Colorado: Yet Another City Votes To Remove Marijuana Penalties

Fewer than 2,000 people reside in the mountain town of Nederland, Colorado — located west of Boulder. Nonetheless, Tuesday’s ‘small town’ vote in favor of a local ordinance eliminating all criminal and civil penalties for the adult personal use of marijuana is no doubt representative of the rising tide of national popular opinion in favor of cannabis legalization.

For the record, Nederland is the third Colorado city in recent memory to vote to remove marijuana possession penalties — following Breckenridge in 2009 and Denver (2007 and 2005) — and it most certainly won’t be the last.

Nederland votes to remove penalties for marijuana
via Fox News

NEDERLAND, COLO. — Voters in the town of Nederland voted on Tuesday and approved a ballot measure that removed all local penalties for private adult marijuana possession, making the mountain town the third Colorado locality to legalize marijuana in the past five years.

Denver voters adopted a citizen-initiative to do so in November 2005, and voters in Breckenridge approved a similar measure in November 2009.

More than 54 percent of Nederland voters supported the measure in what Town Clerk Christi Icenogle said was a high turn-out election.

Voters also ousted incumbent Mayor Martin Cheshes, who had vocally opposed the measure and referred to it as “foolish,” replacing him with Trustee Sumaya Abu-Haidar.

Prior to the announcement of the vote, the Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett told The Daily Camera: “I’ll pay attention if it passes. Marijuana enforcement is a sensitive issue, and it’s important to gauge public sentiment.”

… Durango, which voted largely in support of the statewide initiative to legalize marijuana in 2006, will likely to vote on a similar local marijuana legalization initiative this November.

A recent poll of likely Colorado voters found that 50 percent now support making marijuana legal for adults and regulating it like alcohol.

The Voters Have Spoken — Again!

Conventional wisdom dictates that if the people lead then our political leaders will follow. Of course, when it comes to marijuana law reform, conventional wisdom seldom applies.

In a result that should come as a surprise to nobody — except for perhaps certain members of law enforcement and state lawmakers — Maine voters today overwhelmingly approved Question 5, the Maine Marijuana Medical Act. The measure amends existing state law by: establishing a confidential patient registry, expanding the list of qualifying conditions for which a physician may recommend medicinal cannabis, and by allowing for the creation of non-profit state-licensed nonprofit dispensaries to assist in the distribution of medical cannabis to qualified patients.

Of course for anyone following this issue, the result should not come as a surprise. Voters at the polls overwhelmingly approve marijuana law reform — virtually every time they have the opportunity to do so. Yet, over and over again voters have this opportunity because their cowardly elected officials continue to inexplicably punt on the issue.

In Maine, for instance, lawmakers voted unanimously in April to put this issue before the voters rather than legislating it themselves. They did so even though state voters had previously (and by more than 60 percent) approved patients’ rights to use medical marijuana, and despite the fact that the current proposal had virtually no organized opposition aside from law enforcement.

It was the same story in Colorado, where over 70 percent of Breckenridge voters elected today to amend the town code to remove all criminal and civil penalties, including fines, on the private possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. Should anyone have been surprised? Not really. Over 70 percent of local voters said ‘yes’ to a similar statewide (but unsuccessful) measure in 2005. Nonetheless, this past August the Breckenridge Town Council elected to dodge the issue when it came up for a vote — opting instead to send it before the voters.

Elsewhere in Colorado today, state police and politicians were conspiring to halt the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries. Law enforcement and local politicians are engaging in similar efforts in southern California.

Yes, you read that right: cops and politicians are trying to undermine the very same reforms that the public today just embraced.

When will they ever learn?

‘The Law and Marijuana’ Chronicles: Why Marijuana Remains Illegal

Last week Breckenridge Colorado joined the growing chorus of municipalities across America seeking to create a sensible cannabis policy (one, that in principle, is similar to that of alcohol in the recognition between acceptable, responsible adult use and abuse). Even though Colorado is already one of the 13 states that have decriminalized possession amounts of cannabis, following Denver’s lead, Breckenridge voters will soon be asked to make cannabis both a lowest law enforcement priority and the ‘penalty’ for possessing it– nothing. Nada. No fine, no criminal record.

A bright and enthusiastic lawyer with a young and growing family in Breckenridge is one of the chief advocates for this initiative, and in an ongoing ‘The Law and Marijuana‘ series of essays submitted by attorneys from the NORML Legal Committee to be exclusively published by the organization, Sean McAllister opines about why he thinks cannabis prohibition has lasted over 70 years.

-AStP

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By Sean T. McAllister, Esq., Member, NORML Legal Committee (Breckenridge, CO)

Marijuana remains illegal even though public attitudes are clearly changing on this topic. It is illegal even though 100 million Americans have smoked it and suffered little if any negative side effects. It is illegal even though 40% or more of Americans currently support legalization. It is illegal even though it is not physically addictive; you cannot overdose on marijuana; and the dependency rate of marijuana is lower than alcohol.

Marijuana remains illegal even though prohibition is incredibly expensive. The federal government spends at least $10 billion per year specifically on marijuana prohibition. Approximately 60,000 people are in prisons in America on marijuana violations only. If all 15-25 million Americans who smoke marijuana monthly were imprisoned, the country would spend $365 billion per year to incarcerate these people. Considering the country could reap approximately $6.2 billion per year if marijuana were taxed and regulated like alcohol, the war on marijuana easily costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 billion per year.

Marijuana remains illegal even though prohibition has miserably failed. After 35 years of a war on drugs largely targeting marijuana, the same number of high school students now say marijuana is easy to get and they had used it as answered those question in the affirmative in 1975. It remains illegal even though the Obama administration has declared an end to the “war on drugs,” while at the same time laughing off marijuana legalization.

Marijuana prohibition continues even though it empowers Mexican drug cartels. Approximately 60-70% of the profit of Mexican drug cartels comes from marijuana sales. If marijuana were taxed and regulated, this black market would virtually disappear, Mexican drug cartels would be much weaker, and our border would be much more secure.

Despite these facts, most politicians continue support marijuana prohibition. Commission after commission and newspaper editorial board after board may endorse marijuana legalization, but it continues to be ignored in state capitals. Grassroots activism does a great job keeping this issue in the press, but politicians continue to ignore it. Few politicians see it in their narrow interests of reelection to come out in favor of legalization of marijuana.

What follows is a brief analysis of some of the factors that continue to propagate the inertia of marijuana prohibition: (more…)