For those who were not yet in the state or who don't remember, it was Colorado's great misfortune to have Buckley serving as secretary of state in the 1990s. She weathered a number of controversies which all brought into question her integrity or her ability, but the greatest shame she brought to us was when she used her office to improperly remove from the ballot a medicinal marijuana initiative, claiming it did not have enough petition signatures.
After Buckley died suddenly, a bunch of petitions were found in her office. It was clear she had fraudulently kept the measure off the ballot because she disagreed with it. She had committed the worst sin for an elections official, undermining the public's already-weak faith in the system.
A court ordered the measure on the ballot and voters approved it in 2000. For 10 years, officials from both major parties neglected to approve enabling legislation for Colorado's constitutional amendment on pot.
Last week the Colorado Senate finally approved House Bill 1264, which serves to honor Buckley's corrupt legacy. It's true that the unregulated medicinal marijuana industry has resulted in a confusing mess, but HB1264 will only result in another confusing, dubiously constitutional, mess.
The bill allows cities and counties to opt out of allowing medicinal marijuana dispensaries by holding elections. Whether local governments can cherry-pick which provisions of the state constitution they want to obey is something that probably will be settled in court.
But it sounds like the kind of issue we thought was settled at Appomattox, where South Carolinians learned about "nullification." Nothing equates with slavery, but the pot law sounds a bit like the Compromise of 1850.
Brian Vicente,an attorney for Sensible Colorado, a leading advocacy group for medicinal pot, called the opt-out provision "reprehensible" and said if the bill is signed by the governor "we'll strongly consider a lawsuit."
Vicente said "localities should have control over zoning, hours of operation and signage." Allowing local entities to ignore provisions in the state constitution, he said, was never contemplated in the medicinal pot amendment.
Colorado Attorney General and longtime Colorado Springs resident John Suthers maintains the pot amendment "doesn't allow for the commercial sale of marijuana through dispensaries." Suthers says local opt-out elections are therefore constitutional, but he agrees having a patchwork of local pot laws will be difficult.
"It is going to be a mess and we will pay a social cost," said Suthers, who wanted tighter pot controls than those in the legislation.
Gone to pot, stuck in the weeds.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Colorado Springs Gazette
Author: Barry Noreen
Copyright: 2010 Freedom Communications
After Buckley died suddenly, a bunch of petitions were found in her office. It was clear she had fraudulently kept the measure off the ballot because she disagreed with it. She had committed the worst sin for an elections official, undermining the public's already-weak faith in the system.
A court ordered the measure on the ballot and voters approved it in 2000. For 10 years, officials from both major parties neglected to approve enabling legislation for Colorado's constitutional amendment on pot.
Last week the Colorado Senate finally approved House Bill 1264, which serves to honor Buckley's corrupt legacy. It's true that the unregulated medicinal marijuana industry has resulted in a confusing mess, but HB1264 will only result in another confusing, dubiously constitutional, mess.
The bill allows cities and counties to opt out of allowing medicinal marijuana dispensaries by holding elections. Whether local governments can cherry-pick which provisions of the state constitution they want to obey is something that probably will be settled in court.
But it sounds like the kind of issue we thought was settled at Appomattox, where South Carolinians learned about "nullification." Nothing equates with slavery, but the pot law sounds a bit like the Compromise of 1850.
Brian Vicente,an attorney for Sensible Colorado, a leading advocacy group for medicinal pot, called the opt-out provision "reprehensible" and said if the bill is signed by the governor "we'll strongly consider a lawsuit."
Vicente said "localities should have control over zoning, hours of operation and signage." Allowing local entities to ignore provisions in the state constitution, he said, was never contemplated in the medicinal pot amendment.
Colorado Attorney General and longtime Colorado Springs resident John Suthers maintains the pot amendment "doesn't allow for the commercial sale of marijuana through dispensaries." Suthers says local opt-out elections are therefore constitutional, but he agrees having a patchwork of local pot laws will be difficult.
"It is going to be a mess and we will pay a social cost," said Suthers, who wanted tighter pot controls than those in the legislation.
Gone to pot, stuck in the weeds.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Colorado Springs Gazette
Author: Barry Noreen
Copyright: 2010 Freedom Communications
