Fully Legal Marijuana

There’s an initiative out that seeks to put marijuana in the same category as alcohol. That means taxed and sold to adults with the same restrictions, but without requiring a prescription. The initiative is called The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012.

Along with the initiative is a petition that can be signed at many businesses across Colorado. If it passed the Act would alter our State Constitution and change the status of marijuana in Colorado. It would also make us the first state to decriminalize marijuana for personal (instead of just medical) use. It would also raise a real battle with Federal Constitutional issues.

On the information website you can search for a petition location (by zipcode). There is no information on the current number of signatories.

Reading the text of the Act, it sounds reasonable, but whenever a change is made to the state constitution, great care should be taken. Since we can’t simply fix a mistake through legislation, a careful reading of the text is required. Citizens shouldn’t just sign the petition without seeing if they truly agree with what it says.

The advantage for marijuana proponents of a constitutional amendment is that, in one fell swoop, a raft of laws on marijuana would disappear. All the criminal penalties would be automatically dropped if they conflicted with the new amendment.

It’s a good strategy for those wishing to see legalization, but constitutional changes are a hard target to hit. What may work better for them is a referendum on the ballot that reduces penalties. That said, the suggested act only applies to an ounce of marijuana or three plants – not an amount that would make trafficking likely.

We’ll know if they were successful with the petition if and when it appears on a state-wide ballot. Until then, it will be another in a series of “almost” bills