Thread: Marijuana regulation: parents for pot group backs Amendment 64 in November

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A billboard backing Amendment 64, which would regulate marijuana like alcohol, will be highlighted at a news conference today.

A new group that backs a ballot measure to regulate marijuana like alcohol today will show off its new billboard, which features a father and a son. The father asks for marijuana sales to be regulated to keep it out of his son’s hands.

Moms and Dads for Marijuana Regulation is holding a news conference at 11:30 a.m at the billboard site next to the Denver Broncos stadium on Federal Boulevard.

Opponents were critical.

“A billboard cannot paper over the fact that legalization will increase access to marijuana for kids,” said Laura Chapin, spokeswoman for Smart Colorado, which was formed to oppose the ballot measure.

One of the speakers will be Dr. Erika Joye, a nationally certified school psychologist in Denver and co-chair of Moms and Dads for Marijuana Regulation.

“Under Amendment 64, all marijuana sales will be conducted in a regulated market in which checks for proof of age are mandatory and strictly enforced, and consumers will not be exposed to more dangerous products,” Joye said, in a news release. “As a child and school psychologist — and as a mom — I feel that regulating marijuana like alcohol is critical to protecting the health and safety of Colorado teens.”

Amendment 64 ia a statewide initiative on the November ballot that would end marijuana prohibition and regulate marijuana like alcohol in Colorado. It is backed by the Campaign to End Marijuana Regulation and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate for president who recently campaigned in Colorado.

Smart Colorado is working to defeat the measure.

“Kids nationwide report that alcohol and tobacco are much more easy for them to access than pot. Why? Because pot is illegal,” Chapin said.

“Parents have enough problems trying to keep alcohol away from their children, and they do not need the increased burden of keeping them away from pot as well. Marijuana use has increased among teens in Colorado, and Amendment 64 would only accelerate that increase. That’s why so many parents are opposed to 64 and will vote no.”

Not true at all, said Mason Tvert, co campaign director for Amendment 64.

“The federal government and Colorado university researchers have utterly proven that assertion to be false,” he said. “We hope ‘Smart Colorado’ will stop misleading voters with such clearly inaccurate talking points, and allow our state to make this important policy decision based on the facts. ”

Marijuana regulation: Colorado parents-for-pot group backs ballot measure

I've done no research but there is something in humans and their nature that causes them curiosity about getting a buzz, or drunk, or a high. Whatever you want to call it, a large percentage of kids will try something to get this effect, usually in early teen years.

So, our society, in it's wisdom, has worked tirelessly to cut off access to cannabis in order to 'protect the children'. Recall, society does not take away the desire to see what inebriation is like, we just take away the least harmful (physically) way to feel that effect.

Today, having clamped down on cannabis and alcohol, through drug testing and regulation, where do kids turn when they feel this urge to experiment? They turn to things that aren't regulated and can't be detected in standard drug tests. They turn to K2, to bath salts, to white out, etc.

I'm not sure what the answer is but we need to step back as a society and take a fresh look at this issue. The path we are on now is driving our kids to experiment with more and more dangerous substances.