Residents of Colorado will have the opportunity to vote in favor of ending marijuana prohibition this November. Today, the “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act” was approved for the ballot by Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler. With this confirmation, Colorado now joins Washington as one of two states where measures specific to legalizing cannabis will appear on the electoral ballot.
Backers of the initiative had previously turned in over 160,000 signatures. However, the Secretary of State’s office on February 3 responded that petitioners still needed an additional 2,500 valid signatures from registered voters to place the initiative on the ballot. On February 17th, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol submitted an additional 14,000 signatures, well in excess of what was required to meet that threshold. Today’s approval from the state cements their placement on this fall’s ballot.
The Colorado initiative seeks to allow for the limited possession and cultivation of cannabis by adults age 21 and over. The measure would further amend state law to establish regulations governing the commercial production and distribution of marijuana by licensed retailers.
The measure is supported by a broad coalition of reform organizations, including NORML, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, SAFER, Sensible Colorado, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), the Drug Policy Alliance, and the Marijuana Policy Project.
“This is a very exciting prospect for marijuana law reform advocates,” states Erik Altieri, NORML’s Communications Coordinator, “Coloradans have already set the example for how to properly implement a state medical marijuana program and now they have the opportunity to lead the country yet again by being the first to end cannabis prohibition in their state. With their state pride and frontier mentality, the Centennial State stands a great chance of being the first state to declare an end to the war on cannabis consumers.”
Since its inception, the 2012 Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol has been comprised of a broad-based coalition of state and national organizations that includes NORML. The NORML Board of Directors is expected to publicly endorse the initiative shortly.
More information on the initiative can be found at the campaign’s webpage here and on their Facebook here.
the 80% you are talking about, the majority of them were drug charges, pointless charges against innocent people guilty of nothing more than smoking or possessing a joint or sack of weed, stop the ignorant war against our own people,,,
Marijuana != Drugs. If you believe this, then you have been brainwashed and should be fighting for a more personal cause. Media is more dangerous than Marijuana, think about it…Life wasn’t so bad when we were confined to printed material for our information and alcohol has always been a cause of terrible “accidents.” I’ll take Marijuana over either of these any day.
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Larry, Your an idiot! I’m on 13 different heart, acid reflux, depression med. and 3 strong narcotic meds. I’m 36 and have had to have 2 back surgery, open heart surgery due to a heredatery Heart inlarged Heart, I have a difibulator, a metal rod in my left hemas bone. And yes I’m a grown Man! And I should be able to treat myself with medical pot instead of the narcotic addictive pills. And I know here in Arkansas a drug store is robed at least 1 a week and there have been people killed. There are standards, taxed,and Regulated by local, state, federal government with I’m sure very intense background checks the police at all levels need to worry about other larger and more deadly drugs. I hope you or your family never have to take 13 different regular non narcotic drug. But Im a grown and I should have an option. And the cartels would move away from pot and focus on more powder products.
Larry, you are lost my, fellow American, in an old and misguided school of thought. Red, you are on the money about the cartels moving away from the pot and focusing on the powder products.
If the USA would make pot legal, tax & reg. it like they do alcohol & cigarettes, not only would it free up our police, prisons, and justice system from petty pot charges and allow the system to focus on serious & violent crimes, it would also keep a lot of US dollars here in America.
With that said, how about fighting terrorism from our southern border? By cutting a good chunk of the cartel’s revenue off by legalizing pot and allowing the American farmers to grow it, the cartels wouldn’t have that large source of income. Cartels operate off of revenue just like any business. Like any business, the size and power of a company and/or corporation is directly related to its income. Want to strike a blow to the drug cartels? Legalize a product that they can’t sell here in America anymore at a profit worth messing with. If they try to smuggle pot into the US after that, if we catch the transport then we seize it as always, lock the smugglers up, sell their pot on our stores and the US government taxes it.
Hm,Mexican, Canadian, grass, drug cartel. Take away their consumer market and harness it. Cartel fade away, grass is taxed, the gov’t uses their pot prohibition funds towards something better. Jobs are created. Happier, healthier, wealthier, and safer Americans. hm
Bettie understands the situation. America’s economy is crumbling beneath our feet. Our jails and prisons are full of people guilty of nothing but possessing a plant. Americans should understand that people who want to consume marijuana will do so regardless of the law. Why not tax it and free up our costly jails and prisons for real criminals such as our politicians who are destroying our future by inaction on our crippling debt and illegal immigration?
I respect your opinion especially with mind altering substances I would never expect someone to support them blindly but I want to ask you one question do you drink alcohol? Are you fully educated on the short and long term effects of pot? I challenge you to do a side-by-side comparison of alcohol and marijuana. And I am willing to bet that you will find that you should have condemned Colorado years back for their breweries rather than waiting till now to boycott an entire state because of what they choose to let their residents do. On a side note check the child and spousal abuse statistics related with alcohol and related with marijuana.
Larry, I respect your opinion especially with mind altering substances I would never expect someone to support them blindly but I want to ask you one question do you drink alcohol? Are you fully educated on the short and long term effects of pot? I challenge you to do a side-by-side comparison of alcohol and marijuana. And I am willing to bet that you will find that you should have condemned Colorado years back for their breweries rather than waiting till now to boycott an entire state because of what they choose to let their residents do. On a side note check the child and spousal abuse statistics related with alcohol and then related with marijuana.
Sorry for the double post I realized that in the first post I had not stated who it was in response to.
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