hopkins Medical Center, was a morphine addict.
So was Senator Joseph McCarthy, morphine supplied by the father of the WoD, Harry Anslinger.
Shh! You're not supposed to know that! Why hasn't the big-brother-perfect-government come and taken those creative hard-workers away yet? Ohhh the humanity!
They're exercising their remaining rights in such a manner as to remain undetected ... we'll get them just as soon as we've eradicated all those pesky rights. Doubleplusgood!
I wish i could reply to all of you, but my plant lights went out and my hydroponics pump is on the blink. If i had any brain cells left i'd go the store and buy a six pack but i can't remember where i put the keys to my bicycle.
yeah, legalize it...unless you eat it in brownies you won't be any better off...hell, smoking bans everywhere...even for medical marijuana, you can't smoke it in the hospital..go to jail if you smoke it outside anywhere.........sure, why not legalize it...what the heck are they gonna do with it??
I'm a capitalist. I'll sell you new equipment.
What's your budget?
I think you're being naive. If any town or state tries to legalize marijuana, or any drug for that matter, the imperial federal authorites would come on in and state arresting everyone and saying that federal law trumps all.
Depends on the seriousness of your condition.
go to jail if you smoke it outside anywhere
Not if marijuana's legal ... who goes to jail for smoking tobacco outside?
Perhaps ... but this article isn't about legalizing it.
those comments were made "semi" tongue in cheek
You're very close to the truth with that statement:
"Las Vegas -- An initiative to legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana in Nevada might go up in smoke, after organizers forgot to file 6,000 petition signatures in southern Nevada."
-- AP, June 24, 2004
So the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and a state legislator's Oath of Office mean nothing to you?
Yeah, real tough decision. What's the downside? The government forces me to take care of them when they get all screwed up and need help.
Change that part first, then we'll talk about legalization.
And this differs from alcohol, cigarettes, fast cars, motorcycles, mountain climbing, venereal disease, etc, etc precisely how?
The problem is that you are one of the very few drug warriors who has libertarian views on the welfare state. "Compassionate" conservatives crave the nanny state.
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