cannabisnews.com: Colorado Gets Sued By a Third Group Over Marijuana
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Colorado Gets Sued By a Third Group Over Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on March 05, 2015 at 15:22:37 PT
By Niraj Chokshi
Source: Washington Post
Colorado -- A third group is taking Colorado to court over its decision to legalize pot.A group of sheriffs and prosecutors from Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas filed a lawsuit Thursday centered on twin claims. Those within the state say the law — passed by voters as a constitutional amendment in 2012 — forces them to choose between the state and federal constitutions. Those out-of-state law enforcers charge that the Colorado law is doing them undue harm.
“I, my deputies and all of law enforcement in Colorado that are subject to the oath both to the United States and to the state of Colorado are in an untenable position,” Chad Day, sheriff of Colorado’s Yuma County, said at a Thursday morning press conference.Sheriff Mark Overman of Nebraska’s Scotts Bluff County said legalization has placed an “undue burden” on surrounding states, as jails and courts fill up and those states are forced to cover medical and legal costs of the incarcerated. “In many cases, we are forced away from some of what we normally do because we are having to deal with Colorado-sourced marijuana,” he said.In late December, Oklahoma and Nebraska sued neighboring Colorado over legalization, suggesting that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which deems that the federal constitution and federal law “take precedence over state laws, and even state constitutions.” Last month, an anti-crime group filed a similar pair of suits. As with the prior challenges, the group of sheriffs and county attorneys charge that Colorado’s law violates federal law as well as U.S. commitments covered by international treaties.“The lawyers I’ve talked to dont think that… there’s a high likelihood that those suits will prevail.” — Gov. Hickenlooper said, in reference to the two previous legal challenges.The lawsuit has one named defendant: Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D). After a second group announced a legal challenge to the law, Hickenlooper said his lawyers had advised him that the challenges represent little threat.“We’re going to do everything we can to make sure there’s no black market,” he said in a late-February interview. “We clearly haven’t gotten there yet, but we are going to redouble our efforts for our own purposes and also for the purposes of the neighboring states.” His legal advisers, he added, don’t think “that there’s a high likelihood that those suits will prevail.”In the announcement, multiple members of the assembled group noted regret over having to sue Hickenlooper, who has said he is opposed to the law but is bound to fulfill the wishes of voters.Advocates, meanwhile, say such suits represent the final fledgling attempt to overturn the law by the losing side of a long battle.“While a growing majority of Americans supports replacing failed prohibition policies with legalization, there will always be some people who desperately try to cling to what’s familiar,” Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority, which connects supporters of legalization to “celebrities, elected officials and opinion leaders,” said in a statement. “The people of Colorado and other states have spoken, and now these prohibitionists who lost at the ballot box on Election Day are trying to overturn the will of the voters by making a last-ditch attempt in the courts. They are wrong about marijuana policy and they are on the wrong side of history.”Niraj Chokshi reports for GovBeat, The Post's state and local policy Source: Washington Post (DC) Author:  Niraj ChokshiPublished: March 5, 2015Copyright: 2015 Washington Post CompanyContact: letters washpost.com Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/B7H95otgCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #11 posted by kaptinemo on March 09, 2015 at 09:03:30 PT:
Hope, thank you, that nails it
Nails it perfectly. The kind of autocratic, unconsciously arrogant mindset of public servants who've forgotten their true status...and are in desperate need of reminding, courtesy of the ballot box come next election cycle.The very fact that they are trying this gambit of disenfranchising the voters - their paymasters - by using the legal system said paymasters also pay for with their taxes, says two things.The first is obvious: contempt for democracy. That immediately should set off red flags, flashing lights, sirens, etc. Especially when the sidearm they wear is provided on loan to them...a point which they have forgotten; the prohibs think they own them. They think they own the power they wield, and are not mere vessels of it. The second danger is not so obvious: the (tacit but clear) assumption on the part of the plaintiffs that the system will seriously consider what is clearly a frivolous lawsuit because the system is so corrupt that, in order to maintain itself, it must allow it.In other words, despite the very clear public sentiment towards re-legalization, the prohib's expectation is that the system will function like before, ignore the popular will, and continue to prosecute the DrugWar in its demonstrably corrupt same old way. While the world is changing around them with increasing speed.Arrogant. Paranoid. ('Roids much, guys?) Delusional (you'd have to be to think this trick would work). And many of them are armed. As they lose more and more ground in the public arena, they increasingly use the next-to-the-last means of repression available to them (the courts that they usually have nothing but derision for) to try to stave off the inevitable. While their mental and emotional states, dependent upon their work to define their value to society, continue to erode. That erosion hastens as they realize that those (unasked!) for whom they 'fought' a 'war' never wanted it, and are making that clear with their rejection of it - and THEM - with every vote to re-legalize. Their life's-work...negated. Enough to make such people 'go postal' as they used to say.The more they lose, the crazier they'll get...and they have guns. More Fergusons in store, I'm betting. Fun times ahead... 
