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Lothar121

DEA Raises Cash to Fight Pot Issue
Measure's backers cry foul, but agency says it's within law
Ryan Morgan | Rocky Mountain News | 08/28/2006

The Drug Enforcement Agency is stepping into the political fray to oppose a statewide ballot issue that would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

In an e-mail to political campaign professionals, a DEA agent named Michael Moore asks for help in finding a campaign manager to defeat the measure, which voters will consider in November. If passed, it will allow people 21 and older to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana.

In the e-mail, which was sent from a U.S. Department of Justice account, Moore also writes that the group has $10,000 to launch the campaign. He asks those interested in helping to call him at his DEA office.

That has members of Safer Colorado, the group supporting the marijuana legalization measure, crying foul. The government has no business spending public money on politics, they say.

Steve Fox, the group's executive director, said members of the executive branch, including the DEA, should leave lawmaking to legislators.

"Taxpayer money should not be going toward the executive branch advocating one side or another," Fox said. "It's a wholly inappropriate use of taxpayer money."

Jeff Sweetin, special agent in charge of the Denver office of the DEA, said voters have every right to change the laws. But, he added, the law also allows his agency to get involved in that process to tell voters why they shouldn't decriminalize pot.

"My mantra has been, 'If Americans use the democratic process to make change, we're in favor of that,' " he said. "But as a caveat, we're in favor of it working based on all the facts."

Sweetin said the $10,000 the committee has to spend came from private donations, including some from agents' own accounts. He said the DEA isn't trying to "protect Coloradans from themselves" but that the agency is the expert when it comes to drugs.

"The American taxpayer does have a right to have the people they've paid to become experts in this business tell them what this is going to do," he said. "They should benefit from this expertise."

That argument threatens states' rights to make their own laws, said Safer's Fox.

"By this logic, federal funds could be used by the executive branch without limitation to campaign for or against state ballot initiatives," he said. "Our federalist system is based on the notion that states can establish their own laws without federal interference. The DEA . . . is thumbing its nose at the citizens of Colorado and the U.S. Constitution."

State and federal law take different approaches on political involvement by government employees.

Colorado law prohibits state employees from advocating for or against any political issue while on the job and also bars them from using government resources - including phone and e-mail accounts - for any kind of political advocacy.

But federal law - which governs what DEA agents can do - is different.

The Hatch Act, passed in 1939 and amended in 1993, governs most political speech. Passed in the wake of patronage scandals in which the party in power would use government money and staff to campaign against the opposition, the law is mostly aimed at partisan political activity, said Ken Bickers, a University of Colorado political science professor.

While the act's prohibitions against on-the-job partisan politicking are strict, for the most part it allows federal employees to take part in nonpartisan politics. And it's mostly silent on nonpartisan ballot measures.

"I'm not sure that this doesn't slide through the cracks in the Hatch Act," Bickers said.

"The Hatch Act isn't about political activity - it's about partisan political activity. Since this is a ballot initiative, and there's no party affiliation attached to it, that part of the Hatch Act probably wouldn't be violated."

An official from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency charged with investigating violations of the act, said in a statement last week that the DEA hasn't run afoul of Hatch.

 

Buzzby

The DEA has tremendous expertise in lying about marijuana. After all, they've been at it for a long time. If Colorado legalizes marijuana, other states follow suit, and the federal government finally capitulates, the DEA would stand to lose the greater part of its funding.

The DEA's involvement in the Colorado voter's initiative is purely a matter of an oversized, over-funded bureaucracy looking out for its own continuity.

My hope is that Colorado voters, being the states-rights libertarians that they are, will look at this invasion and vote for the initiative just to spite this overbearing federal agency.

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king cola

The ballot allows for up to 1 ounce of marijuana but they will still bust growers and dealers? I mean even if someone had a plant that was only yielding one ounce, wouldn't that person be charged with cultivation even though 1 ounce would be allowed? I hope they allow growing while they are at it because the only way you get marijuana in the first place is from a grower or dealer which is both illegal. If both activities were to still remain illegal besides legally owning a ounce, i don't see why the DEA is making something out of this! All it comes down to is that they want control to confiscate drugs in any amount. Maybe they look at it this way, if they are raiding someone for a off topic drug and come up with nothing but catch the person with a little marijuana, they still want to make a drug arrest.

gob

"The American taxpayer does have a right to have the people they've paid to become experts in this business tell them what this is going to do," he said. "They should benefit from this expertise."

Yea and look what those experts did in New Orleans, your doing a heak of a job Brownie.

The DEA has no business in this...it is for the people of Colorado to decide. They are just protecting their jobs......

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End Prohibition

dredpiratrobert

You mean possesion of pot is illegal? God! When did that happen? I'll let my dealer know right away so he dosen't do anything that might be against the law!

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True Patriots Live Free Or Die Trying!!!

 

dedbr

doesn't line people up against the walls and shoot them, I guess we'll have to figure something else out to deal with this, and that will be to tell the truth, and Buzzby did just that.

The DEA would loose most of their funding without herb to hold them up, so it's obvious they will do whatever necessary to keep it illegal. Plus, this also shows in today's society that they are not willing to let us, as citizens, vote anymore on what we feel are the legitimate issues that need resolution.

If Coloradans don't see this as a direct intervention by the government into their states rights then they most certainly don't deserve them, do they?

Coloradans, make the government in Washington hear you loud and clear - get out of my state and out of our decisions. Don't stand for this or you won't have any rights left at all........


Some Where In Ded Land........

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dredpiratrobert

I have to agree with dedbr on this and to quote Walter Solchek (big Lebowski) to the DEA: "Life does not start and stop at your convenience you miserable piece of sh**" and "this affects our basic freedoms"
because it does affect us and the basic freedoms we inherhit to our children.

as far as I know marijuana was legalized in Colorado last year... right? So what did I miss?

DPR

Buzzby

SAFER got a ballot initiative passed in Denver last year that had the almost the same wording as this year's statewide initiative. The Denver police, rather than enforcing the city statute, said that they were obligated to enforce the state marijuana laws. That's why SAFER is pushing the statewide proposal this year.

Political subdivisions within the state will be free to pass their own marijuana laws: if cities or counties want to be "dry", they can. With the passage of the new initiative, the Denver police will no longer have an excuse for busting people who are "legal" under the city ordinance.