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 Marijuana legalization is on the ballot again this November. Amendment 64 is a Colorado state constitutional amendment that would allow the personal use and regulation of marijuana for adults age 21 and older. The intent is to regulate marijuana in a similar manner as alcohol and tobacco products.
Fifty-nine percent of Colorado voters rejected Amendment 44 in 2006, which would have legalized possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for those 21 or older. This year's Amendment 64 expands medical marijuana-style laws to recreational use, according to the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. Amendment 64 will make the personal use, possession and limited home-growing of marijuana legal for adults 21 or older. The amendment creates legal marijuana establishments, including retail stores, cultivation facilities, product manufacturers and testing facilities. The state government would be required to enact an excise tax of up to 15 percent, of which $40 million will be directed to public school construction.
Proponents of the measure include the Libertarian Party of Colorado, the Democratic Party of Colorado and the ACLU, according to CRMLA. National marijuana legalization organizations are also supporting and investing money in the Colorado measure, according to the Voter's Edge Colorado website. Voter’s Edge states that $1.4 million has been raised in favor of the amendment, with only $194,000 for the opposition.
Opponents to Amendment 64 include Smart Colorado, Gov. John Hickenlooper and El Paso County officials. “Opposed, opposed, opposed!” said Amy Lathen, county commissioner representing Falcon and eastern El Paso County. “We're working on a resolution for the board of county commissioners on this,” she added. “It would be devastating. It would proliferate, and we would become a go-to state for large buys; $1.2 million of the money they've raised for this has come from out of state. We're trying to understand how this will affect all the work we've done regulating the medical marijuana industry so far.” El Paso and Teller County District Attorney Dan May and El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa have also issued statements opposing the measure.
According to a poll done by Public Policy Polling, support for Amendment 64 has grown over the summer. In an August press release, the PPP sated that in June, “support narrowly outpaced opposition by four points. Two months later, likely voter support has grown to 47-38.”
“Unincorporated El Paso County supported the ban measure, but it failed county-wide by a small amount,” Lathen said. “We need to be big enough to upset the rest of the state this time.”
The ballot summary:
“Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning marijuana, and, in connection therewith, providing for the regulation of marijuana; permitting a person twenty-one years of age or older to consume or possess limited amounts of marijuana; providing for the licensing of cultivation facilities, product manufacturing facilities, testing facilities, and retail stores; permitting local governments to regulate or prohibit such facilities; requiring the general assembly to enact an excise tax to be levied upon wholesale sales of marijuana; requiring that the first $40 million in revenue raised annually by such tax be credited to the public school capital construction assistance fund; and requiring the general assembly to enact legislation governing the cultivation, processing, and sale of industrial hemp?”
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Jason Gray