John Denver already said it.....And that's why we're moving to Colorado.03:25 Nov 05 2005
Times Read: 1,153
Denver Is First City To Legalize Pot
Posted by CN Staff on November 03, 2005 at 08:08:11 PT
By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer
Source: Los Angeles Times
Denver -- Bring on the jokes about the Mile High City.
Denver on Tuesday became the first city in the nation to wipe out all criminal and civil penalties for adults caught possessing a small amount of marijuana. About 54% of voters supported a ballot measure legalizing possession of less than an ounce of pot by individuals 21 and over.
The ordinance is more radical than pro-marijuana measures approved over the years in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and half a dozen college towns across the country. Most of those initiatives decriminalized marijuana for medical use, or replaced criminal penalties with small fines or directed police to make enforcement of marijuana laws a low priority.
Denver, by contrast, erased adult possession as an offense entirely.
State laws banning pot still apply in Denver, however. Police for years have cited most offenders under state law rather than city ordinance, as a matter of convenience.
The state law is pre-printed on the front of tickets, so just by checking a box an officer can issue a fine for as much as $200. To use the previous city ordinance — which carried the threat of as much as a year in jail if convicted — an officer would have to write out the relevant code by hand.
"Citing under state law has been a tradition here for years…. We intend to keep doing what we've been doing," said David W. Broadwell, an assistant city attorney.
Although the Denver vote may have no practical effect, advocates of relaxed drug laws said it was symbolic. In large part, that's because of the tactics activists used to promote the measure. The marijuana liberalization group SAFER ran a provocative — critics said deceitful — campaign to cast the measure as vital to public safety.
On yard signs and billboards, online and in voter forums, campaign director Mason Tvert, 23, tried to persuade voters that marijuana was a safer alternative to alcohol. He argued that street crime and domestic violence would drop if residents were legally allowed to smoke pot rather than down a six-pack of beer. College campuses too would be safer, he said, if joints replaced kegs at parties.
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Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/milehigh.htm
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Author: Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer
Published: November 3, 2005
Copyright: 2005 Los Angeles Times
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Related Articles & Web Site:
Safer Choice
http://www.saferchoice.org/
All Eyes on Denver’s Marijuana Laws
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21259.shtml
High Hopes for Marijuana Debate
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21258.shtml
To Voters, Issue was Freedom of Choice
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21257.shtml
Pot Issue Gives New Meaning To Mile High City
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21254.shtml
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