By Ellen Miller, Special to the News Source: Rocky Mountain News Colorado -- Telluride voters soon may decide whether enforcement of marijuana possession laws against adults should be the town's "lowest law enforcement priority." A group of citizens has petitioned the town board to make possession of marijuana for "adult personal use" a low priority and to "make a statement to state government to tax and regulate it rather than prosecute it," said Ernest Eich, one of the chief backers. He also said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that state medical marijuana laws can be trumped by federal law "essentially held that states can't enforce laws discriminating" in this case users of marijuana for medical reasons. "Medical marijuana is supported by a majority of the public," he said. The Telluride ordinance would not discourage busting juveniles for pot, nor would it legalize selling it. Seventh Judicial District Attorney Tom Raynes, whose sprawling district covers six counties including San Miguel, said the proposed ordinance "sounds like it's just making a statement. "In Colorado now, possession is a petty offense for a joint, a small amount or paraphernalia." And current law isn't enforced much anyway, Raynes said, provided the small amount of marijuana is the only potential offense against a person. "I'd say 90 percent of what we do get comes from a DUI or bar fight, resulting from a search. And they're only petty offenses," he said. Eich, however, said that conviction of a petty offense concerning marijuana "has federal ramifications, like you can't get student loans, and many jobs where there's a background check." If the ordinance is approved, Telluride would join Seattle and other cities in enacting "sensible marijuana laws," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. "It started back in the '70s in places with flagship universities, like Berkeley and Madison. It's spreading to ski towns. In other places, small amounts aren't prosecuted by custom and tradition." In September 2003 Seattle voters passed Initiative 75, requiring police and prosecutors to treat possession of small amounts as their lowest priority. He also said that "given Colorado statutes, it's redundant in a way for a Colorado town to do anything more formal" other than to join other American communities in the "sensible" movement on marijuana. Chief Marshal Mary Heller takes no position on the proposed ordinance. "We're sworn to enforce the ordinances that the community possesses," Heller said. "We'll have to assess it if it goes through, and the outcome will give us community input, which is very important to us." The Town Council could adopt the petition as written, or it could send it to the voters in the town's next election Nov. 1, Town Clerk M.J. Schillaci said Friday. Telluride by the numbers: A group of citizens has asked the Telluride town board to make adult pot possession a low enforcement priority. The area's demographics: • Median age 31 • White 93% • Black 0.4% • Hispanic 7% • College graduates 59% • Own home 36% • Rental 64% • Median home price $567,000 Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO) Author: Ellen Miller, Special to the News Published: July 18, 2005 Copyright: 2005 Denver Publishing Co. Contact: letters@rockymountainnews.com Website: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/ Link to article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20969.shtml
By Scott Gold Source: Boston Globe Telluride, Colo. -- Nestled in the San Juan Mountains, home to moneyed hippies, artists, and nature buffs, Telluride is a live-and-let-live kind of town. A sign assures visitors that they are in a ''civil liberties safe zone." The 15-mph speed limit, which applies in most of the town, is largely enforced by placing a police hat on the tip of a stick and perching it in the driver's seat of a squad car. In the center of town is the Freebox, a collection of wooden bins where people swap bootleg concert tapes, alpine gear, and more, regulated only by the principles of karma. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that although Telluride cannot legalize marijuana, it may do the next closest thing: officially declare possession of pot for personal use to be the town's ''lowest law enforcement priority." In August, the Town Council voted 6 to 0 to put the issue on the Nov. 1 ballot. Residents will be asked whether to instruct town marshals, the local law enforcement, to make the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of marijuana possession their lowest priority. The proposal applies only to the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by people 18 or older. Several cities already have what proponents term sensible marijuana ordinances, most notably Seattle, where voters in 2003 approved an initiative to make the possession of small amounts of marijuana law enforcement's lowest priority. Still, Telluride's vote will be closely watched, specialists said, because it is the first marijuana ballot proposal since the Supreme Court ruled in June that the federal government could enforce its zero-tolerance policy on marijuana, even in the 10 states that permit its use for medical purposes. Colorado is among those states; the others are Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Allen F. St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the fact that the Supreme Court did not strike down the state laws seemed to suggest ''concern by justices about thwarting local control, local values." People who favor relaxing marijuana laws -- many of whom believe the government wastes public resources by targeting low-level drug offenders -- hope Telluride sets a national example, St. Pierre said. ''The great disconnect at the policy level is here in Washington, D.C.," he said. ''Congress is frozen in a sort of reefer madness that states and localities are not." But Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation, said the agenda behind local initiatives ''clearly is the legalization of drugs." ''They have made it very clear that they are going to keep pushing," Fay said. Her argument has gained more traction here recently than it might have a few years ago. A famously fun-loving town with a year-round population of about 2,000 and an in-season population close to 10,000, Telluride has become a ritzy resort in recent years