Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2007
Source: Vail Daily (CO)
Copyright: 2007 Vail Daily
Contact: http://www.vaildaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/misc?url=/misc/letter/index.pbs
Website: http://www.vaildaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3233
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)

DENVER MAYOR, 4 COUNCIL MEMBERS ADMIT TO POT USE

DENVER (AP) -- Heading into a meeting to discuss whether marijuana 
should be the lowest priority for police, Mayor John Hickenlooper and 
four City Council told a newspaper they had smoked pot.

But the city leaders, who are debating whether to put the marijuana 
initiative before the voters, said their experiences have nothing to 
do with public policy.

The Denver Daily News surveyed the mayor and 13-member council on 
marijuana use and published the results Monday. Six members refused 
to answer. Three said no.

"I had a brownie once, there may have even been a bowl going with 
it," Councilwoman Marcia Johnson told the newspaper. "I got a good 
taste and even a case of the giggles, but I voted against (the 
marijuana measure) because I'm thinking of the message to little children."

Hickenlooper had previously admitted smoking marijuana.

"As I've already been open about in the past -- and as I assume many 
would expect -- I made personal choices when I was younger that I 
neither support nor condone for others and certainly wouldn't 
encourage through public policy," Hickenlooper said.

The other members who admitted to using marijuana were Rick Garcia, 
Carla Madison and Jeanne Robb.

In 2005, Denver residents passed an initiative making possession of 
small amounts of marijuana legal. Police said they would continue 
prosecuting people under state law, which marijuana proponents tried 
but failed to change through a vote last year.

Mason Tvert of Citizens for a Safer Denver, which is leading the 
marijuana decriminalization effort, said the group has enough 
petition signatures to place an initiative on the ballot that would 
direct police to make marijuana their lowest priority.

Denver's charter requires the City Council to review initiative and 
either enact it or send it to voters, mayor spokeswoman Lindy 
Eichenbaum Lent said.

"Proceduraly they're bound (obligated) to do it," she said. "Sending 
it to voters doesn't imply that they endorse it."
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