Last week, petitions were presented to the Colorado secretary of state to put a measure on this November's ballot. There were nearly 160,000 signatures. The law requires at least 86,105 valid signatures, and the petitioner had hoped for 145,000, since inevitably some signatures will be found invalid by the secretary of state. Thus it appears a near certainty that Coloradans will get to vote on an amendment to the state constitution designed to "regulate marijuana like alcohol." It would be taxed, users would have to be 21 or older, and small amounts of home-grown would be legal. [continues 530 words]
Colorado's attorney general, John Suthers, has said he wants to hear from the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession before he talks to our General Assembly about making pseudoephedrine available only by prescription. He hasn't asked for input from the general public whom he is supposed to serve, but I'll provide some anyway: Don't. Pseudoephedrine is the active ingredient in Sudafed. It's also a prime ingredient for cooking up illegal meth. My acquaintance with Sudafed began about 35 years ago when I woke up one morning with my head congested and a feeling that it would explode from the internal pressure. I went to the doctor, who poked under my eyes and made me flinch. [continues 503 words]
Much as I hate to disagree with my state representative, Tom Massey of Poncha Springs, it is time for our legislature to take "free-market" principles seriously, and take our state totally out of the marijuana-enforcement business. Cannabis ought to be like any other plant grown in Colorado. You and I are free to cultivate, buy and sell alfalfa, potatoes or chili peppers. Why should marijuana be any different? The benefits of flat-out legalization are numerous. Local and state government budgets are tight these days, and there have to be better uses for our tax dollars than the millions we spend on enforcement, prosecution and incarceration. [continues 531 words]
Historians of the future will doubtless marvel that a great and powerful republic, founded in part on "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" but now suffering from difficult economic times would waste billions of dollars every year in a futile war against a humble plant. That plant, of course, is hemp -- source of oil, fiber and a mild psychoactive drug. It's so mild that in all of history, no one has ever died from a marijuana overdose. And those who used it in their youth, like the three most recent American presidents (Clinton claimed he "didn't inhale," Bush was "young and foolish" in his jejune days, and Obama confessed that "pot had helped" during his youth), somehow managed to go on to reasonably productive lives. [continues 508 words]
Historians of the future will doubtless marvel that a great and powerful republic, founded in part on "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" but now suffering from difficult economic times would waste billions of dollars every year in a futile war against a humble plant. That plant, of course, is hemp -- source of oil, fiber and a mild psychoactive drug. It's so mild that in all of history, no one has ever died from a marijuana overdose. And those who used it in their youth, like the three most recent American presidents (Clinton claimed he "didn't inhale," Bush was "young and foolish" in his jejune days, and Obama confessed that "pot had helped" during his youth), somehow managed to go on to reasonably productive lives. [continues 480 words]
In some ways, it might be a good thing that our legislature just passed an increase in auto registration fees to repair the state's bridges. Given recent economic news -- foreclosures, myriad mortgages that exceed the house's market price, rising unemployment -- Coloradans may well need solid, safe bridges to sleep under. Even so, the FASTER measure, as it was called, was a bad piece of public policy. The governor and the General Assembly lacked the courage to raise this revenue in an honest way, by pursuing an increase in the gasoline tax, so they slithered through this with a "fee increase." [continues 521 words]
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against state medical marijuana laws, including Colorado's. The court's ruling was based on the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which states that "The Congress shall have power ... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States ... " But how does someone growing a plant at home for personal use become a form of commerce "among the several states"? Nothing crossed a state line, nor did money change hands. It appears to be neither commerce nor interstate, so where does Congress get such authority? [continues 585 words]
If this column were ever to be entered in a competition, it could be disqualified because it is being written under the influence of a performance-enhancing drug. Or perhaps not - it depends on what you mean by "performance-enhancing," and the definition is not as simple as it appears at first. The substance in use at the moment is caffeine, a mild stimulant. After rising, I don't function very well until I've consumed two or three cups of coffee. If I need caffeine in order to feel "normal," then is it really a performance-enhancing drug? Or is more akin, say, to taking some aspirin for a headache, which would make it a therapeutic drug, rather than a performance-enhancer? [continues 587 words]
So far this month, two university students in Colorado have died after drinking too much alcohol. Many people think this means that somebody should do something to prevent future tragedies like this, but what? The law does not appear to be much help here. It is already illegal to drink alcohol in Colorado if you are under 21. One student was 18 and the other 19, so they were already breaking the law, as were the people who provided them with alcohol. [continues 580 words]