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Comment #10 posted by Oleg the Tumor on March 09, 2015 at 08:48:36 PT
Its about Doing the Job on Paper not finding crime
"I, my deputies and all of law enforcement in Colorado that are subject to the oath both to the United States and to the state of Colorado are in an untenable position,” Chad Day, sheriff of Colorado’s Yuma County, said . . . " On paper, its terrible Chad. But it gets worse:"A man who swears many oaths will be filled with iniquity, and the scourge will not leave his house; if he offends, his sin remains on him, and if he disregards it, he sins doubly; if he has sworn needlessly, he will not be justified, for his house will be filled with calamities."           Sirach 23:11CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PERSONS!MONEY IS NOT SPEECH!FREE THE PRISONER OF SCHEDULE ONE!
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on March 08, 2015 at 21:30:29 PT
Whoaa....
"My Bastille"?Anti-Pot Sheriffs File Lawsuit Against Colorado Legalizationhttp://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/03/05/anti-pot-sheriffs-file-lawsuit-against-colorado-legalization"Sheriff Burton Pianalto of Sherman County, Kansas, said Colorado’s reforms have burdened his department, too."I do not want or need any more drug dealers or illegal drugs in my county,” he said. “There are more prisoners in my bastille, my jail, and higher costs for arrests.”"Dang! I bet you the people of Sherman County had no idea their sheriff was the King of France... or something.Reiterating what Kaptinemo said, Sheriffs are elected. I hope all ten of these sheriffs are serving their last terms as such.
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on March 08, 2015 at 18:35:48 PT
Spell check mess up. 
Fledgling? Surely, that was supposed to read flailing. Dang.I hate to think that bunch are a fledgling anything. Anyway... it's their "Last attempt". Hopefully.Always good to see Kaptinemo!
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Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on March 08, 2015 at 07:07:06 PT:
How accommodating of them
It's typical of prohibitionist arrogance that they don't believe there will be any political backlash against their anti-democratric actions. They honestly think, courtesy of years of getting away with it before that they can do so indefinitely.They evidently don't read polls. Once support for cannabis re-legalization went past 50% prohibition was doomed. The political cover they needed to shore up the Potemkin Village facade of prohibition, which was getting holes knocked through it thanks to popular re-legalization referenda and legislation, cannot stand without that political support. And that political support is literally dying off. The generation that blindly, ignorantly and with no small degree of malice ("It's gonna hurt them N****rs, S**cs, G**ks, and them White Trash, so ahm all fer it!") supported drug prohibition in toto and cannabis prohibition in particular is leaving the political stage as they are the earthly one.The horrible old joke in the 1980's, when things looked really bad for reform, went like this: "We'll legalize when Grandma dies.".Well, sad as it is, we are able to re-legalize because she and equally benighted Grampaw are on the outs. And now it's only the hard core prohibs who stand in our way. And a sign of how terrified of us they are is these stupid lawsuits that don't stand a chance of a hotdog in Hades. They know they can't win at the ballot box. So, in typical prohib arrogance and contempt for the democratic process, they seek to use the courts to deprive the people of Colorado, and by extension, all Americans, from exercising their sovereign franchise as voters.They are so far gone in their mental bubbles, afforded them by taxpayer dollars, that they honestly believe they can get away with this. When, in fact, all they are doing is making the job of removing them from the political scene that much easier, courtesy of the very elections that put them where they are...an electoral process they are now showing such contempt for.Any Sheriffs fool enough to sign their name to this suit have placed their careers on the chopping block. It's not the same anymore; when they 'meet the new boss', it won't be the 'same as the old boss', no, it won't.The new political boss, as all the polls, show, with well over half the country behind it, has a joint in its mouth, and is daring the foolish prohib to remove it. And this suit that has public servants seeking to remove voting rights from their CO paymasters and thus all Americans, proves that they're stupid enough to try.
