Infighting plagues Colorado marijuana legalization bid - The Denver Post

Infighting plagues Colorado marijuana legalization bid - The Denver Post

The campaign to put an initiative partially legalizing marijuana on the 2012 Colorado ballot says it already has collected 35,000 signatures, but it has been dogged in the effort's earliest stages by a persistent foe: other marijuana-legalization supporters.

At volunteer meetings and signature-gathering drives, a splinter group of pro-legalization activists has shown up to argue that the measure doesn't go far enough. At one such event, an activist allegedly took a clipboard of signed petitions and tossed it into the trash. At another, an activist was arrested for trespassing after refusing to leave.

"It's disingenuous," Corey Donahue, the activist who was arrested during a meeting last month at the Boulder Public Library, said of the initiative. "I think they're lying to the people of Colorado."

Mason Tvert, one of the leaders of the initiative campaign, admitted the activists have been a slight headache. But he said they ultimately represent just a tiny, if noisy, segment of the population.

"This is a coalition of tens of thousands of supporters," Tvert said of the initiative's backers. "We're not hearing concerns expressed by any more than that one particular group."

The proposed initiative, which is currently named the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, would allow anyone 21 and older legally to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow six cannabis plants. People also would be able to purchase marijuana from pot shops, which the state would license and regulate in much the same way it does medical-marijuana dispensaries. Some marijuana-related offenses, such as sales to minors or driving under the influence, would remain illegal.

Already, four issue committees have formed to support the effort, according to state records. One, called the Coalition to End Marijuana Prohibition, is largely funded with a $10,000 donation from the Marijuana Policy Project, a national marijuana-legalization organization. Three other groups have not yet had to report their finances.