Obama just won Colorado again. Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act Qualifies for 2012 Ballot:

[joshcryer]

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.

http://blog.norml.org/2012/02/27/breaking-news-colorados-regulate-marijuana-like-alcohol-act-qualifies-for-2012-ballot/

All he has to do is make meager overtures and it will be pretty epic.

[bluestateguy]

1. Unless all the supporters are too stoned to show up and vote on election day

The law and order types and the suburban mommies with little kids ("Oh, won't someone please think of the children!!!&quot will be out in force too with their big government agenda.

[joshcryer]

2. That's very true, but even the Christian Mecca of the US (Colorado Springs) has dispenseries...

...every few blocks. This is not an exaggeration. I can see one from my window, at this very moment!

The fact that the fundamentalists failed so hard to deny medical marijuana dispensaries under the Medical Marijuana Laws here, it shows that their overall presence isn't that powerful.

Colorado's demographics have changed for the better, imo.

[cojoel]

11. Colorado has early voting

in-person and mail-in ballots too. They would just have to get it together one day, not one particular day.

[villager]

3. Too bad Obama's administration opposes such efforts

n/t

[joshcryer]

4. Link?

[villager]

5. uh, the news? Read it much?

If so, you'll get wind of this administration's policies on marijuana.

[joshcryer]

6. I've read low level enforcement of dispenseries and dealers...

...but by and large the lions share of medical marijuana dispensaries have remain untouched.

We even have these cute girls on TV dancing around talking about their organic store (they don't explicitly mention marijuana).

[villager]

8. Yes, if you're not the one being arrested/shut down I guess it's "low level..."

However one might minimize it, it tells us what this administration's policies are.

[joshcryer]

9. I don't like "selective justice." If you're by a school, avoiding IRS...

...selling to minors, or doing anything illegal, you shouldn't be operating.

Siding with those who were shut down for operating outside of the confines of the laws of those states is simply a very poor way to show your solidarity with the legalization of marijuana.

[villager]

13. I don't like "selective justice" either - criminalizing medical marijuana, letting war criminals go,

etc...

[joshcryer]

16. Law, by its nature, is contridictive.

I'm only glad that the Obama administration isn't cracking down on all medical marijuana and chooses those that are violating other laws. I am particularly happy when tax evaders are caught. Obama is minimizing the contradiction in the law, and until the contradiction is resolved (ie, marijuana is legal, medically and recreationally), that is the most just way to go about it.

[villager]

23. Apparently, so are campaign promises when talking about "change," however

on edit:

..you've actually given reasonably thoughtful replies, even though I disagree with you about what this administration is up to, so figured I should reply as well, and not just trade ripostes in headlines.

In my view, they repeatedly abandon the bully pulpit, so as not to offend the status quo.

As for tax evaders, when they start cracking down on corporations with equal vigor, maybe I'll have a little more faith in them.

[joshcryer]

24. He never promised to let tax evaders get a free pass.

[villager]

25. Unless they're corporations?

n/t

[joshcryer]

26. He never promised that either.

People really revise history when it comes to Obama's lackluster 'support' for marijuana.

The administration sends some letters to dispensaries near schools because of federal guidelines and he's taking drugs from everyone.

Over 30 dispensaries here in Colorado Springs. Ads on TV about them. We've never had a President so friendly to marijuana.

[villager]

28. ...and if this is "friendly..."

...who the hell needs "hostile," eh!?

[duhneece]

15. Since Bushco filled the DOJ with non-liberals, when they could

Obama inherited a right-wing agency that will take years to balance again.

[Renew Deal]

7. Didn't a marijuana legalization referendum lose in CA?

Are there that many people that support legalization?

[joshcryer]

10. 49% supported it in a 2010 poll. I think the majority supports it by now.

Last edited Tue Feb 28, 2012, 02:00 AM - Edit history (1)

There was a massive legalization ad campaign that they had to get the signatures, and I know that if they put those ads back on it'll go very nicely, they were very good ads:

Another one:

As I said, these were all over the news. It was shocking, to be honest.

[musiclawyer]

12. I think I105 in Washington State has a better chance.

IN any event, I think one of them will pass. Other states are close to getting the signatures too. Once one legal cannabis measure passes, the drug war is basically dead man walking, eclipsed by the march of time and progress.

[Fly by night]

14. UNLESS voters support the pro-legalization measure AND vote against Obama because ...

... his out-of-control USDOJ continues prosecuting lawfully established mmj dispensaries, producers and providers in Colorado and elsewhere.

There are likely to be at least two minor-party, pro-pot Presidential candidates (Anderson and Johnson) that those disgruntled voters can support. My guess is that whoever the Greens nominate will support pro-pot and pro-mmj policies also.

The frustration among pro-pot voters, particularly the young and the sick, is already showing up in Presidential preference polls. No surprise here. It is not too late for Obama to honor his 2008 campaign mmj pledges and to clean the oppositional Bushistas out of the USDOJ. But it will be too late very soon.

Now back to the Garden.

[BigDemVoter]

17. Why?

Obama's DOJ has been shitting all over the cannabis dispensaries in CA. I don't trust HIM or his DOJ in this particular area.

[joshcryer]

18. Not his DOJ, and he's kept the lions share of dispensaries safe.

As I said, all he has to do is make overtures and people will eat it up.

[marlakay]

19. I think once Obama is safely reelected

He will back off especially if one of the states passes it.

[RZM]

20. Can we count on even 'meager overtures?'

I would like to think so but . . . I'm not so sure.

Drug policy is probably my single biggest problem with Obama, followed closely by immigration. Other than those two I'm pretty much cool with him. But he needs to get his shit together on drug policy right now.

[joshcryer]

21. A lot of single issue voters will bring it up, that's undoubted.

The question is, will he give the same kind of nuanced, pitiful support to it as he did in 2008?

I don't know.

[RZM]

22. At best he'll slightly modify his position after the election

And even then I'm skeptical. Before November he'll avoid the issue.

[ellisonz]

27. You forgot fracking!

But yeah I'm pretty much cool with him too except for those issues, and some of his staff choices.

[joshcryer]

29. Just wanted to kick this.