I spent last Saturday at the Republican State Convention in Colorado Springs where three things that involved marijuana made news, although only one of them actually got reported.
The one that got reported involved Senator Ted Cruz, who was interviewed by the Denver Post shortly before he spoke to the convention.
He told the paper that he thought the question of the legalization of marijuana should be left to the states, and that if elected president he would not interfere with Colorado’s legalization of marijuana.
“I think on the question of marijuana legalization, we should leave it to the states,” Cruz said. “If it were me personally, voting on it in the state of Texas, I would vote against it.
“The people of Colorado have made a different decision. I respect that decision,” he continued. “And actually, it is an opportunity for the rest of the country to see what happens here in Colorado, what happens in Washington state, see the states implement the policies, and if it works well, other states may choose to follow. If it doesn’t work well, other states may choose not to follow.”
He also said the Constitution allows “states to experiment.”
There’s actually a bit more here than meets the eye.
Obama has treated his decision not to interfere with the decisions of Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska to legalize pot as a routine exercise of his executive power, prompting some to wonder if the policy will last beyond his administration.
Cruz says it will if he’s president. Moreover, Cruz is laying an ideological and constitutional foundation for not coming down on the legalizing states — states’ rights — and one that should resonate among fellow Republicans at that.
The only presidential candidate with a stronger pro-legalization position is Bernie Sanders, who is on record as wanting to “delist” marijuana — remove it entirely — from the Controlled Substances Act’s list of forbidden drugs. Unfortunately, the Post’s reporter didn’t ask Cruz what he thought of that.
The second newsworthy thing that happened at the convention involved Jerry Eller, a disabled vet from Pueblo who was one of eight candidates who was seeking to get his name on the state’s senatorial primary ballot by getting the support of 30 percent of the convention delegates.
If I understand his position correctly, Eller isn’t calling for the re-criminalization of pot, but he says he’s sick of the “ridiculous” proliferation of marijuana stores “with their funky names” in Pueblo West and thinks Amendment 64 was “way too loosey-goosey.” He’d ban smokable pot on the medical side because smoking is unhealthy, and while he would allow sales of both medical and recreational marijuana, he’d ban all advertising, including signage on both medical and recreational stores.
Commercial grows would be regulated by “the Department of Agriculture, HHS, FDA, ATF, DEA, FBI, CIA and or local police and sheriffs…”
I get the impression that his real beef is with in-your-face signage on pot stores. Essentially he’s willing to (grudgingly) accept legal marijuana as long as it isn’t seen, heard or smelled in public.
However he didn’t get very far when he tried to explain the nuances of his position during his allotted 10 minute speech to the convention. When he said he wanted to ban medical pot shops with funky names, he was interrupted by a chorus of boos, which in turn elicited some cheering. Most of the delegates just sat in silence. Eller realized he was getting nowhere and moved on — leaving the impression that he favored Chris Christie style re-criminalization.
“Eller got only 30 votes — out of 3,796 cast.”
But the important point is that the only Republican Senate candidate who wanted to come down hard on legal pot encountered noisy pushback on the convention floor and bombed with the issue.
That brings us to the third newsworthy thing to come out of the Republican convention involving marijuana: the state party’s 2016 platform. The word “marijuana” didn’t appear in it.
“Obama has treated his decision not to interfere with the decisions of Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska to legalize pot as a routine exercise of his executive power, prompting some to wonder if the policy will last beyond his administration.”
Since the Obama administration’s actual ‘policy’ outpaced gw bush’s 8 years of
raids/seizures/prosecutions/imprisonment of patients, caregivers and dispensaries by 8 times in its first 6 years, we the people can only PRAY whomever ‘buys’ the next one does NOT follow Obama’s cannabis ‘policy’.
I’ve questioned how can a 1/2 black democrat can exceed republican gw bush 8
times on (medicinal) cannabis prosecutions in less time and my conclusion is Big Government created this (profitable) war. It doesn’t matter the party affiliation. Big Government wants to ruin millions of more lives for their profit and their bedfellows, Big Business and Mass Media. It’s a 79 year addiction.
The (self-proclaimed) “science” president has continued to ignore science, sanity, humanity or the plight of his fellow man. A Constitutional attorney who continues to ignore the American/human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Continues to ignore the human right to grow and consume a (non-toxic) plant that DEA Judge Frances Young described as “the safest therapeutic substance known to man” back in 1987. Continues to ignore the 9,000 plus (recorded) year history (research) of human use that clarifies the longest war (79 years) in the history of the US is based on blatant lies, prejudice and greed.
And cannabis doesn’t just heal/feed humans/animals; it heals the soil and the
environment. The Democrats (rightfully, imo) scream about climate change/fracking/oil and gas, yet they create/contribute to unscientific cannabis/hemp prohibitions that prevent us from converting to farming/using eco-friendly hemp-crete, bio-diesel, paper, particle board, plastic etc.
The healing of the nations is possible as soon as the government gets told to stand down on the tree of life. Since it’s been coming from we the people it’s time the media represent that. Yet the perpetrators of this inhumane war (Big Government, Big Business and Mass Media) march right on over us, led by greed of almost a century of profits. The ‘don’t interfere’/’hands off’ approach this administration spews and media regurgitates is merely a continuation of 1937 Reefer Madness/propaganda/’illusion’. (as is the over regulation and over taxation.)
In 2000, Colorado voters approved medicinal cannabis for sick people. In 2007 Denver voted to have cannabis be the lowest priority for enforcement. In 2012 Colorado voters approved A64. Yet in 2016 we have ‘specialized’ pot cops, over 1,000 pages of new cannabis prohibitions, tens of millions for regulation and enforcement and 2 new class one felonies that can earn you a 8-12 prison sentence and a fine of up to 1 million. All the while our governor is signing contracts guaranteeing the for profit private prison industry 90% fill capacity, something that sure doesn’t sound legal or ethical.
And Boulder County Land Use is currently attempting to pass language that
unconstitutionally: creates a 6 plant PER PROPERTY limit, no matter a patient, caregiver or house with more than 1 person over 21), bans anyone (lower income) not living in a single family home (duplexes, quad-plexes, condos, apartments.) from growing ANY cannabis, forces anyone with over 6 plants into light industrial or industrial zoning (that does not exist and they cannot afford), renames patients and caregivers with 7 or more plants “marijuana establishments” and disallows any transportation and/or any sharing of home grown cannabis. All the constitutional violations based on no real evidence of necessity/problem and after decades of cannabis growing in BC.
And the Town Administrator in Nederland has been conducting unwarranted house
searches/inspections based on laws that do not exist for residential grows and
(odor) laws that apply only to A64 stores. She files her own code complaints and cites “unlicensed grow” as the violation when no license is required in either A20 or A64. She calls property owners and tells them their tenants are violating local code when they are not. She believes she can get authority to search rental homes from the property owners. All the while residents have a use by right/inherent right to “crop production” in all residential zoning.
`Two years ago, I was at the GOP State Convention and they passed out the Party Platform. On it were several MJ questions. The best response was 2 to 1 *against*. The simple question of whether it should be legal drew 2000 nays and 1000 yeas. And, to back this up, I overheard several oldtimers discussing how marijuana has ruined this state and the young people, blah, blah, blah….
So, all of a sudden, these 2/3s majority has gone silent….now 30 of 3000 say Nay??? From 66% to 1% in two years? I don’t think so.