The Campaign To Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the pot advocacy group behind Amendment 64 which seeks to legalize and regulate marijuana in Colorado, has discovered an inconsistency in Ken Buck's thoughts on pot and state's rights.
Ken Buck, a former senate candidate and now the leader of Smart Colorado, the group opposed to pot legalization and whose organization just asked for the federal government's help in fighting back pot legalization in the state, apparently used to have very different ideas when it came to federal government intervention in state's rights, even when it comes to marijuana.
In 2010, the Centennial Citizen reported that Ken Buck had this to say about marijuana in Colorado:
If the State of Colorado decides it wants to legalize marijuana, the marijuana is grown in Colorado, it is distributed in Colorado, it is used in Colorado, it is none of the federal government’s business what happens here -- the federal government needs to understand what the 10th Amendment says.
Does that sound like the future leader of a anti-legalization movement that would ask the federal government for help on anything?
Smart Colorado sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday asking for the federal government to help defeat the statewide initiative to legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol, The Denver Post first reported.
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol wants Buck to disavow Smart Colorado's letter to AG Eric Holder and stand behind his past statement. Betty Aldworth had this to say in a press statement:
We are simply asking Mr. Buck to stand behind what he told Colorado voters during his statewide campaign in 2010 – making marijuana legal in Colorado is 'none of the federal government's business.' His very clear statement directly conflicts with the letter his group sent to the U.S. Attorney General, asking that they get directly involved in Colorado's marijuana policy decisions. We hope Mr. Buck will disavow this letter or explain his sudden change of position.
We are pleased that District Attorney Buck is among the many thousands of Coloradans who believe the state should be able to exercise its right to regulate marijuana like alcohol without federal interference. We sincerely hope he will stand up for his beliefs and disassociate himself from the letter sent by his campaign, as well as refrain from working with federal officials to dictate marijuana policy in Colorado.
Smart Colorado's letter to Holder came just days after Rasmussen released a new poll that found 61 percent of likely Colorado voters favor legalization and regulation of marijuana.
That is the highest percentage of Colorado voter support that any marijuana legalization poll has shown to date. In December of 2011, a similar poll from Public Policy Polling showed only 49 percent in favor of general legalization of marijuana.
Reached for comment by The Denver Post, Mason Tvert, a leader of the pro-Amendment 64 movement, voiced surprise at Smart Colorado's federal request:
This seems like a politically tone-deaf request in light of the recent Rasmussen poll showing 61 percent of likely voters in Colorado support regulating marijuana like alcohol... Whoever is asking the Obama administration to oppose Amendment 64 must be secretly rooting for Mitt Romney to be elected president in November.
Amendment 64 also recently received support from both Republicans and Democrats -- in March, 56 percent of the delegates at the Denver County Republican Assembly voted to support the legislation, and in April, the Colorado Democratic Party officially endorsed Amendment 64 and added a marijuana legalization plank to the current party platform.
Below, where you can find legalized medical marijuana in the United States:
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