| Smart Colorado |
| They always seem to trot out the kids. Aren’t there adults in Colorado too — who get to make adult decisions? |
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has been urged by an anti-cannabis group to weigh in with his opposition to a November ballot issue which would legalize marijuana in Colorado.
Amendment 64 would allow adults statewide to possess up to an ounce of marijuana for personal, non-medical use, reports Lynn Bartels of The Denver Post. The measure is opposed by a “citizens group” calling itself Smart Colorado, represented by the Denver law firm of Holland & Hart.
Smart Colorado attorney Jon Anderson (not the Yes vocalist) claimed in a letter to Holder that Colorado’s ballot measure “parallels” California’s Proposition 19, defeated by voters 54 percent to 46 percent in 2010.
Anderson said the U.S. Department of Justice “aggressively” opposed that initiative, and Smart Colorado wants the DOJ to do the same against Amendment 64 in Colorado.
“As you know, Colorado has the most expansive medical marijuana industry in the country,” Anderson wrote to Holder. “To further expand their drug profits, this industry will invest enormous sums of money to erase all state restrictions on growing, transporting, and selling marijuana in Colorado.” (That part is wildly inaccurate; one might even call it a “damn lie,” since cannabis would still be heavily regulated if Amendment 64 passes.)
“It is critical that Colorado voters understand the serious legal and policy implications of passing such a dangerous law,” Anderson wrote, really working himself up into a twitching, unholy lather of indignation.
| Denver Westword |
| Mason Tvert, Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol: Smart Colorado is a “small group of law-enforcement officials” |
Mason Tvert, who leads the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, for Amendment 64, said he was surprised by the letter.
“This seems like a politically tone-deaf request in light of the recent Rasmussen poll showing 61 percent of likely voters in Colorado support regulating marijuana like alcohol,” he said.
“Whoever is asking the Obama administration to oppose Amendment 64 must be secretly rooting for Mitt Romney to be elected president in November,” Tvert said.
Tvert called Smart Colorado a “small group of law-enforcement officials” who want the federal government to “interfere with Colorado’s business.”
