This articles a wee bit old but I didnt see it posted so pardon me if it already has been:
It is now legal for citizens of Denver, Colorado over the age of 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. They took a poll and 53% voted to legalize it.
**insert lame "Mile High City" Joke here - get em out now, they're already getting old**
www.usatoday.com/news/nat...-pot_x.htm
Quote:
Denver votes to legalize marijuana possession
By Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAYDENVER Voters here approved making Denver the first major city to legalize small amounts of marijuana, but the mayor warned that state law still makes possession of the drug illegal.
"OK of pot issue gives new meaning to Mile High City," said Wednesday's headline in the Rocky Mountain News. The measure, which passed Tuesday with 54% of the vote, says adults 21 and older may possess up to an ounce of marijuana without penalty in the city.
A few other cities, including Seattle and Oakland, have laws that make marijuana possession a low priority for police. A dozen states, including Colorado, have decriminalized possession of small amounts but still issue fines.
Unlike Denver, the Colorado ski town of Telluride, population 2,300, narrowly defeated a measure Tuesday that would have made possession of marijuana the lowest police priority. It might be already: Just 17 citations were issued there last year for pot possession.
Don't expect clouds of marijuana smoke to fill Denver's thin air. Mayor John Hickenlooper said police will continue to arrest and charge people for marijuana because state law still makes possession illegal.
Hickenlooper said the city can adopt an ordinance that is stricter than state law on marijuana but not one that is weaker.
Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., said Denver's vote will spur initiatives in other cities to legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol or tobacco.
"It's certainly likely to energize people. This is the wind in the sails of reform," Mirken said Wednesday. "Rethinking marijuana prohibition is mainstream. This is the heart of America saying, 'Hold on, maybe our current marijuana laws don't make a lot of sense.' And the fact is, they're right."
Mason Tvert, who led the Denver campaign for legalized pot, said he will encourage people who are charged under state law to fight their arrests in court.
In Colorado, having an ounce of marijuana or less is punishable by a $100 fine but no jail time. "It's like a speeding ticket, and only a fraction of people end up going to court over it," said Tvert, founder of SAFER, or Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation.
Tvert said his group also will seek a state initiative to license and regulate the sale of marijuana. His campaign argued that legalized pot is a safer alternative, considering the problems that arise from alcohol abuse such as violent crime and health risks.
The mayor said he opposed the measure because he considers marijuana a "gateway" drug that can lead to harder substances and "much more self-destructive behaviors." Hickenlooper acknowledged, however, that Denver's vote "does reflect a genuine shift in people's attitudes."
Although Denver's marijuana vote caught attention, the main issue Coloradans approved Tuesday will let the state government keep $3.7 billion in tax revenue over the next five years. The money otherwise would have been refunded to taxpayers under a 1992 constitutional amendment, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which has strict caps on state spending. The statewide referendum passed with 52% of the vote.
Funky Cold Medina.
Anyways, I really don't see any reason for this to happen; although it CAN be used as a helpful drug, that doesn't stop it from being a narcotic that shouldn't be availible to civilians that simply don't need it.
They keep this up and the tourist trade in Amsterdam is going to die!
Aside from a lame joke, I dunno what else to say. I think it's a good thing. Not as good as legalising the damn thing and taxing the hell out of it, but it's a start.
They keep this up and the tourist trade in Amsterdam is going to die!
Methinks it will take more than a couple of bags of pot to lure people away from Amsterdam.
It will also take a few hundred thousand legalized prostitutes and a mountain completely made of Hershey's chocolate alongside the pot to kill off Amsterdam once and for all.
Oh, and Franka Potente. That'll finish them off for sure!
although it CAN be used as a helpful drug, that doesn't stop it from being a narcotic that shouldn't be availible to civilians that simply don't need it.
And yet we still legalize cigarettes for the age of 18 and it has NO use as a helpful drug, yet causes endless amounts of cancer. Hmmm...
Cigarettes are deadlier than marijuana provided you take small amounts of it, last time I checked.
However, I agree. Legalize it and tax the living snot out of it. Who knows. In 30 years, it might just bring our deficit to half of what it is now.
...we rather have people to put in jail than legalize anything harmful that isn't already legalized. ;p
I'm not sure if I sense sarcasm in there or not.
If not, I reiterate: cigarettes. 😛
Yes, it was meant to be sarcastic. You should know that I'm a tad liberal on 98%--if not more--of the issues. ;p
yeah, legalise and tax, good thing in my opinion
correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the whole "marijuana is bad M'kay?" argument the whole mental impairment while on high thing? plus possibly dehydration. so, as well as legalising you know, don't toke and drive signs might help.
can anyone find/ make up statistics comparing marijuana/alchohol/smoking related deaths per year?
I'm interested to know now
That's actually very interesting; it honestly doesn't sound incredibly harmful. Taxing it now sounds like a good idea, huh. Most of the real dangers listed on the first one are things that are on cigarettes as well.
Slightly off topic but seeings as you mentioned cigarettes in that light, not too long back here in the UK there was some food colouring of somesuch that was discovered could maybe on the offchance quite possible cause cancer and BOOM, off the shelves! And yet cigarettes are still going... quite the standard. -_-