Tuesday, October 08, 2002 - For the past fortnight or so, it's been hard to watch a Colorado TV station for more than a few minutes without encountering a commercial that goes something like this: "Are you tired of having an attorney general who defends sweetheart deals made by the State Land Board? Do you want an attorney general who ignores the expressed will of Colorado voters and threatens to turn medical marijuana users over to the feds? Sick of supporting Animas-La Plata and other water boondoggles with your tax dollars? [continues 716 words]
Curious about how much safer I'd feel once President Bush got his new Department of Homeland Security, I called my favorite inside source: Ananias Ziegler, media relations director for the Committee That Really Runs America. After I explained my mission, he was relieved. "I was afraid you were calling about the corporate accounting scandals and the bear market on Wall Street," he said, "and we haven't really prepared a statement on that." Why was it important to make a statement? I wondered. After all, most people don't have any trouble figuring out what happened - there were people who could make big money by lying, and so they lied. They touted stocks that they knew were bad, or they cooked their books so the stock price would rise. [continues 705 words]
As Americans prepare to celebrate a rare Thursday holiday, high-ranking officials in the Bush administration announced their discovery of a major new terrorism threat. "This rates at least a bright orange, and it could turn red in an instant," according to George Hanover, an official in the Propaganda Ministry of the Third Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security. Hanover explained that the alert was based on the FBI's discovery of a document that had been circulating on the Internet, and perhaps in other places. [continues 700 words]
During my grammar-school days, we faithfully recited the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, although I can't remember whether it happened before or after the teacher took attendance - perhaps that was left up to the schoolmarm. Of course this made my baby-boom generation into a cohort of wholesome patriots who would never question the righteous wisdom of American involvement in Vietnam. Nor would we ever even think of violating the humane and sensible drug laws of this great republic. And there was no need for those Civil Rights laws in the 1960s, since America already had "liberty and justice for all," despite the firehoses and police dogs we saw on television. [continues 743 words]
Confused by conflicting reports about what might have been known before Sept. 11, I called my favorite inside Source: Ananias Ziegler, media relations director for the Committee That Really Runs America. It wasn't easy - the Committee is more security-conscious these days, and to keep outsiders like me from penetrating, it has installed the latest Voice-Mail-From-Hell technology, apparently borrowed from Colorado's own Park County. But I persisted through the maze of "Press 6 to hear these options again" options until I finally got the human voice I wanted to hear. [continues 766 words]
Every so often, I get e-mail to the effect of, "You're one of those liberals who wants to take away our guns." I patiently respond that I'm pretty close to an absolutist on the Bill of Rights, and that I have never supported any new gun laws. As far as I'm concerned, it's none of my business or any government's if you keep and bear anything from a single-shot .22 for rabbit hunting to a heat-seeking missile for taking out helicopter-borne trespassers. [continues 740 words]
Sunday, April 14, 2002 - Sometimes the best reading lies between the lines, and by that process, last week's decision by the Colorado Supreme Court provides some insight into the twisted minds that conduct the War on Drugs in this country. This tale started on March 13, 2000, when agents of the North Metro Drug Task Force looked through the trash from a mobile home in Adams County that they had been monitoring. They found evidence of drug operations, as well as a mailing container from the Tattered Cover Book Store addressed to one trailer occupant. The envelope bore invoice and customer numbers, but did not indicate the contents. [continues 761 words]
Every so often, our General Assembly tries to do the right thing, or at least certain legislators do. That's the case with House Bill 1404, sponsored there by Shawn Mitchell, a Broomfield Republican, and in the state Senate by Bill Thiebaut, a Pueblo Democrat. Their proposed law would go a long way toward curing a cancer known as "Civil Asset Forfeiture," which allows police and prosecutors to seize property without enduring the nuisance of actually convicting its owner of a crime. [continues 813 words]
When George W. Bush campaigned for the presidency, more than a few people had the impression that he wasn't quite the brightest bulb on the tree. In American politics and pop culture, that doesn't hurt. Hollywood often offers movies where the brilliant but ruthless protagonist suffers a brain injury or the like and becomes a decent and caring human being, even if somewhat feeble-minded. Thus in one major cultural influence, intelligence is often equated with evil, and our pop culture villains have been geniuses ever since Lex Luthor first thwarted Superman, and probably long before that. As for politics, Bush was following eight years of Bill Clinton - and even Clinton's worst enemies would never accuse of him of being stupid, no matter how many stupid things he did. Someone who mangled English syntax could look like a refreshing change. [continues 695 words]
Our state constitution provides that ""Neither the general assembly nor the state board of education shall have the power to prescribe textbooks to be used in the public schools," but that doesn't stop certain legislators from trying to bypass elected local school boards by imposing a curriculum from Denver. Five years ago, State Sen. Charles Duke introduced a bill that would have required our public schools to teach the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Antifederalist Papers, the Emancipation Proclamation and Washington's Farewell Address and to present ""each writing in the light most favorable to the author." [continues 732 words]
