Newsflash - Governor Hickenlooper has called an emergency special session to vote on civil unions AND SB-117. Please contact your representatives and urge them to vote against this bill. 

Here’s a great NORML page with how to do so. Go you, go!

How did your Colorado Senator vote for SB-117?

My State Senator, Rollie Heath, who is up for reelection, voted for this bill. I have contacted him and contacted him to get his reasoning on why he would vote this way, pointed out to him that I vote and as his constituent, would like it if he voted against this bill.

No response. Why is that Senator?

I’m calling on all those in District 18 which includes all of the city of Boulder, CO, Gunbarrel, Niwot, Hygiene and unincorporated Boulder County to contact Senator Heath and politely request he vote against this bill. May I also remind those of you in Nederland, Ward, Jamestown, etc, that District 18 is being redrawn and if Rollie Heath gets reelected, he’s going to be representing you! 

How can a state senator who is a big education backer be against Medical Marijuana or Marijuana at all when the money earned through taxing it will be such a win for the state. Amendment 64, which you can vote for this November 6, 2012, proposes to give the first $40 million of revenue from the taxes collect PER YEAR to the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund. That’s $40,000,000 per year. 

Here is the bill and how Colorado State Senators voted. If you follow the link at the bottom, you will also be able to see how the House of Representatives voted as well.

SB12-117 by Senator(s) King S.; also Representative(s) Waller—Concerning the penalties for persons who drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and, in connection therewith, making an appropriation. 

The question being “Shall the bill pass?”, the roll call was taken with the following result: 

YES 18 NO 17 EXCUSED 0 ABSENT 0

Aguilar N Guzman N Lambert Y Scheffel Y 

Bacon Y Harvey N Lundberg N Schwartz Y 

Boyd Y   Heath Y    Mitchell N Spence Y 

Brophy N Hodge Y Morse Y Steadman N 

Cadman Y Hudak N Neville N Tochtrop N 

Carroll N Jahn N Newell Y White Y 

Foster N Johnston Y Nicholson N Williams S. N 

Giron N King K. Y Renfroe N President Y 

Grantham Y King S. Y Roberts Y 

A majority of all members elected to the Senate having voted in the affirmative, the bill was passed. 

Co-sponsors added: King K. and Lambert

Source: http://www.leg.state.co.us/

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Rollie_Heath

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20597940/colorado-legislature-returns-monday-2nd-round-civil-unions?source=pkg

http://www.regulatemarijuana.org/about

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/17/economists-marijuana-legalization_n_1431840.html

#Boulder

#Colorado

“Welcome back to San Francisco Mr President” - City Supervisors prepare letter to Obama, asking him to leave their dispensaries alone! - SFBG article by Caitlin Donohue.

Response posted both below and online.

I’d like to acknowledge and applaud the supporters and the supervisor writers of this letter.

I believe that President Obama must be asked at every stop about his stance on marijuana. We have Mittens on tape, laughing away at a reporters question on medical marijuana in Colorado. It’s been the number one topic since he’s been in office and he continues to avoid addressing it and has backpedalled. If it’s left to the States and we in Colorado pass Amendment 64 (regulate as alcohol - over 21 can purchase without medical card & tax it = $$$$$ millions for state) which also allows for growth and sales of hemp, I’m sure the farmers that stand to make serious bank will want to be assured and reassured the Feds won’t come after them. 

Why are some people refusing to see that the money brought into to the states could save them? What are people afraid of?  Did you know, we have to import hemp? We can’t grow it here in the US.

President Obama should not get away with saying he was keeping his hands off the states and then sending the Justice Department in to close them down! 

Add in the media spinning this November election into a very close one & in states where marijuana issues are on the ballot, neither candidate addressing our questions. Other states we need to band together and work together and get our answers. These are important questions!

Huffington Post - Pot legalization Could Save $13.7 billion per year, 300 economists say

Norml - 8 States May Legalize Marijuana This Year - Did Yours Make the List?

Dear fellow Coloradans and all others who have already done the right thing and registered to vote and verify that all addresses and names are correct so you can vote,

Do not be fooled by this big Mittens is failing in the polls and on the news. It could very easily be a plot to get people who would vote for Obama to think, hmm, he’s got this in the bag, I don’t really like him so I’m not going to bother voting. Everyone else will vote and Obama will get reelected, so I don’t have to. 

Not so my young Jedi. http://www.barackobama.com/

Don’t be that person. #VOTE

Proud to promote:

VotoLatino - http://www.votolatino.org/

FVAP.Gov - Voting help/assistance for Uniformed Service Members, their families and citizens living outside the USofA. http://www.fvap.gov/

and of course, Rock The Vote !! http://www.rockthevote.org/

The below is for Boulder County residents.

Register online and/or check your registration status/look up polling place:

http://www.bouldercounty.org/elections/register/pages/default.aspx

Oct. 9: Last day to register to vote or change your address on your current registration.  Make sure your friends and family are all registered at their current location.  If they are students and have permanent residency out of state, they can still register to vote in Colorado using their Colorado address and their social security number.   When they vote, they can use their student ID as their voter ID.  If you have a Colorado Driver’s license, you need to use it instead of your social security number to register to vote.

Once you get your ballot, navigate to the Amendment section and VOTE YES ON Amendment 64. Do it Colorado. Let’s be the first. 

October 22:  Early voting begins Mon-Fri 8am-6pm & Sat. 9am-3pm

            Clerk & Recorter, Boulder 1750 33rd St and

            Clerk & Recorder, Longmont, 529 Coffman Street

October 29-November 2:  Early voting continues at:

Clerk & Recorter, Boulder 1750 33rd St and

            Clerk & Recorder, Longmont, 529 Coffman Street

            Boulder County Courthouse, East Wing, Boulder, 1325 Pearl St

            University of Colorado Boulder, University Club, 972 Broadway

            Lafayette Public Library, Lafayette, 775 W. Baseline Rd.

            County Fairgrounds, Clover Bldg., Longmont, 9596 Nelson Rd.

November 1- Last day to safely mail in your vote by mail ballot, if you chose to vote

by mail.  If you miss this date, carry your completed ballot to your polling place on election day and turn it in there.

November 6- Election Day voting at the polls 7am-7pm!  If you have a mail in ballot

and failed to mail it in by Nov.1, take it to your polling place on election day.  If you are unsure of your polling place look it up on:

www.bouldercounty.org/elections/register/pages/voterinfolookup.aspx

NOTICE:  If you did not vote in the 2010 election, you are considered “inactive voter”,

That means you can still vote on election day or vote early, you can, but if you wish to vote by mail, you will need to request it again, even if you did so before.  Request it this way:

https://www.sos.state.co.us/Voter/secuRegVoterIntro.do or call county clerk to check: 303-413-7740

HOW TO REDUCE THOSE ELECTION PHONE CALLS:

            Vote early to get your name off the lists or

            Vote by mail and return it quickly to get your names off the lists

Register with a party rather than Unaffiliated because both parties call the unaffiliated voters!

Yuck. 

I had to waste my vote on Obama because I don’t want mitts to win. Would I vote for him if that threat didn’t exist? No way in hell. I would vote for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party.

Did I get a call from the Dems asking me to please, please vote for Obama? Yup. 

Did I tell them why I didn’t want to? Yup.

Their response, I know, I know but please still vote for him. We’ve heard ‘rumours’ that he will be better the next four years. Uh huh.. sure you have. 

This country needs a different system. 

I did not vote for anyone in the running in Boulder County, except for Jared Polis. I did not and will not support Rollie Heath. Here we have the state senator, a Democrat, who doesn’t vote the party line. 

I did vote YES on 64 because I believe the war on drugs is a sham. We have spent so much money trying to stop marijuana over so many years. It’s time to try something new. It’s time to regulate marijuana like alcohol. Tax it. The money can go to the schools, we can create new jobs, we can show the US Government how out of touch they are. We can grow and sell hemp. 

Blech. If mitts wins, I’m out of here and moving to Uruguay. They have beaches & marijuana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZlL1kV9bSz8

Writing from Boulder and my experience watching the community garden plot behind North Boulder Recreation Center for 18 years (yiiii!!!).

My initial thought was, yeh, but other homeless will just come along and reap the benefit of someone else’s love and hard work, but then I realized that those that were tending the garden with the love and hard work, would be watching and guarding. 

The below pictures are from various plots up at the Community Gardens. It really sucks to have your garden robbed. These people took it to extremes, imho.

Both of these were, of course, posted in Spanish as well. 

But, I’m afraid I might get tested and the alcohol would show up in my urine.

Thoughts?

Why worry about alcohol showing up? It’s legal, and it’s not like it’s
methadone, heroin or oxy.

Would you want to work some place that was that uptight anyway?
Always having to worry about a random test after a weekend?

Here’s the truth.

I’d really like to have a hit or two or three of my delicious cannabis.
I have not smoked or ingested any cannabis since the 1st of April.
I don’t like drinking.
Cannabis is legal for over 21’s in the state of Colorado (details are still getting worked out, but the people of Colorado voted for Amendment 64).
I have a red card as I use cannabis to relieve my back pain, calm me down, sleep better, and also as I would if I drank wine. I enjoy medicating recreationally before watching a movie.

Why should someone who enjoys a few tokes once or twice a week be made to feel like a criminal?
Why should cannabis be considered so bad, when alcohol is the real problem?
Why should a work place be so frigging uptight about legal use?

I know the wheels are turning in the US as far as cannabis is concerned but can’t they turn a tad faster?

Signed,

A recreational user.