Amendment 64...

[omio]

Ronin13, you share the road with "stoned slackers" already nothing you can do about it. Sorry about your friend, driving a car is the most dangerous thing you will do in your day to day life and shit happens. Like you said no way to know if he really was on weed at the time, just your own assumption. I know you are smarter than this, of course most people do not win gold medals and build spaceships. I was trying to make the point that weed has nothing to do with it. Please stop with the personal attacks and emotional appeal, it doesn't really do much for your argument.

[hatidua]

For many, whether or not we smoke pot has nothing to do with legality: making it legal wouldn't see many of us rush out to buy it. I don't particularly care if it's legal or not, I have no interest in partaking.

I don't recall the exact numbers but I asked someone recently what marijuana costs and I recall thinking the price I was quoted was enough, all by itself, to discourage use (it sounds expensive!).

[ben4372]

The main issue I have is that it is illegal on a federal level- so if this passes and businesses are allowed to sell it doesn't that open the door to hurt our businesses during a time when we need business to boom? xring, you make a great point, even if it were legal federally and here, I still wouldn't use it- BTDT, didn't like what it does to me. I'll stay mostly opposed to legalization until they can figure out a way to prove someone's level of MJ-induced intoxication while driving and be able to punish much like with drinking and driving.

this is the problem with thc in the blood, tough to gauge intoxication blood levels. I'm sure someone can figure it out. though chronic users are never super sharp even when not high. I voted yes. mostly so the pot heads can focus on something else.

[ben4372]

Bring back the 18th Amendment too. I'm tired of all the cost of jailing DUI's and drunken bar fight low lifes. No more dead innocent victims of drunk drivers too. Also the cost to society with loose morals that go hand in hand with drunkenness. End all the unwanted pregnancies attributed to alcohol. Alcohol is of the Devil. It needs to be condemned for the social ill it is!
Alcohol slackers get a job, I'm tired of giving you dollar bills to clean my windshield.

[RMAC757]

Bring back the 18th Amendment too. I'm tired of all the cost of jailing DUI's and drunken bar fight low lifes. No more dead innocent victims of drunk drivers too. Also the cost to society with loose morals that go hand in hand with drunkenness. End all the unwanted pregnancies attributed to alcohol. Alcohol is of the Devil. It needs to be condemned for the social ill it is!
Alcohol slackers get a job, I'm tired of giving you dollar bills to clean my windshield.

beautiful. I like the way you think

[Sawin]

It may have been mentioned earlier in this thread, but just to reiterate and bring something back to the forefront of our minds. I suggest we all consider carefully, what impact amendment 64 will have on the future politics of our state... What impact might it have on the decisions of families considering a move to or from Colorado?

As we all know, most Coloradans are not native to our state. We are the 3rd fastest growing state in the country and Colorado Conservation Trust has projected that we'll continue adding roughly 105,000 new residents PER YEAR through 2040.

With an amendment like 64 passing, it seems to me like we'll be guaranteeing that CO is no longer a swing state.... IMHO, we'd be cementing our Blue vote heretofore.

[Teufelhund]

Good points, Sawin. I think if Colorado were to be first to decriminalize it, the novelty would wear off pretty quickly and other States would follow soon. There may be a slight increase in the influx of new residents, but I don't think it would be significant. I'd be shocked if a large number of people actually moved to a different State just to smoke pot. I'd think most people who can afford to just move to a different State on a whim base such life decisions on more important factors than just whether or not they can get high legally. One can easily find weed in any State; no need to move for it.

I'm not sure I follow you on the "Blue State" speculation. What makes you think all stoners are Democrats? From what I've seen, the Democratic party fully supports the war on drugs.

[Sawin]

Good points, Sawin. I think if Colorado were to be first to decriminalize it, the novelty would wear off pretty quickly and other States would follow soon. There may be a slight increase in the influx of new residents, but I don't think it would be significant. I'd be shocked if a large number of people actually moved to a different State just to smoke pot. I'd think most people who can afford to just move to a different State on a whim base such life decisions on more important factors than just whether or not they can get high legally. One can easily find weed in any State; no need to move for it.

I'm not sure I follow you on the "Blue State" speculation. What makes you think all stoners are Democrats? From what I've seen, the Democratic party fully supports the war on drugs.

You could be right Teufelhund, but it only takes a couple % of the total leaning one way or another to shift the politics, and I think if we're honest with ourselves we'll admit that overall there are more left leaning pot-enthusiasts than there are right leaning ones. Even if it's close to even, as the law of large numbers would imply, being the very first state to legalize it will inevitably create a stigma and it will cause an influx of marijuana users, even if it's just for the novelty of it all.... The level of influx is impossible to predict and that's what we all have to consider.

With these thoughts in mind, please know that I'm not opposed to the taxation and regulation of Medical marijuana, or marijuana in general, from a budget and tax standpoint.... We obviously need new sources of revenue as well as spending cuts, to balance the state budget, but I'm concerned about the impact of it especially if we are first in the nation.

[Zundfolge]

With an amendment like 64 passing, it seems to me like we'll be guaranteeing that CO is no longer a swing state.... IMHO, we'd be cementing our Blue vote heretofore.

As I stated before, this is why I'm voting against it even though I support MJ legalization.

We become the only state to legalize MJ and we'll end up becoming California (or worse). You can kiss any chance of future conservative leadership goodbye and expect a massive increase in spending, taxes and ruinous regulations. I figure the first thing these new hard-left Coloradoans will do is dismantle TABOR. And if the winds ever blow in favor of gun control again you can kiss our shall-issue CCW system and NFA friendly sheriffs goodbye too.


Now if the Federal Government were to de-criminalize MJ at the Federal level first, And then there were several other states passing legalization laws at the same time (or better yet, before us) I'd gladly vote for it.

[Ronin13]

Ronin sounds like you need to surround yourself with more productive people.

Perhaps... But I wasn't saying everyone who smokes is lazy, unproductive, and a "slacker," it effects people differently. The point I'm trying to make is that regardless of who you are and how it effects you depending on how much you've done, it does actually effect people- some it inhibits their judgement, others reaction time, etc.

Ronin13, you share the road with "stoned slackers" already nothing you can do about it. Sorry about your friend, driving a car is the most dangerous thing you will do in your day to day life and shit happens. Like you said no way to know if he really was on weed at the time, just your own assumption. I know you are smarter than this, of course most people do not win gold medals and build spaceships. I was trying to make the point that weed has nothing to do with it. Please stop with the personal attacks and emotional appeal, it doesn't really do much for your argument.

I also share the road with drunk drivers... should we just make that legal too? And no, it wasn't my assumption, I wasn't there, but it's pretty easy to tell someone is stoned, you just can't prove it very easily on a legal basis so someone can get away with it if they have a good lawyer. And driving is the most dangerous thing you can do, so how about we not encourage people to make it even more dangerous?