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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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 Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance [CO] 
#4422136 - 07/19/05 03:00 AM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance
July 18, 2005 - rockymountainnews.com
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."
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SuperD
Cacti junky
Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 6,648
Loc: The bridgesii bridge
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Re: Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance [CO] [Re: veggie]
#4422570 - 07/19/05 08:02 AM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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Woohoo! "Lowest law enforcement priority." Shouldn't be ANY priority of law enforcement, but the lowest one will work for now I guess.
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    D
Manoa said:
I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin. 
Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s),  me if you have any for trade
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 scatmanrav
Brainy Smurf
Registered: 05/08/04
Posts: 11,483
Loc: 
Last seen: 11 years, 3 months
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Re: Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance [CO] [Re: SuperD]
#4422606 - 07/19/05 08:24 AM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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The movment is spreading!
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nightkrawler
explorer
Registered: 06/18/04
Posts: 2,980
Loc: new england
Last seen: 5 years, 9 months
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Re: Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance [CO] [Re: scatmanrav]
#4425013 - 07/19/05 07:10 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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yea colorado!
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Not all who wander are lost - J.R.R. Tolkien
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GGreatOne234
Stranger
Registered: 12/23/99
Posts: 8,946
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 Re: Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance [CO] [Re: veggie]
#4425205 - 07/19/05 07:46 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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well that's some good news for colorado people.
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gema
Freedom from the Known
Registered: 10/24/04
Posts: 1,767
Loc: t(here)
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Re: Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance [CO] [Re: GGreatOne234]
#4426002 - 07/19/05 10:58 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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the tide is turning.
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GNIOM1498
Death Cup
Registered: 12/15/04
Posts: 945
Loc: My home is where my spiri...
Last seen: 3 years, 10 months
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Re: Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance [CO] [Re: gema]
#4426124 - 07/19/05 11:21 PM (18 years, 8 months ago) |
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YES!!! SMART PEOPLE OVER THERE. ESPECIALLY WITH THE MUSHROOM FESTIVEL. I AM USING ALL CAPS BECAUSE I AM HAPPY!!!!
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----ALL MY POSTS ARE FICTIONAL-------
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Re: Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance [CO] [Re: veggie]
#4703405 - 09/24/05 12:42 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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At 8,750 feet, Telluride's feeling fine about being high
September 24, 2005 - kansas.com
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 6-0 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" pot 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, experts 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 pot, 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.
Executive director Allen F. St. Pierre 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."
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."
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dblaney
Human Being
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Telluride considering 'sensible' pot ordinance [CO] [Re: veggie]
#4704293 - 09/24/05 07:31 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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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."
That's why it's a "government by the people, for the people, and of the people".
If he doesn't like it, then he should vote against it. Hopefully he'll be in the minority.
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"What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?"
"Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword"
- John Mayer
Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin.
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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