Daily Press News Editor
MONTROSE — Area law enforcement agencies have banded together to oppose Amendment 44.
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“They’re trying to compare marijuana to alcohol when that’s not even a valid argument,” Delta/Montrose Drug Task Force Agent Jack Haynes said. Haynes drafted the letter, which the heads of several law-enforcement agencies then signed.
“The whole issue is absurd. This is a measure by a small group of people that they’re trying to get passed to benefit themselves.”
Mason Tvert of SAFER Colorado, a group that supports 44, lambasted the agencies’ campaign against the measure.
“It’s unfortunate our government is expending so much resources fighting something that the people have every right to decide,” he said.
He said his support of the amendment did not mean he wanted to light up a joint himself. “That’s like saying anyone who’s pro choice wants to have an abortion,” Tvert said.
Haynes said passing the amendment would send the wrong message. “If we send the message that it’s OK, then what’s to stop people from saying ‘If marijuana’s OK, what about a little cocaine?’ It is the wrong message. It’s a terrible amendment and a terrible idea.”
Marijuana can impair short-term memory, attention, motor skills, reaction time and the organization of complex information. It is an intoxicant and people can become addicted.
Olathe Police Chief Ric Hawk, also a signatory on the letter, said marijuana leads to the abuse of harder drugs.
“Most people that end up on the hard drugs start out on marijuana and then graduate. I think you’ll see a huge (amount of) contact between law enforcement and the public that you don’t see now,” he said.
“I also think it would be easier for the kids to get. I don’t think we should make it easier for anyone.”
Tvert doesn’t buy the “gateway drug” argument and said keeping possession illegal creates a black market for marijuana, much as Prohibition had for alcohol in the early 1900s. It would be better to regulate pot than to criminalize small quantities, he said. “It’s legal to sit in your house and drink whiskey, but not to produce it unregulated.”
He alleged law enforcement has a vested interest in keeping pot possession illegal. “The only people truly addicted to marijuana in this country are law enforcement like these guys. They’re protecting their bottom line.”
Jeffrey Sweetin of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain division previously called such contentions “a ludicrous argument.”
Haynes said the passage of 44 would impair the task force’s ability to enforce other drug laws. While possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is a petty offense, punishable by a $100 fine, it can form the basis for search warrants that yield vast quantities of pot and other drugs — leading to the arrests of potential felons.
“It’s a terrible proposal in terms of drug enforcement,” Haynes said. “In obtaining a warrant, you find other drugs. Would that be out the window? I think that would have some very bad ramifications.”
Tvert said the task force’s job was to enforce the laws, not make them. “I think the drug task force was put together to fight illegal drugs like meth, heroin and other very dangerous drugs, and not to maintain $100-fines on drugs that are arbitrarily considered illegal.”
He said the amendment would not change other laws pertaining to marijuana. “The only difference we’re going to see is if you’re over 21, you’re not going to get a $100-ticket (for possession of less than 1 ounce). If people are growing, selling, or giving marijuana to minors or driving under the influence, there’s not going to be any difference.”
Though Tvert said marijuana is readily available from sources not connected to the criminal underworld, Haynes believes making simple possession legal will encourage the drug cartels responsible for methamphetamine, cocaine and other hard drugs.
“An ounce of marijuana is not going to magically appear,” he said. “Somebody’s got to violate the law, because you can’t grow marijuana. ...At a time when we’re trying to figure out how to deal with the meth epidemic and all the things it costs, we want to take a step back and legalize marijuana? That makes absolutely no sense to me.”
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