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Lothar121

Pot Backers Protest Hick
Alan Gathright | Rocky Mountain News | 10/28/2005

Pot legalization forces, fuming that the staff of Denver's brew pub-owning mayor laughed off their debate challenge with a joke about the munchies, protested at City Hall today with props of a mock "alcohol poisoning" corpse surrounded by jugs from the mayor's Wynkoop Brewery and a pile of Oreos and Doritos bags.

"It simply shows that the mayor does not mind that his drug of choice that he sells to this city can lead to death and violence and the drug that he opposes simply leads to — as they put it — the worst case scenario is the munchies," said Mason Tvert, head of the group sponsoring Initiative 100 on Tuesday ballot. If passed it would change Denver law to make it legal for adults to posses 1 ounce or less of marijuana.

The central theme of the Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative is that adults should have the legal right to choose marijuana, which proponents call a safer alternative to booze, blaming that legal drug for fueling deadly violence, car wrecks, collegiate binge-drinking and alcoholism.

The group also posted a second Denver billboard today, at Santa Fe Drive and Alameda Avenue, stating: "Annual Deaths. Alcohol: 19,928. Marijuana: 0." Tvert said the fatality figures are "conservatively" based on national statistics for liver disease and alcohol overdoses and don't include the thousands of deaths caused by alcohol-related crashes and violence.

While Mayor John Hickenlooper hasn't actively campaigned against the measure, he's said that he opposes legalizing marijuana because it's a "gateway drug" that can lead to destructive addictions. I-100 backers were infuriated when the mayor's spokesperson responded to a Wednesday City Hall protest by saying Hickenlooper was "focused on issues that actually matter to Denver," adding that the measure would have no impact because pot possession cases will continue to be prosecuted under state law. The mayor's acting chief of state, Cole Finegan, was quoted in the media joking about arranging "a shipment of Oreos and Doritos" for pot protestors.

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psthbng

Well boy's and girl's this is incredibly stupid. All you Colarodeans should can this idiot of a mayor. Can anyone say conflict of interest?? Peace out

Justin22

I think we should avoid knee-jerk reactions like this. Yes, the mayor is avoiding the cannabis issue. Yes, he owns a brewery. That in itself does not establish conflict of interest. Making unfounded accusations like this one leads only to less credibility for our cause.

ChronicSmoke7

he could sell his beer in a weed coffee house, place of business. Its a conflict in interest if he is trying to sell as much beer as possible.

urania3

A weed coffee house is at best hypothetical, as it would still be illegal under Colorado state law. And consumption of one substance does not exclude the other.

We need to address the fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc within "While Mayor John Hickenlooper hasn't actively campaigned against the measure, he's said that he opposes legalizing marijuana because it's a 'gateway drug' that can lead to destructive addictions."

And did he just imply that alcoholism isn't a "destructive addiction(s)"?

 

fight4rights

How about the fallacy of Ad hominem of a circumstantial nature?

This means that you shouldn't criticize someone's argument based on their on own situation. For example it would be dumb to say "Don't believe all of Mary's preaching about equal pay for both sexes. She's a woman so she has something to gain." So it is also dumb to say "That Mayor will stand to personally loose some wealth, so his opinion on legalization isn't important."

This argument is especially stretching it in this case because it's not as though marijuana use is suddenly going to sky-rocket due to this initiative. I really doubt that the Mayor is worried about how much money he might loose.

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"Do SOMETHING besides argue emotions against the law, because it simply isn't a rational way to affect any type of change whatsoever. No offense intended, but your opinion on things is a moot point unless you take actions to change the law, rather than ramble about how unfair or injust it is." troublemaker_42
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