and is peppered with log cabin mansions and swanky restaurants that require reservations, even if you can still wear flip-flops or the T-shirt you hiked in all day. But the town's newer arrivals have tempered its freewheeling ways. ''Telluride is really in transition," Chief Marshal Mary Heller said. J. Michael Dorsey, who served in several high-profile federal government posts before he retired, moved to town a year ago. He was the assistant secretary for public and Indian housing during the Reagan administration and sat on the national drug policy board, and he has become a leading critic of the Telluride proposal. Dorsey said the proposal was misguided, partly because voters should not establish law enforcement priorities. He also objected to a second portion of the initiative, which would declare that Telluride would approve if Colorado decided to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana use. That would ''tell people in town that we think marijuana should be legal, and it will tell people who visit that we think marijuana should be legal," he said. ''I think that's the wrong message to give to families in town, and I think it's the wrong message to give to families who are coming here." To supporters, the proposal reflects the ethos here. Much of the town seems to celebrate the fact that the word ''high" can refer both to its lung-clenching altitude -- it sits 8,750 feet above sea level -- and to the heady smoke that wafts intermittently through town. One bustling restaurant is called Baked in Telluride; a popular T-shirt reads, ''Honey, I think the whole town is high." ''In Telluride, we tend to respect an adult's right to make decisions for themselves, within reason," said resident Ernest Eich, 30, a leading backer of the proposal. ''I think this has a very good chance." Eich said that with fewer marshals in town -- three of the department's 10 positions are vacant -- those on patrol should pursue crimes that people find more worrisome than marijuana possession. Heller, the chief marshal, said the initiative wouldn't have much practical impact. Marijuana possession, she said, typically is charged only as a secondary offense, such as when an officer pulls someone over on suspicion of drunken driving and happens to find a bag of pot. Even then it is treated under Colorado law as a petty offense, similar to a traffic citation. Note: Ballot measure would assign lowest priority. Source: Boston Globe (MA) Author: Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times Published: September 24, 2005 Copyright: 2005 Globe Newspaper Company Contact: letter@globe.com Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/ Link to article: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21137.shtml
While, its good to hear that the executive director of DFAF is acknowledging that this issue isnt going to just go away, it appears shes misunderstanding the initiative, clearly another dimwit with nothing on her agenda but pushing pointless propaganda and twisted word. GL CO citizens may you do whats best!
By Reilly Capps Source: Telluride Daily Planet USA -- A man stood in a Seattle park this month in a kind of showdown with the police. Behind him was a crowd celebrating the opening of a new park with a haze of marijuana smoke. In front of him were about 10 cops, who seemed unsure of what they should do next, aside from politely asking the crowd not to smoke pot while the cops were standing there. But, according to several accounts of the event, a man named Dominic Holden faced the police and spoke passionately about the drug laws in America. He said he respected the Seattle police for arresting serious criminals, but that he asked the police to respect the will of the voters, who had said they wanted marijuana to be the "lowest law enforcement priority." When he was done, he lit a joint a passed it along. "I was protesting the fact that marijuana consumption is illegal," Holden said, "and that adults who smoke marijuana are treated as criminals." But in Seattle, anymore, they aren't. When Holden lit up his joint, the police politely asked him to leave the park, and issued him a seven-day Park Exclusion Notice. This means he could not re-enter the park for seven days. Holden called it "the wettest noodle in all of SPD's arsenal." "A few years ago, post WTO (protests in 1999), marijuana smoke would have been consumed by tear gas," said Holden, a prominent Seattle activist. "A paddy wagon would have left the park packed with stoners." But that was before Seattle passed I-75, which makes marijuana possession by adults the "lowest law enforcement priority." Two cities on the West Coast have already passed legislation similar to Telluride's Question 200, the marijuana initiative that will be on the ballot Nov. 1. Seattle passed its I-75 in 2003, and Oakland passed its Measure Z in 2004. And if you want to know how Question 200 might affect Telluride, you could do worse than to look at those two cities, and ask people there how they've been affected. While it may be too early to tell, and while results in both cities have been mixed, no one in either city could point to a negative effect that was measurable and concrete. The Raw Data Seattle has formed a "Marijuana Policy Review Panel," which keeps scrupulous records of drug busts. According to city attorney, Tom Carr, marijuana arrests have dropped dramatically, from about 300 a year before I-75 to about 100 a year now. In Oakland, on the other hand, data is not so easy to come by, and supporters of Measure Z say the city has dragged its feet. "It's hard to know what's happening in law enforcement because the data's so poor," said Dale Gieringer, co-author of Oakland's Measure Z. Gieringer and other supporters flooded a city council meeting this week to demand that the oversight committee required by Measure Z - and similar to the panel in Seattle - be named to study the impact of the measure. Pete Sarna of the Oakland Police Department said that narcotics arrests of all kinds were down 40 percent, although he said that the drop could have a lot to do with the fact that the Oakland Police Department is understaffed. Gieringer said he thinks Oakland Police are going easier on pot smokers. Some in Seattle, including Holden, said I-75 has been an unabashed success. He said he looks at every marijuana arrest report, and hasn't seen a