Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jul 2005
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Copyright: 2005 Boulder Weekly
Contact:  http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57
Author: Devon Swezey
Note: Titled by newshawk
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1156/a05.html?97859

MORE MARIJUANA DIALOGUES

I appreciated Armstrong's article "The Price of Prohibition" about the 
costs that the state incurs criminalizing marijuana and the revenue it 
could generate if it did not. While I agree with the basic tenets of the 
article, and strongly believe that marijuana should be decriminalized, Mr. 
Armstrong's remarks about TABOR reform are ill-informed. He states that 
"Owens, along with many Democrats and some other sellout Republicans, are 
asking Colorado taxpayers to fork over an estimated $3.1 billion over the 
next five years." The truth is that the proposed reform of TABOR would not 
be an involuntary tax hike, but a voter-approved revenue increase for the 
state of Colorado, which would greatly benefit our ailing public education 
system. It strikes me as odd that Mr. Armstrong is in favor of generating 
state revenue through the taxation and decriminalization of marijuana, but 
not by foregoing an average of $20 per taxpayer in refunds to help a public 
education system that ranks 47th in the nation in K-12 education funding as 
a share of income.

While I agree that the state has often spent funds quite frivolously in 
past years, it seems important that we increase support for students in 
public education in Colorado before "increasing liberty" to allow those 
kids to do more of what they do best... smoke weed.

Devon Swezey

Boulder
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MAP posted-by: Beth