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Written by Bryce Crawford
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Thursday, 16 February 2012
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So that whole thing about President Barack Obama not exactly backing the medical marijuana industry has always drawn the frustration of advocacy groups, but the feeling has finally spilled over into something official: the Patient Voter Project. "The mission of the Patient Voter Project is to shine a light on the
Obama administration’s recent behavior in the state and to keep medical
marijuana patients, their families and their hundreds of thousands of
supporters around the state up-to-date about the latest hostile actions
being carried out by the administration," says a press release from Brian Vicente, head of group Sensible Colorado, who's backing the new initiative, along with everybody else who matters: Marijuana Policy Project, Americans for Safe Access, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, Medical Marijuana Assistance Program of America
and others. "The project's goal is to end the Obama administration
attacks on legitimate and legal providers of medical marijuana and to
trust the state of Colorado to regulate the industry in a thorough and
competent manner, as it has done already."
A portion of a missive from the group, labeled "Campaign Alert #1," references the recent actions
of the state U.S. Attorney when it says, "It is inexplicable and
offensive that the administration sat back and allowed owners of medical
marijuana centers in Colorado to invest tens of thousands of dollars in
order to comply with state regulations and then decided to
seize their properties. The open question now is whether the Obama
administration will actually seize the property of these individuals who
have diligently followed state and local laws."
A press conference is occurring today in Denver, where more will be revealed.
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Written by Kirk Johnson
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Friday, 27 January 2012
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Proponents of marijuana have argued for years that the drug is
safer than alcohol, both to individuals and society. But a ballot
proposal to legalize possession of marijuana in small amounts in
Colorado, likely to be on the November ballot, is putting the two
intoxicants back into the same sentence, urging voters to “regulate
marijuana like alcohol,” as the ballot proposition’s title puts it.
Given alcohol’s long and checkered history — the tens of thousands
of deaths each year; the social ravages of alcoholism — backers of the
pro-marijuana measure concede there is a risk of looking as if they have
cozied up too much, or are comparable, to old demon rum.
“Why add another vice, right?” said Mason Tvert, a co-director of
the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which has led the
ballot drive. “But we’re not adding a vice — we’re providing an
alternative.”
The goal of legalization, Mr. Tvert added, is not to make access to
marijuana easier, but rather, “to make our communities safer by
regulating this substance, taking it out of the underground market,
controlling it and better keeping it away from young people."...
Read the entire story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/us/a-ballot-push-to-legalize-marijuana...
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Written by Charles Ashby
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Thursday, 29 December 2011
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A group pushing for a citizens initiative to legalize small
quantities of marijuana will submit more than 155,000 signatures next
week to put the amendment on next year’s ballot.
Mason Tvert, a proponent of the measure and head of the Campaign to
Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said Wednesday he and hundreds of
volunteers are nearing the end of the petition-signature stage to get
the measure on the November ballot.
Tvert said the group plans to turn in petitions to the Secretary of State’s Office next Wednesday.
“There’s been an ongoing discussion about marijuana in Colorado for
the past seven years, and more Coloradans than ever believe that we
should regulate marijuana similar to alcohol,” he said. “Because so many
people have been hearing about marijuana and about the fact that it’s
far safer than alcohol, they are becoming increasingly comfortable with
acknowledging that an adult should be allowed to use it without fear of
punishment.”
Better than that, Tvert said, it’s also an economic driver. Read the entire story at: http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/pot_backers_could_get_question/
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Written by Phil Smith
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Wednesday, 14 December 2011
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The annualMonitoring the Future
survey of substance use by eighth, 10th, and 12th graders was released
Wednesday, and it shows students are drinking and smoking tobacco at
historically low levels, but marijuana use is on the rise...
While careful to point out that responsible marijuana reform activists
do not encourage teen substance use, Mason Tvert, head of the activist
group SAFER (Safe Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation) and coauthor of Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? dared to suggest that young people who do use drugs are making smarter choices about which drugs they choose to use.
"We're always concerned about young people using drugs, but it's clear
that more young people are understanding that marijuana is a less
harmful substance and making that choice," said Tvert. "While we
certainly don't want to promote marijuana use among minors, this report
suggests they are making the safer choice to use marijuana rather than
alcohol."
Tvert attributed both the rise in teen use and the decline in their
perceptions of marijuana's risks to their increasing exposure to
knowledge about marijuana.
"Ultimately, people are hearing more and more about the facts
surrounding marijuana, and as they continue to hear that marijuana is
far less harmful than alcohol, that it doesn't contribute to violence,
that there is no danger of a deadly overdose, they are increasingly more
comfortable making that choice..." Read the entire story at: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/dec/14/teens_rejecting_alcohol_tobacco
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Written by Scot Kersgaard
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Thursday, 01 December 2011
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Marijuana articles giving you the munchies? Now you can turn the need to feed into a donation to fight against the war on drugs. Denver’s Sexy Pizza is donating a portion of its sales to LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), a group of police officers, judges and others in law enforcement who think the war on drugs is counterproductive...
“Kudos to the folks at Sexy Pizza for supporting LEAP and the countless law enforcement officials speaking out in support of ending marijuana prohibition,” said Mason Tvert, executive director of SAFER and a lead proponent for the marijuana regulation initiative. “They are invaluable members of our coalition and will play a critical role in the historic 2012
Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.” Read the entire story at: http://coloradoindependent.com/106705/denvers-sexy-pizza-declares-war-on-drug-war
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Written by John Ingold
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Wednesday, 30 November 2011
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The passage of state medical-marijuana laws
is associated with a subsequent drop in the rate of traffic fatalities,
according to a newly released study by two university professors...
Rees said the main reason for the drop appears to be that
medical-marijuana laws mean young people spend less time drinking and
more time smoking cannabis. Legalization of medical marijuana, the
researchers report, is associated with a 12-percent drop in the
alcohol-related fatal-crash rate and a 19-percent decrease in the
fatality rate of people in their 20s, according to the study.
The study also found that medical- marijuana legalization is associated with a drop in beer sales.
"The result that comes through again and again and again is (that)
young adults . . . drink less when marijuana is legalized and traffic
fatalities go down," Rees said... Mason Tvert, the head of the pro-
marijuana-legalization group SAFER, said the study suggests legalizing
marijuana would be beneficial in unexpected ways...
Read the entire story at: http://www.denverpost.com/news/marijuana/ci_19437417
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