Pot and Booze Bound for the Ballot

the Denver Post
Two ballot initiatives filed late Wednesday would change the way booze and pot – and not the medicinal kind – are sold in Colorado.
The first, Initiative 47, lauds the benefits of legalizing and regulating the sale of marijuana in its preamble.
“The link between marijuana and other illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine will be broken so that teens who attempt to purchase marijuana will not be exposed to these more dangerous substances,” it reads. “Legitimate, taxpaying businesspeople in the state will benefit from the sales of marijuana, not criminal gangs and cartels.”
Backers of the proposed Constitutional amendment – Mason Tvert and Eva Enns – could not be immediately reached for comment. A phone call placed to their listed phone number was answered by a recorded message from pro-marijuana group SAFER.
The second proposal, Initiative 48, goes farther than any other booze legislation that has hit the Capitol in the last three years.
It would allow liquor stores owners to run as many shops as they like. They’re now limited to one license.
It would allow grocery stores to sell beer, wine and liquor at all of their locations.
And it would allow convenience stores to sell full-strength beer, where they are now limited to lower alcohol 3.2 percent beer.
The backers of the second proposal, Blake Harrison and Lawrence Phipps, are the same pair who last year introduced an initiative to allow the sale of full-strength beer in convenience stores.