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Colorado Initiative Sets Sights on Legalizing Possession of Marijuana

Activist organization Sensible Breckenridge, an arm of Sensible Colorado, succeeded in getting on November's ballot a "measure that would remove all penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana in the [...] ski resort town of Breckenridge," Phillip Smith writes in a post for the Drug War Chronicle's "Speakeasy" blog on July 25, 2009. The measure, as Smith reports, "would remove local penalties for the private possession of up to one ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older, effectively legalizing small amounts of marijuana for adults under the town code."

Organizers told Smith that they "encountered overwhelming support" for the measure while gathering 1,400 signatures - nearly three times the 500 needed "to make the ballot." As local attorney Sean McAllister said, "Now it is up to the Breckenridge voters to decide if responsible adults should be criminalized for using a substance less harmful than alcohol." However, the measure could be implemented even earlier. According to Smith's post, "The Breckenridge Town Council will have the opportunity to enact the law at their meeting on August 11. If they do not, it will automatically be placed on the November 3rd ballot."