"Oh yea, baby. I voted for this.........uuuuuuh.........nevermind"."
Posted on 11/02/2005 7:03:16 AM PST by Wolfie
Denver Pot Issue Passes By Thin Margin
Denver residents Tuesday voted to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, but the state attorney general said the vote was irrelevant because state law will still be enforced.
The measure passed 54 percent to 46 percent.
"It just goes to show the voters of Denver are fed up with a law that prohibits adults from making a rational, safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol," said Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, or SAFER.
The measure will change the city's ordinance to make it legal for adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in the city.
Denver follows the city of Oakland, which last year voted to make marijuana possession its lowest enforcement priority and required the city to develop a plan for licensing and taxing the sale, use and cultivation of marijuana for private use. Voters in Telluride Tuesday defeated a similar measure.
Denver is "the second major city in less than a year to pass a vote which says that marijuana should be treated essentially like alcohol, taxed and regulated," said Bruce Mirken, the director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, one of the largest groups opposing jail time for the use of pot. "This has been characterized as a fringe issue, and clearly it's not."
Even though voters approved Initiative 100, Denver police still will bring charges under state law, which carries a fine of up to $100 and a mandatory $100 drug-offender surcharge for possession of small amounts of marijuana, said Attorney General John Suthers.
"I have found these efforts to be unconstructive," Suthers said.
"I understand the debate about legalization and whether our drug laws are constructive. But I wish we would have a full-out debate instead of these peripheral issues that accomplish just about nothing," he said.
Tvert said marijuana supporters will push for a statewide initiative that would allow for the licensing and regulation of the selling of marijuana.
"This is not just symbolic," he said. "This is a fact. This city voted to change a city ordinance. We expect the city officials to respect the will of the voters who elected them."
In Denver, backers of the initiative sparked controversy with their campaign.
Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown blasted as deceptive their campaign signs, which declared: "Make Denver SAFER, Vote Yes on I-100." Brown said he feared voters would believe the initiative would put more police on Denver streets.
Under fire from domestic-violence groups, SAFER also pulled a controversial billboard that showed a battered woman and her abuser with the slogan "Reduce family and community violence in Denver. Vote Yes on I-100."
Proponents of the initiative tried to draw Mayor John Hickenlooper into the fray by labeling him a hypocrite for selling alcohol in his brewpubs when he opposed their efforts to legalize marijuana.
During one rally, they unveiled a banner that read: "What is the difference between Mayor Hickenlooper and a marijuana dealer? The mayor has made his fortune selling a more harmful drug: alcohol."
Tuesday night, Hickenlooper said he was surprised by the vote.
"It doesn't supersede state law, so it's really symbolic of changing attitudes," the mayor said.
You don't speak for "anyone else". You speak for yourself, a retread on his way out,,,,,, again.
He'll do one of three things - get the Denver County Sheriff's Office to do it, empower the Colorado State Patrol to do it, or just turn the whole thing over to the Feds.
No matter what he chooses, local control and the will of the people lose another round to Big Government.
54-46 is a thin margin? What did they call the last two presidential elections?
I do believe that you started the insults. You made it personal with your remarks.
It's not too late for everybody to take a step backwards. Personal insults are not necessary from any side.
"Several judges, the mayor, and the city council have all said so."
And they don't mind throwing someone in jail for violating their "home rule" gun laws.
Well, its a small step but a step in the right direction.
If they were honest about it, the initiative would have failed.
Drug Warriors have a lot of nerve accusing anybody of being less than honest.
Where did you read that one was necessary?
I have no problem accusing others of being less than honest.
So now the people of Denver have something they didn't know they were voting for. I wonder how long that will last.
He'll go through the list of personal belongings when a self-medicating citizen is arrested for another crime. That's how most of them are nailed anyway.
I cannot speak to you, sir. I presume that you are nothing less than always honest.
In that case, you'll have to admit that the hysteria usually engaged in by the advocates of federal drug regulation is frequently dishonest.
I was going to cut-n-paste your ridiculous statement. But I saw you have been properly lambasted for it.
The commerce clause didn't allow for prohibiting alcohol or any substance. It didn't then and it doesn't know.
There are people that wrongly think the constitution is a living document and open to whatever interpretation (read: misinterpretation/misconstrue) suits the political agenda of the day.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the following in Lopez:
"Put simply, much if not all of Art. I, 8 (including portions of the Commerce Clause itself) would be surplusage if Congress had been given authority over matters that substantially affect interstate commerce. An interpretation of cl. 3 that makes the rest of 8 superfluous simply cannot be correct. Yet this Court's Commerce Clause jurisprudence has endorsed just such an interpretation: the power we have accorded Congress has swallowed Art. I, 8."
Good. Any small step towards ending our failed, unconstitutional drug war is a step in the right direction. The foundation of tyranny we have laid in our quest to keep people sober has outstripped any benefit. And that's coming from a non drug user. No illegal ones, at least. I admit a caffiene addiction and I smoke tobacco occasionally.
Interesting coincidence:
54-46 Was My Number, by reggae greats Toots and the Maytalls, was all about how Toots got put in the slammer for grass.
(cue spooky sounds)
"Oh yea, baby. I voted for this.........uuuuuuh.........nevermind"."
Barf alert.
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