November 1, 2005
City Lives Up To Mile 'High' Rep; Pot Proposal Passes
Denver City Attorney Says Election Outcome Doesn't Change Anything
Denver' ABC 7DENVER -- An effort to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana won during Tuesday night's election, despite a campaign that many said misled voters by playing on their fear of violent crime.
With 420 of 421 precincts reporting, 53 percent of voters had cast ballots for the measure, with 46 percent against it.
Telluride voters are also deciding whether to make crackdowns on marijuana possession a lower priority for local law enforcement -- but only an ounce or less, and only for people age 18 and up. The Town Council allowed the measure to be placed on the ballot in August.
Some supporters hoped the Denver proposal would launch a national trend toward legalizing the drug. They say enforcement causes more problems than it cures. They argued that smoking marijuana should carry the same penalties as abusing alcohol.
"What this does say is reconsidering marijuana prohibition is absolutely a mainstream issue now," said Bruce Mirken of the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project.
He said government regulation of the drug would halt clandestine growing operations, make it more difficult for teenagers to obtain marijuana and free space in prisons.
But the Denver proposal seemed to draw at least as much attention for supporters' campaign tactics as it did for the question of legalizing the drug.
Mason Tvert, the campaign organizer for SAFER, or Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation, based the campaign on his argument that legalizing marijuana would reduce consumption of alcohol, which he said leads to higher rates of car accidents, domestic and street violence and crime.
The group criticized Mayor John Hickenlooper for opposing the proposal, noting his ownership of a popular brewpub. It also held up recent violent crimes, including the shootings of four people in a span of several hours last weekend, as a reason to legalize marijuana to steer people away from alcohol use.
One sponsored billboard depicted a battered woman and a man standing behind her, presumably her abuser, with the message, "Reduce family and community violence in Denver. Vote Yes on I-100."
The tactics angered local officials and some voters. Many opponents also said it made no sense to prevent prosecution by Denver authorities while marijuana charges are most often filed under state and federal law.
Chris Bogren, 21, a political science major at the University of Colorado-Denver, said he came close to voting against the proposal because he was "really disgusted" by the campaign, but said he agreed with underlying arguments.
"It is a lot more sedate of a drug than alcohol or a lot of other things," he said. "It doesn't necessarily lead to violence and the gateway-drug theory is bunk."
Under the measure, residents over 21 years old could possess up to an ounce of marijuana. It would not affect the medical marijuana law voters approved in 2000.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that medical marijuana laws in Colorado and nine other states would not protect licensed users from federal prosecution.
Tvert has said the campaign in Denver and similar, nonbinding initiatives passed by students at the University of Colorado in Boulder and Colorado State University in Fort Collins are part of a larger plan to move to state regulation and taxation of marijuana.
Policy Project said Denver is the second major U.S. city in less than a year to pass a measure aimed at replacing marijuana prohibition with policies designed to treat marijuana in a manner comparable to alcohol. A similar measure won by a wide margin in Oakland, Calif., in November 2004.
"A few years from now, this vote may well be seen as the proverbial 'tipping point,' the beginning of the end of marijuana prohibition in the U.S.," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "Last year, there were more than three-quarters of a million marijuana arrests, an all-time record," Kampia added. "That's equivalent to arresting every man, woman, and child in the state of Wyoming plus every man, woman, and child in St. Paul, Minnesota. The public understands that this simply makes no sense. Regulating marijuana will take money out of the pockets of criminals and free police to go after violent crime, and the voters of Denver took their first step in that direction today."
The city attorney's office has said that even if the measure passes, Denver police would simply file marijuana possession charges under state law, which carries up to a $100 fine and a mandatory $100 drug-offender surcharge.
thedenverchannel
The city attorney’s office said that if the measure passed, police would simply file marijuana possession charges under state law. 
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