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Lothar121

Mile High City Follows Our Lead On Pro-Marijuana Vote
Tony Messenger| Columbia Daily Tribune | 11/4/2005

We’re trendsetters.

Way back in 2004, Columbia voters were asked for the second time to pass an ordinance that would, in effect, decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. A similar effort had failed a year earlier.

Last fall, we agreed with the potheads who wanted us to leave them alone, buying their argument, apparently, that college kids who smoke a little doobie shouldn’t be punished by losing financial aid. That was the plea of the pro-pot crowd. Federal law takes away needed student aid from college students who end up with state drug charges on their records. It would be a travesty if our pot-smoking college students weren’t allowed the opportunity to expand their minds because a little indiscretion caused them to lose their ability to go to school. That’s what the pot smokers told us. We bought it.

Since that vote, other cities, big cities, have followed our lead.

The first one was Oakland. It’s in California, of course, and right across the bay from free-wheeling San Francisco, so nobody really pays attention to anything folks vote on out there. Let’s face it, the entire state lives under a haze of some drug that renders its populace unrecognizable to the rest of the nation. So when Oakland passes a pot law, nobody cares.

But Tuesday, a city of real down-to-earth folks much like us Midwesterners joined in on the marijuana bandwagon.

Mile High City was never so aptly named.

By a pretty decent margin of 54 percent to 46 percent, the voters of my hometown, Denver, passed Initiative 100, a measure much like Columbia’s that decriminalizes pot. Like our leaders, the Mile High city council will now be bound to abide by an ordinance that says pot possession is among the city’s lowest-priority crimes. Denver’s law actually goes a step further than ours, legalizing possession of pot under 1 ounce. In other words, the residents are asking cops to look the other way.

And like our city, the cops are giving the residents a collective bird, one finger, held high in the air, telling the pot smokers where they can put their new law.

God bless America.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers made it clear after the vote that state law supercedes anything the city of Denver does, and he still expects law enforcement to put pot smokers in jail.

It’s similar to the response from Columbia law enforcement officials last fall. State patrolmen, county deputies and university police all said they were bound by state law and would enforce it. Columbia police said they would follow the law, but only grudgingly. Then, this spring, police announced their own effort to bring about a referendum to overturn the law. The petition drive fizzled, and the cops and pot advocates started negotiating over how to keep Columbia’s law and compromise on its enforcement. Those negotiations continue.

The most striking difference in the two votes, though, has to do with strategy and what worked in Denver.

According to Denver news accounts, the group advocating pot decriminalization there focused on a unique argument that rightly angered opponents. They suggested that legalizing pot would decrease domestic violence. Following logic that proves some of them have smoked way too much, they suggested that since folks who smoke pot are mellow, compared with alcohol drinkers who sometimes have bouts of violence, the city would be better off and would protect women by decriminalizing weed.

The group targeted the city’s mayor, who owns a brew pub. It put up a billboard showing a battered woman. "Reduce family and community violence in Denver," it read.

The voters bought it. And national pot proponents are paying attention.

Coming soon to a city near you: another pot proposal that doesn’t ever mention the word "marijuana."

That’s what bothers Suthers most about the vote, and it’s what bothered Columbia cops when this city approved its proposition. They think proponents pulled the wool over our eyes. They think they hid their true agenda under a haze of happy smoke.

"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," Suthers said.

After the Denver vote, the national debate is sure to intensify.

Meanwhile, local cops will continue to enforce state laws. Yesterday, on Interstate 70, the road that connects the pot-loving cities of Columbia and Denver, two Indiana men were arrested by state troopers in Callaway County. A drug-sniffing dog found 39 pounds of pot in the car. What if the men were simply intending to sell the so-called harmless drug one legal ounce at a time in cities that believe in turning the other way? Is that a crime?

That’s the debate our nation needs to have.

One mile-high city at a time.

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The Mighty Quin

Oh? and I suppose the pot smokers "tricked" an entire city? Nobody is that good. Not even those sheisty republicans.

This guy is just mad because he did not want prop 100 to pass and because everyone else in the world does not share his opinion.

Go denver.

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killer12382

It really doesn't matter as the Denver cops say they are going to enforce the state laws concerning marijuana. So, here is the bottom line, folks.....Its good that they sent a message to somebody(whoever is listening) that the people of Denver want a change in pot laws but the reality of it all is this: Nothings changed in Denver.....the cops can still arrest you for minor marijuana possession under state statutes.

Buzzby

There's a world of difference between decriminalizing marijuana possession and legalizing it. In one case you still have to hide from the police because it's still a crime - just not one that carries jail time. In the other, holding an ounce of marijuana is completely legal.


Wrong again! It's not a low-priority crime. It's not a crime at all.


Do the cops "look the other way" when you have a pack of cigarettes? In Denver, having an ounce of marijuana would be no more illegal.


And the Denver Police Chief said he'd follow the will of the people who pay his salary.


Where was the first one? Not in Denver.


This remains to be seen. No news has come out of Denver as to how the new law will actually be enforced.


Were the two men in Columbia or Denver? No. Did they have an ounce or less of marijuana? No. Possession of large amounts is illegal in both cities as well as anywhere in between. Sale is illegal in any amount in both cities and anywhere in between. What's your point?


They can but we do not know if they will.

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replica

Those tricky tricky smokers.

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TICO STONE

Marijuana Is Good!
Eat It, Wear It, Vaporize It, Legalize It!!!!

This Country Was Founded By Hemp Users!!!!!

Idiots Rule Now!!!

Take The Power Back!!!!