COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- An amendment on the ballot is drawing national attention as Colorado voters are given the chance to decide whether or not to legalize marijuana.
If passed Amendment 64 would make Colorado the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes.
It would allow anyone 21 years and older to possess and use up to one ounce of marijuana.
It would also make it legal to grow, transport, and sell the drug within the state.
Amendment 64 would also tax marijuana and allow farms to grow industrial hemp.
The proposal has stirred a lot of debate and caused both sides to take a strong stand as the election draws near.
"Amendment 64 is bad for Colorado, it's bad public policy, and it's bad for our kids," Dan May, El Paso County District Attorney, said.
May is just one of hundreds of elected officials who have taken a stance against the proposal. The list of those opposed includes Mayor Steve Bach, Attorney General John Suthers, and Governor John Hickenlooper.
May said his biggest concern is how the amendment is being proposed.
"They could have brought this as a statutory amendment in which case if there were issues that you found later intended or unintended consequences that needed some correction our legislature could correct that. When you put it in our constitution it is incorrectible," May said.
Brian Vicente, Co-Director of the Amendment 64 campaign, disagreed.
"What we're doing is putting just a loose framework of rights into the constitution," Vicente said. "It's the same thing that Colorado did with alcohol prohibition 80 years ago. We ended alcohol prohibition via a state constitutional amendment. We're trying to do the same thing with marijuana prohibition."
Proponents for the amendment said taxing marijuana would bring millions to the state and local schools.
"The first 40 million annually from that tax would go to public school construction," Vicente said.
May argued that sales of the drug wouldn't bring in that kind of money and added that legalizing medical marijuana has only burdened local tax payers.
"When we passed medical marijuana they set up in the Department of Revenue a unit for $10 million to regulate the industry across the state. They weren't even able to bring in $5 million. They are closing that unit. The burden of now regulating it is being thrown on our local police departments across the state and your tax dollars are paying for that currently," May said.
But Vicente said independent economists have estimated marijuana sales could bring in up to $100 million in new tax revenue.
"They estimate that it would be up to $60 million in the first couple years and then up to $100 million in new tax revenue," Vicente said. "Now whether that's $40 million, $60 million, or $100 million that's money that's not going into the hands of cartels that could be going to build schools in the state of Colorado."
But it appears the schools may not want the money. The Colorado Education Association (CEA) which represents 38,000 educators throughout Colorado has also taken a stance against Amendment 64.
"Our teachers have come out and said we don't want the money. We're not going to be bribed by this. This is bad for our kids and I appreciate their stand on that," May said.
Opponents have also voiced concerns that the amendment would make it easier for teens to get a hold of marijuana which proponents have said isn't true.
"We disagree with that 100 percent," Vicente said. "Teens say it is universally available, marijuana is universally available for them, that's a sign to us that things are not going well with our current drug policies. We firmly believe that if you move marijuana behind the counter instead of having it sold on the street corners or parks and ask people for ID it's going to be much tougher for teens to get it."
Vicente said this election gives Colorado the chance to pave the way for the rest of the country.
"I think we saw with alcohol prohibition it just did not make a whole lot of sense. It led to an underground market and the country was missing out on a lot of tax revenue and the same rules apply with marijuana prohibition. I think this is a wasteful policy. We're arresting hundreds and hundreds of thousands of our citizens every year for possessing something that's less harmful than alcohol, so I think it could really show that Colorado is a leader on this issue, we're a leader on sound fiscal policy and using our criminal justice resources wisely," Vicente said.
To read Amendment 64 in its entirety click here
Proponents of 64
www.regulatemarijuana.org
Opponents of 64
www.votenoon64.com
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKXRM