Reefer madness

A DEA agent has launched the campaign against Colorado's pot-legalization amendment: "Pot plan would strain authorities, foes say.

Drug runners will begin trafficking large amounts of marijuana to sell if Colorado voters approve [Amendment 44], Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Jeffrey Sweetin said.

Large amounts, he added, become a serious federal problem.

"It will clearly impact what we do," he said.

"Right now, a smaller amount of focus is on pot, but if this passes, we will be able to focus less and less on other drugs, and pot will become a major focus."

Calvina Fay, executive director of Florida-based Save Our Society from Drugs, said "the stakes are very high" because she believes that this is just the first step toward the pro-Amendment 44 forces' eventual goal of legalizing all drugs throughout the nation.

Couple of interesting facts and figures: the Rocky did a poll with Channel 4 on the measure, but don't provide a link. It found the measure failing 53 to 42 percent, which seems like a reasonable guess. They also have a video Q and A.

One odd line:

Fay said that the amendment would make it legal for an adult to give an ounce of marijuana to a 15-year-old, but proponents said that is misleading.

Proponents? Apparently nobody told Rocky reporter David Moreno that his own paper called the claim a deliberate lie.

Then a few quotes from the head of SAFER, the pro-amendment 44 group--but somehow, no mention of the group's name, let alone a link:

Mason Tvert, campaign manager for a group that supports the amendment, said that there are already laws on the books that make it a felony to provide marijuana to a minor.

His group wants to make it legal only for those over 21 to possess pot, he said.

Tvert said the opposition forces "bend the truth" about marijuana and are using scare tactics to defeat the measure - including the charge that they're part of a national movement to legalize all drugs and are funded by wealthy individuals and political action groups.

"I have no interest in other drugs, and we don't intend to run a statewide campaign anywhere else in the country," Tvert said.

"They're also trying to say we took money from (billionaire Democratic donor) George Soros. We've never received a cent from George Soros, and believe me, if he offered me $1 or $1,000, I'd take it."

SAFER has a lot more on the anti-44 campaign launch on their blog, which, despite its lack of permalinks, puts up surprisingly good, link-heavy posts.

George Soros?

Update: Sorry about the title.