single instance where someone was arrested simply for having pot. All the arrests came while the person was committing another crime. Another member of the panel, social activist Theryn Kigvamasud'Vashti, said the results have been less clear. "It sounds way easier than it is," Kigvamasud'Vashti said. "The police aren't really changing anything about their behavior." Police and Prosecutors are Frustrated Law enforcement officials in both cities are less than enthusiastic about the initiatives. They say they're frustrated, caught between conflicting and contradictory laws, none of which they can enforce fully. "We have our state telling us to enforce the laws. We've got our population telling us 'don't take these laws too seriously.' In the world of prosecutors and police it doesn't make any sense," said Seattle attorney Carr. "It puts the police and prosecutors in a very difficult position." While arrests for marijuana are down in his city, Carr said that could simply be part of a larger trend that's been going on for years, and not necessarily the result of the legislation. Police in Oakland say they haven't much changed their tactics. "I don't think it means anything, and I don't think that that measure has affected the way we conduct our business," said Sarna, head of the Vice Section of the Oakland Police Department. "If that measure wasn't in place we'd still be doing exactly what we're doing." Oakland police have always focused on marijuana sales and distribution, not mere possession, Sarna said. That policy continues. From March 8 to Oct. 16, Sarna said, his division made 915 felony arrests. Only one of those was for simple possession of marijuana. (Seventeen people were arrested for selling marijuana and 22 were arrested for possession with intent to distribute.) "We're not going to tolerate people selling marijuana," he said. And if cops see or smell weed, Sarna said, they'll likely take action. "OK, it's the 'lowest law enforcement priority.' But if I see it, I can still take action on it." Oakland has a more complicated marijuana situation than Seattle, since Oakland allows medical marijuana to be sold to sick people with prescriptions at licensed dispensaries. News reports and cops say that those medical marijuana shops are often centers of crime, as patients purchase marijuana in bulk and then sell it for a profit. Sarna said that a man was recently killed while trying to rob a medical marijuana dispensary. (Telluride's Question 200 says nothing about medical marijuana.) Oakland was also once the home of "cannabis clubs," private clubs where members could buy and smoke weed. Cops once looked the other way while these clubs, including the famous Bulldog Café in a district known as "Oaksterdam," sold marijuana. Police have since cracked down on those clubs, according to news reports. Few Negative Effects Seen But even the most ardent opponents of these measures, have had a hard time coming up with concrete examples of how the ordinances have been a detriment. They saw no increase in driving under the influence of marijuana, no increase in overall use. Holden, the Seattle supporter, said that the results have gone a long way to disprove the dire predictions of opponents. "It helps prove that 'reefer madness' is a sham," Holden said. And many have said that Seattle has become a less paranoid and more pleasant city than it was three years ago. "People don't feel that they have to lock themselves up in their homes and close all their blinds in order to smoke marijuana," Holden said. People with marijuana in their house don't have to be afraid of calling the police after a break-in, and they aren't so afraid to admit to being a smoker. "This gives people the ability to come to their friends and simply say 'I smoke marijuana' without fear. It means a better community, and overall makes Seattle a more livable city." Legalization is The Long-Range Goal Whatever the immediate effects in Seattle and Oakland have been, whatever changes have been made in law enforcement, whatever has happened to the arrest rates - all of which may be beside the point. These are not local ordinances designed to fix local problems, in the same way that voters might decide to put up a traffic light at a dangerous intersection. Few people in Seattle or Oakland ever believed that cops were overly harsh in their treatment of recreational marijuana users. The activists who passed these ordinances are thinking nationally. They want marijuana legalized in their states and in the country. "This is the way it worked for medical marijuana in California," said Heather MacDonald, a reporter for the Oakland Tribune who has covered marijuana issues. "We had a few cities pass medical marijuana legislation and then the whole state passed it." If enough cities de-criminalize marijuana, maybe the entire state will, supporters reason. By proving that easing up on marijuana enforcement does not create crime, and by allowing voters to show support for a taxed and regulated system of distribution, perhaps it could pave the way for wider legislation that would end marijuana prohibition. "It's certainly a step in changing the way states think," said Holden. "And states' action can set a precedent for what can happen throughout the country." Oakland's Measure Z, much like Telluride's Question 200, advocates Amsterdam-style coffee shops, if possible. Measure Z directs Oakland to tax and regulate marijuana and establish coffee shops as soon as California law allows it, and to lobby the state of California to legalize marijuana. The co-author, Gieringer, said that he would like to see private, adult cannabis clubs open in the city soon. A clear majority of bay area residents agree, according to polls. "Legalizing is the only thing that makes economic sense," said Gieringer. "Around here, even our opponents admitted that legalization was the way to go. They just didn't think Oakland should be the first one." Source: Telluride Daily Planet (CO) Author: Reilly Capps Published: Saturday, October 22, 2005 Copyright: 2005 Telluride Daily Planet Contact: editor@telluridenews.com Website: http://www.telluridegateway.com/ Link to article: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21218.shtml
hahahhaHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAhh no way that guys name is really Holden. telluride is full of people wiht huge dicks