Amendment 64...

[Ronin13]

So I got the 2012 State ballot information booklet in the mail the other day and reading through it I just cannot grasp how dense people are. What am I talking about? Amendment 64: Use and Regulation of Marijuana.

Colorado Amendment 64 is an amendment to the Article 18 of the Colorado state constitution. Section 3 would allow the "personal use and regulation of marijuana" for adults 21 and over. Section 4 addresses legal commercial cultivation, manufacture, and sale. The intent is that marijuana be regulated in a manner similar to alcohol.

This would effectively make it legal to purchase pot for adults 21+, no medical card needed- it would be just like alcohol. But the main problem with this is:

Cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 and is deemed to have a high potential for abuse and no legitimate medical uses. As such, it prohibits the possession, usage, purchase, sale, and/or cultivation of marijuana.

So they would make it legal in CO but it is still a federal Schedule I drug and it is still illegal on a federal level. Thus, this would be bad for businesses that decide to do so because it would open the door for the big bad feds to come in and prosecute.

How do you all feel about this? Personally, I can go either way, but overall I'm annoyed by all this obsession with marijuana- I see it all the time, I hear people talk about it all the time... if they just made it legal on a federal level I wonder if people would just STFU already about it.

[00tec]

Well, medical pot is currently in the same legal status with the feds....

If you want to smoke pot, you're going to smoke pot. The real problem is how much of our resources (read: tax dollars) are being used to fight the 'war on drugs'. How many people are we giving 3 hots and a cot to, for years, over a plant?

[Ronin13]

Well, medical pot is currently in the same legal status with the feds....

If you want to smoke pot, you're going to smoke pot. The real problem is how much of our resources (read: tax dollars) are being used to fight the 'war on drugs'. How many people are we giving 3 hots and a cot to, for years, over a plant?

True- and the proponents for ending cannabis prohibition cite that it would incur an excise tax that could potentially generate massive amounts of revenue.

[Sawin]

I feel the same way about pot (all drugs really), as I do about "warning labels", if that tells you anything. Let those who want to use them, die off, and the general population will be better for it. Call me crazy.

[00tec]

True- and the proponents for ending cannabis prohibition cite that it would incur an excise tax that could potentially generate massive amounts of revenue.

Think about how much revenue is generated via tobacco.
The feds charge $1.01 PER PACK in taxes, on top of what Colorado charges.

ETA: Colorado tax per pack of cigarettes is 84 cents. So $1.85 total.

[Monky]

It didn't fly in Cali, it's not going to fly here.

[xring]

Having volunteered to counsel adolescents getting out of jail the last ten years or so IMHO the drug can be devastating to children. For some adults its a terrible addiction that robs their potential.

Even with these facts I think legalization clearly outweighs continued criminalization. Legalization removes the forbidden fruit motive for use. Legalization hurts the criminal cartels bad. Legalization allows us to use our precious criminal justice resources for violent offenders. Legalization stops the conversion of those who screwed up selling drugs into violent criminals via incarceration. Its effectivly legal in Colorado right now and I dont see spiky hair mutants roaming the streets ( well maybe at the boulder mall)

Forum members who might be tempted to use marijuana by Colorado's quasi legal status should be reminded that federal law prohibits marijuana users from possessing firearms. If the addiction potential of the drug doesnt keep you from using it, potential loss of the right to own firearms should be considered. I wouldnt trade my right to own firearms for a semi of the stuff.

[Zundfolge]

I will vote against Amendment 64.

Not because I oppose legalization of recreational use of MJ, actually I support that. But it has to be done correctly within the law.

It has to be "legalized" at the federal level first (if nothing else because frankly federal laws against MJ are another example of the abuse of the "commerce clause").

THEN states can pass laws allowing it.

Even then I will vote against them until there are several other states where its legal.


Whatever state legalizes pot first will become so over-run with liberal pothead idiots that every other aspect of politics, government, law and the economy will be ruined.

Since the vast majority of the hardcore pot crowd* are also socialist, gun control supporting idiots, they'll join the too-many liberals already here and make Colorado unlivable (and worse than California) in short order.


* those who would be motivated enough to relocate because of the law.

[MarkCO]

Once, when we had a more polite society with personal responsbility, all form of things were criminalized that are now common. American society is heading in a scary direction. IMHO, legalization of pot will result in the proliferation of more designer drugs (Bath Salts, Smiles, etc.) by the criminal element, reduce our collective ability to produce and innovate and result in a higher percentage of people on the government dole. These will create increased burdens on those who try to live responsibly and earn their own way.

[Irving]

What is your reason to think that legal pot will drive designer drug production? And, what will be the difference between the designer drugs now, and in the future?