cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Repeal Considered in Colorado
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Marijuana Repeal Considered in Colorado
Posted by CN Staff on April 29, 2013 at 16:32:04 PT
By Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Denver -- Marijuana legalization could be going back to the ballot in Colorado - a prospect that has pot legalization activists furious.The proposal for a marijuana ballot measure came as the House debated into early Saturday morning on bills to regulate and tax pot. One bill would state how pot should be grown and sold, and the other would tax recreational marijuana more than 30 percent. Lawmakers agreed to the first bill, but delayed a tax vote until Monday as the debate stretched past midnight.
A draft bill floating around the Capitol late suggests that a new ballot question on pot taxes should repeal recreational pot in the state constitution if voters don't approve the pot taxes.Lawmakers have only a few days left to finish work deciding how to regulate the newly legal drug.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.Marijuana legalization could be going back to the ballot in Colorado - a prospect that infuriated pot legalization activists Friday.The proposal for a marijuana ballot measure came as the House started debate Friday evening on bills to regulate and tax pot. One bill would state how pot should be grown and sold, and the other would tax recreational marijuana more than 30 percent.A draft bill floating around the Capitol late this week suggests that a new ballot question on pot taxes should repeal recreational pot in the state constitution if voters don't approve 15 percent excise taxes on retail pot and a new 15 percent marijuana sales tax. Those would be in addition to regular state and local sales taxes.Lawmakers have only a few days left to finish work deciding how to regulate the newly legal drug.Marijuana activists immediately blasted the proposal as a backhanded effort to repeal the pot vote, in which 55 percent of Coloradans chose to flout federal drug law and declare pot legal in small amounts for adults over 21."It's clear that the intent ... is to prevent marijuana from being legal and being regulated and being controlled," said Mason Tvert, who led last year's campaign to add recreational pot to the state constitution, which has allowed medical marijuana since 2000.Sen. Larry Crowder, R-Alamosa, said the whole purpose of legalizing recreational marijuana was to raise money for education and other programs. "So if there's no money, we shouldn't have marijuana," Crowder said.A volunteer group that has been critical of proposed marijuana regulations, Smart Colorado, praised the effort to get rid of recreational pot without approval of the taxes.A spokesman for the group, Eric Anderson, said in a statement that marijuana activists "sold the ballot issue to Colorado voters as a way to pay for state priorities like education, but increasingly it's looking like it could be a net drain on the state budget."The marijuana measure approved last year won more votes than President Barack Obama, who carried the state. The pot measure directed lawmakers to come back to the ballot with a tax proposal, with much of the money going to school construction. Because of Colorado's Byzantine tax laws, the recreational pot taxes can't be levied until voters again sign off on them.In Washington state, the only other place where voters last year approved recreational pot, the ballot measure set taxes at 75 percent, settling the question. Both states are still waiting to find out whether the federal government plans to sue to block retail sales of the drug, set to begin next year.The Colorado repeal effort wouldn't apply to medical marijuana, which voters approved in 2000.Lawmakers from both parties have expressed worry this year that Colorado won't be able to afford to give recreational pot the kind of intense oversight and regulation many expect. From labeling and potency standards to making sure pot taxes are collected, the regulatory scheme under consideration in Colorado wouldn't be cheap.The state House started debate Friday on the tax ballot question. The repeal provision, if it appears, would come later, likely when the pot tax shifts to the Senate.Some lawmakers said Friday they doubt lawmakers would send pot legalization back to voters this year."That's almost like saying to voters, `Vote for this, or else,'" said Sen. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge. "I don't think you threaten voters like that. When over 55 percent of the people vote for something, I think we have to respect that."Marijuana repeal debate could dominate the Legislature's closing days. The path to repeal would be uncertain, but some lawmakers say it's only fair to ask again if voters are willing to legalize pot and risk federal intervention in exchange for a tax windfall projected to exceed $100 million a year."I think that's why the people supported it," Crowder said.Source: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Kristen Wyatt, Associated PressPublished:  April 27, 2013Copyright: 2013 The Associated PressCannabisNews  -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #10 posted by Canis420 on May 01, 2013 at 14:30:09 PT:
legalization
I understand your perspective as well museman. Whether we get there in one fell swoop or in incremental steps the two roads lead to the same place...one just takes longer.
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Comment #9 posted by museman on May 01, 2013 at 11:30:30 PT
Canis
I understand your perspective. That argument, like my own has been repeated as many times.I disagree. The reasons have to do with Truth and Justice. They have to do with heart, not brain or brawn.Without making it a long drawn out affair of me outlining all the reasoning here I will just ask one question;Who do you think we need just a 'necessary step' for instead of just plain legalization?Its not the people. Its not the cannabis smokers. The ones who make us compromise are the problem. And compromising with them is just something a seasoned and experienced warrior would understand as a no no.If I believed there was any benevolence of any significant amount in our government, then the idea that such a 'step' would lead to where we want to go -full cannabis liberty- would be logical, and I would support it -as I have in past voter initiatives. However, after all this time I have sen no indications of that being the case, and quite the contrary. And that is the Truth part.The Justice part is more than just stopping imprisonment, and the ruination of lives, it is the recognition and admittance of the Powers that be of their own complicity in creating and maintaining the lies about cannabis. It is about the world powers -ruled by amerika- having to publicly acknowledge that the actions concerning cannabis and cannabis users has been ultimately and overpoweringly more criminal than the users.As some here have stated, the war is won. It is only a matter of time before the WOD house of cards cannot support its own weight and it will crumble. But these compromises only fuel it up for another run. Its time to push on, damn the torpedos, full speed ahead. And we won't be doing that if we say to them, "Ok you're right, cannabis is a dangerous drug like alcohol, it will harm our children. If we don't control it, it will undermine our society."In my mind and cognizance, giving in to lies is tantamount to giving up.There is more to cannabis prohibition than just laws. I didn't go to jail twice in my life for smoking it just because of 'law' but because of 'law-empowered' prejudiced and socially biased 'servants of the state.'I have witnessed the use of cannabis and partaken for the past 40+ years, and the ONLY thing that is harmful about it are cops, judges, and the bane of all liberty; lawyers.These people spout prohibition rhetoric like they were all affected by Tourette syndrome, only instead of profanity, they spout phrases like 'gateway theory' 'what about the chiiillldddrrennn!' etc. ect.Justice is when they finally shut the frack up!Liberty is birthright, not a legislative act.I am not changing my understanding of the truth until the truth changes.SO cannabis is either harmful, or it is not.If it is harmful, and a 'drug' (though even that is a trip outside real definitions and meanings) like alcohol -which is the most dangerous and destructive drug out there, then it makes total sense to control and regulate it like alcohol. But since it has been established that cannabis is one of the most benevolent plants on the planet -with more uses than any other know to man, the only reason to do that is all wrapped up in corporate profits and social engineering.I for one do not recognize the authority of these posers and pretenders. Yes they have guns, but I have the Truth. No amount of bullets or threats can diminish that.OK so I did say more than I set out to...We will just have to agree to disagree. But I will not lay down my arms until there is complete and unconditional surrender. LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #8 posted by Canis420 on April 30, 2013 at 21:38:07 PT:
 museman
I believe the legalization like alcohol is a necessary step. Once its legal like alcohol, grow your own will become extremely prevalent. Prices and taxes will drop and the regulatory structure will collapse imho. This is why the prohibs are like the zombie apocolypse...they just keep comin running into a hail of gunfire and eventually silenced
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Comment #7 posted by museman on April 30, 2013 at 11:41:16 PT
giving power
For some years now I have repeatedly pointed out that compromises with a flawed, unethical, immoral government would only further the power they have over us. Repeatedly I have argued that such an idea as regulating cannabis like alcohol was a HUGE mistake!Over and over -with more redundancy than I usually would like- I have stated that legalization is not a compromise that gives the power to the state to control and regulate. That is not 'legalization.' At best it is a form of 'decriminalization' with tax.It has been revealed to the aware, that the agendas and intentions of this (and all others as far as I can tell) government is part of a grand scheme to return the world to a feudal state, run by various 'royal' families and controlled by fascist 'law n order.'War, conquest, dominion -that is their intent, and I dare say the evidence reveals it quite sufficient if one can bring themselves out of their false esteem of a corrupted 'leadership' long enough to witness the truth without their social programming getting in the way.The secret is simple, yet the majority still denies and rejects it. Stop giving them your power. Stop letting them believe that they are in control, and we have to ask their permission for our liberties.Stop buying their crap. Stop feeding the beast with the hours of your day. Find the alternatives and utilize them! Stop relying on a failed system to correct itself -it ain't never gonna happen.Just Say No To ThugsLEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #6 posted by runruff on April 30, 2013 at 09:52:52 PT
Dear Hope,
Do not worry my dear, these are all acts of desperation. With each strike of the hammer the rock crumbles further. It is their desperation, in that they are losing, that causes a politician or bureaucrat to try his hand at being creative and this always has disastrous results because this type of person is not creative in a useful way. If they were innovative or creative people they would be entrepreneurs instead of public trough feeders.The current trend is toward freedom and to loose the cannabis plant once and for all. Desperate people make desperate choices. From here on it is for us to enjoy.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on April 30, 2013 at 09:50:02 PT
Oh yes....