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on March 06, 2015 at 05:12:58 PT
What's really happening
The devil trying to sue God.
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Comment #5 posted by The GCW on March 06, 2015 at 00:21:50 PT
I'm up late, what the heck,
Bring back the dunce cap.Not a figurative dunce cap; the real thing. An honest dunce cap that the public can use to chase down these dunce sheriff's and that idiot N.Y.C. mayor who believe the rising murder rates in NY are due to Colorado RE-legalizing the God-given plant.Shame them with a dunce cap! Find them, locate them at appointments, take cameras, get it on the news and give them the dunce cap and make it national and international news.
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on March 06, 2015 at 00:09:22 PT
I gotta come back to this.
These sheriffs, I think may not be representing the officer on the street. It only takes one back cop to ruin it for all the rest...L.E.A.P. helps Me understand that possibility.Perhaps good cops on the street could find a way to step up and shut down these crappy sheriffs.One way or another, We all owe it to fellow citizens of the United States of America and Ourselves to stop these staunch prohibitionist sheriffs from further harming Our country.Right now America needs a platform where good people tell these sheriffs to go home and give it a break.Leave people alone.
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on March 05, 2015 at 23:40:14 PT
Bring it on and expose exactly what You are.
One of the things I do among many, as a cannabis activist, along with reading news, is reading comments about news articles, related to cannabis prohibition.The overwhelming sentiment toward cannabis prohibition and especially cannabis prohibitionists is that of contempt and the feeling that cannabis prohibitionists are vile, ignorant and shitty people. That's what these law enforcement people are thought of as.Notice We see less of the public relations officers in departments lately? Maybe they have abandoned the concept of public relations and exchanged that with unabashed shittyness. The loss of what RE-legalizing cannabis threatens is that important to those kinds of professions.One question is: did America already let law enforcement agencies get too powerful? What would happen if these out of control crappy cops took over the world? We'd all be thoroughly screwed!But in the end, it will be apparent, the cops who strive to cage responsible adults for using a relatively safe, God-given plant are not the kind of people We want as neighbors. In fact, We don't want them as public servants at any capacity.May We replace them with civil servants? In a loving Christ Jesus kind of way, how can We get rid of this scum?The Green Collar Worker
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Comment #2 posted by Mr D on March 05, 2015 at 18:37:26 PT:
The solution is obvious
“In many cases, we are forced away from some of what we normally do because we are having to deal with Colorado-sourced marijuana,” Sounds like he conjured up the solution to his problem (and other neighboring states) without even knowing it.The more time and resources that are spent arresting cannabis consumers, growers, and sellers, the less time and resources they have to spend on pursuing actual criminals. You know, the crimes that actually affect other citizen's freedoms and liberties. Things like murder, rape, theft, violence, vandalism. What law enforcement is need for and expected to "deal with".  The solution is simple Sheriff Mark Overman, The big scary "L" word. (but yeah, it's obvious why you don't want that in your state.) Money money money mmm mmm mmm love that money.
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Comment #1 posted by observer on March 05, 2015 at 16:22:06 PT
Police State Paychecks ''Harmed'' By Legal Pot
re: " Those out-of-state law enforcers charge that the Colorado law is doing them undue harm."I think they mean, "doing their paychecks harm" -- when people in their state too, decide they want to chuck their jail-happy anti-pot police states.
http://drugnewsbot.org
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