Legal Marijuana No Longer a Pipe Dream

The Independent

Mason Tvert is a happy man. Well, maybe not that happy. As a guy who has worked to get Denver and Colorado to legalize marijuana, Tvert is happy that people outside the state seem to be coming around to his way of thinking.

He’ll be really happy, of course, if he can get more Coloradans to think his way, too.

Around the nation, there are increasing signs that Americans are beginning to accept the idea:

• In addition to Denver, 11 other cities have approved laws making it a low priority for law enforcement officials to arrest people using small amounts of marijuana.
• In addition to Colorado, 12 other states have approved its use for medicinal purposes.
• In Massachusetts, voters approved making the possession of small quantities of pot a petty offense, payable by a penalty similar to that of a traffic ticket.
• And just this week, voters in Oakland, Calif., overwhelmingly imposed the nation’s first-ever sales tax on companies that dispense the ganja weed to people certified to use it for medical reasons.

Tvert has become well-known around Denver in his quest to convince people that if they need a mind-altering substance, marijuana is far superior to alcohol. It totally irks him, dude, that pot is illegal, whereas alcohol is a central part of many people’s lives. Not only would drinking and driving be less of a problem if pot were legal, but there would be fewer cases of domestic violence, he says. Someone who smokes weed is far tamer than someone wasted on hard liquor, he says.