"Because the citizen's have been stripped of their freedom and their voice, by authoritarians that have some sort of ruling class complex."And because of the greed of those authoritarians and bureaucrats. Pure, unadulterated greed. They know, maybe only subconsciously, but they know, that they aren't doing this to make for a safer citizenry. They are doing it for money. More money. We are losing our freedom because of the greed of those that make up and support the prison for profit industry. Because of the greed of municipalities for more fines and fees. We do not need to be protected from people who use cannabis, just because they use cannabis. It's so sad and sickening. These kinds of authorities are like a bunch of stinking buzzards attacking living people. Pecking away at our very lives and the lives of our children. These bureaucracies have become giant parasites sucking the life out of their "host"... this country and it's citizens.
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on April 30, 2013 at 09:39:04 PT
It's so unreal.
Law enforcement can't "prosecute" enough people under this new "legalization" thing.My Lord!These people don't believe they are public servants by any stretch of the imagination. They believe they are designated to rule the citizens. Completely. This is why we are losing what we believed the United States was. Because the citizen's have been stripped of their freedom and their voice, by authoritarians that have some sort of ruling class complex.
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on April 29, 2013 at 22:25:06 PT
It's Time to Vote these Weasels Out
Politicians that refuse to follow the will of the people are on the endangered species list!Meanwhile, the healing continues where allowed by law:The Enormous Promise of Psychedelics for Sustaining Health, Happiness and Sanity.
April M. Short, AlterNet. 
April 26, 2013.
Inside this year's conference for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. READ MORE»
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/enormous-promise-psychedelics-sustaining-health-happiness-and-sanity?akid=10373.313040.2fb4hz&rd=1&src=newsletter831496&t=3Bob Marley & The Wailers "Easy Skanking" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuufZCPoO80
Herb Is The Healing Of The Nation 
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on April 29, 2013 at 22:01:04 PT
Unreal.
It's just unreal.Cut off one head of the monster and another one pops up. It's a nightmare.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 29, 2013 at 16:43:09 PT
News Article From Raw Story
Washington Lawmakers Quietly Approve Bill To Re-criminalize Some Marijuana PossessionApril 29, 2013Lawmakers in the Washington House and Senate quietly passed a bill over the weekend that will re-criminalize some marijuana possession, reacting to warnings from the state’s crime lab that the current law could make it impossible to prosecute large-quantity possession charges or large-scale marijuana growing operations. The Senate passed the measure unanimously on Saturday, according to The Associated Press. The governor was expected to sign the bill as soon as Monday, but had not yet by early afternoon. Scientists at the Washington State Patrol’s Forensic Laboratory Services warned recently that last November’s election changed the definition of marijuana to such an extent that nearly all plants seized by police could be considered hemp.The trouble arises where the law draws the line between hemp, an industrial fiber that contains virtually no psychoactive drug, and its more intoxicating cousin marijuana. The state’s law currently says that if tests show more than 0.3 percent of marijuana’s “delta-9 THC,” then its a drug, but anything less is considered hemp and therefore not a drug. Complete Article: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/29/washington-lawmakers-quietly-approve-bill-to-re-criminalize-some-marijuana-possession/
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