Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2007
Source: Telluride Daily Planet (CO)
Copyright: 2007 Telluride Daily Planet, A Division of Womack Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.telluridegateway.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3881
Author: Reilly Capps, staff writer

DENVER DID IT - COULD TELLURIDE LEGALIZE MARIJUANA?

Telluride, Colo. - The city of Denver passed another marijuana law 
Tuesday. The city that already legalized pot told the city's cops to 
make marijuana possession their "lowest law-enforcement priority."

Sound familiar?

It should. In 2005, a similar measure narrowly failed in Telluride, 
332-308. But the success of anti-prohibition laws in Denver, Seattle, 
Oakland and other cities has encouraged one local activist to 
consider giving it another shot here.

"It's worked great in a lot of cities," says Ernest Eich, who 
supported and promoted the 2005 initiative. "Is Telluride really less 
progressive than Denver?"

The 2005 Telluride ballot initiative, called Question 200, asked cops 
to lay off and also advocated a national system of legalization and taxation.

"After the last initiative it's always been the goal to do another 
one, we just got to see the right formulation and see what's the 
right way to go with it," Eich says. "It'd be interesting to see what 
other people in the community want to do."

Next time, Eich says, it might help to throw out the complicated 
language and ambitious national goals. It might be simpler to write 
an initiative that says, essentially, that Telluride - or San Miguel 
County - legalizes marijuana.

He's looking for people interested in reform.

Sheriff Bill Masters, a libertarian, thinks marijuana prohibition 
should end statewide and nationwide. He's written a book called "Drug 
War Addiction," about the ways national drug policy has failed.

But he isn't sure San Miguel County is the place to start changes.

"If you want to change the law, don't do this stuff per community, go 
and change the law on the state level," he says. "It's a mistake to 
have our community be singled out as the one that allows that. We 
don't want people coming here because they can smoke marijuana."

Telluride Marshal Jim Kolar didn't want any changes.

"I'd argue against that," he says. "It's still illegal in the state 
and federally, and there's too many health and safety issues. I 
wouldn't want to put more people that are out in the streets that are 
under the influence of substances."

Denver is the only city in the country to have "legalized" marijuana, 
though many have passed laws instructing the cops to stop harshing on 
tokers: Oakland, West Hollywood, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Missoula 
County, Mont., Eureka Springs, Ark.

Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Washington, D.C.-based 
Marijuana Policy Project, believes that each campaign that points out 
simple facts about pot - that marijuana use doesn't kill people, that 
it doesn't make people more aggressive or contribute to crime, that 
it's less dangerous than alcohol in a number of ways, that we're 
talking about our basic freedoms - has some effect on getting 
marijuana policy changed on a national level.

"You've got to give it to Mason [Tvert] and his group in Denver, 
[SAFER], they have nailed it absolutely on the head - this is a drug 
that is much safer than alcohol," Mirken says. "If our laws are to 
have some reasonable relationship to facts, the way we handle 
marijuana and alcohol and tobacco has got to change."

Not everyone agrees. Mike Dorsey, a second homeowner, sees marijuana 
as a dangerous drug, and sees legalization not as a victory for 
freedom but as "encouraging drug use."

It's not clear what real effect "legalizing" pot locally would have.

Marijuana is still outlawed by the state and country. Legalizing pot 
in Denver didn't stop the cops from citing people for pot - which was 
the reason for the most recent vote on "lowest law enforcement priority."

But Mirken, for one, thinks any change is positive change.

"I really do think that votes we're seeing in Denver and elsewhere 
are the equivalent of the first brick coming out of the Berlin Wall," 
Mirken says. "Prohibition is so destructive, and costly and stupid 
and pointless ... that I do think it's going to collapse of its own 
accord. And I think we might be getting close to that tipping point."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart