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Loading...Colorado Will Vote On Marijuana Legalization
On Monday Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler approved a state ballot initiative to legalize and regulate the use of marijuana. Voters will now decide if the measure becomes law.
In January proponents of the initiative submitted more than 160,000 signatures to Gessler. But after review of the signatures the petition fell about 3,000 signatures short of the number necessary to make the ballot. In February, proponents submitted an additional 14,000 names to qualify the measure for the ballot.
“This could be a watershed year in the decades-long struggle to end marijuana prohibition in this country,” said Art Way, Colorado manager of the Drug Policy Alliance in a statement Monday. “Marijuana prohibition is counterproductive to the health and public safety of our communities. It fuels a massive, increasingly brutal underground economy, wastes billions of dollars in scarce law enforcement resources, and makes criminals out of millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens.”
Should the measure pass then marijuana would be treated essentially the same as alcohol. It would allow adults 21 and older to possess and use up to 1 ounce of marijuana. It would allow local governments to prohibit marijuana sales but the provisions decriminalizing personal possession and cultivation of marijuana would apply statewide.
“Regulating marijuana like alcohol will create jobs, allow police to focus on more serious crimes, provide much-needed tax revenue, and will do a far better job of keeping marijuana away from children than the current system does,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “A majority of Americans recognize that the government’s war on marijuana is an expensive failure and think that marijuana should be legal for adults. This November, Coloradans will get a chance to lead the nation by becoming the first state to end marijuana prohibition.”
Colorado has had a law permitting medicinal marijuana sine 2000 but this initiative makes it the second state behind Washington to put marijuana decriminalization on the ballot.
Related Stories:
Colorado Looks To Fully Decriminalize Marijuana
Read more: colorado, Decriminalization, marijuana, prohibition
Photo from Torben Bjorn Hansen via flickr.
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329 comments
+ add your ownIt's about time! - for Colorado, let's work on the rest of the world now....
LEGALIZE MEDICAL MARIJUANA NOW!
You are so right. I mean look at gay marriage. Some day this country will be enlightened. Maybe when alkl the uptight old farts are dead.
Do it already. It's so much safer than booze. Cut down on hit & run murders. Smile. Feel good. Spread happiness throughout the land. C'mon. Just vote YES.
It's about time !Now lets go for the rest of the country !!
pass the duerchie to the lefthand side
Marijuana legalization should be made law in every State, and by Federal Law subject to the same regulations as alcohol, which is a far more dangerous drug.
This is a useful explanation of why hemp was made illegal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir-Skbhj8F0&feature=related
@Agnt: Marijuana is a member of the hemp family and it was hemp that was made illegal back in the thirties when it was considered a threat to the owners of oil wells, cotton fields, forestry, plastics and pharma-chemical industries. It is only the illicit use of marijuana that has kept hemp going as a viable commercial proposition. It has many more benefits than merely getting folks thoughtfully high.
This is a link to what Henry Ford did with hemp in 1941
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=y7BNp7rgnVQ
To say that marijuana is no worse than alcohol is true folly. Evidence and statistics both show that alcohol is much more dangerous to both the users and the general public. Marijuana should be legalized nationwide already!
Agnt,
About 25% of the American adult population is currently taking mood altering drugs that they get from their doctors.
Not to mention alcohol, caffein and nicotine.
For some people, marijuana works a lot better than what the doctor ordered or what the gov't deems acceptable.
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