Pubdate: Thu, 09 Oct 2014
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Copyright: 2014 Boulder Weekly
Contact:  http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57
Author: Leland Rucker
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)

JONATHAN SINGER AN UNLIKELY CANNABIS ADVOCATE

Jonathan Singer is as improbable a cannabis advocate as you'll ever
find. The representative for House District 11 never has been a user
and certainly never intended to become a leading voice on behalf of
cannabis legalization in Colorado.

"If someone had told me in 2011 that three years later I would be
running for re-election for a seat I didn't have," Singer, who
rebelled in high school by not using cannabis, said recently. "Or that
by the end of my second year that I would have helped pass a statewide
tax increase on legal marijuana, I would have laughed at them.

But that's the way it happened."

And how did Jonathan Singer wind up a major player in Colorado's legal
adoption of Amendment 64? Trace at least part of it to his past, which
has been mostly in social work. "I like to joke that I worked with
kids and drug addicts. At the Capitol, it's drug addicts and people
who act like drug addicts. Nobody laughs at the Capitol when I say
that."

One major takeaway of his social work background was to see how laws
affect the most vulnerable, the ones least likely to be able to stand
up for themselves. A registered Republican in high school, he was
inspired by John McCain's campaign in 2000. "I realized we needed to
have people in office who cared about people, and he seemed to care
about people more than money or politics."

In 2004, he switched from Independent to Democrat and became a
delegate at the national convention for Dennis Kucinich. In 2011, Deb
Gardner, his predecessor, decided not to run again, and, he says,
"People start tapping me on the shoulder."

Singer announced his intention to run for the District 11 seat in
November 2011. A month later, Deb Gardner resigned to become a Boulder
County commissioner, and Singer was appointed by a vacancy committee
to fill her term. "At the end of January 2012, in the middle of the
session, I'm sworn in to the statehouse. In November I run for
re-election. I win and, with a year under my belt, I become a kind of
red shirt freshman."

Amendment 64 was passed in that same election, and Singer and
conservative Shawn Mitchell found themselves the only ones among 65
representatives who supported the ballot issue. That got him onto the
committee writing the rules for legalization.

"I didn't really ask for a seat at the table, but I've enjoyed
charting this new course," Singer says. "It's been a unique experience
for me because of my background in social work. And frankly, there are
times when I've felt like we should go back to alcohol prohibition.
But we also know that prohibition hurts people, too. It gave rise to a
mafia just as we have drug cartels. My alliteration on marijuana is,
'How do we keep it out of the hands of kids, criminals and cartels?'
If we can do that, we can create a safer community, raise more tax
money, start to deal with the drug honestly and not overstate the
extent of its damages."

Amendment 64 set strict deadlines for implementation by the
legislature, which made for an interesting dynamic. "What was nice
about it was that it was a collegial discussion," Singer says.

"It was such a new concept that the traditional battle lines had not
been drawn. More people were interested in at least learning before
deciding, which is nice. You saw people asking genuine questions, and
for the most part it was an open and honest conversation. It's never
been about what's best for me. It's about what's best for our
community. That was kind of a breath of fresh air for some of us."

He admits the legislative landscape is already changing. "Now you're
seeing some of the battle lines being drawn a little more. You have
moneyed interests stepping up because there is a lot of money to be
made," he admits. "And so I think you'll see a little more cynical
side of politics come into play."

Singer is optimistic about how the roll-out has gone so far. "Time
will tell. I would give us a B-plus. There were things we couldn't
have predicted or didn't focus enough on to start out with that I wish
we had. I think edibles was one place - dosing with edibles,
consistency of edibles, regulating it in a way that kids aren't going
to get their hands on it, regulating it in a way that I know what a
Chips Ahoy cookie looks like, so I want to know a marijuana cookie
just by looking at it."

And if he's approached by other state leaders looking at legalization?
I would say, 'Figure out your banking, figure out the edibles and how
you want to regulate those and pretty much do most of what we did.'"
Singer says the legalization issue has been an easy tightrope for him
to walk because he's seen how marijuana has hurt people, but also how
drugs like alcohol have hurt people as well. "I've also seen the
downside of prohibition. I don't want people going to a back alley.
I'd rather it be a transaction just like liquor stores. We need to
treat it like the drug it is and not the drug that some fear it to
be."

You can hear Leland discuss his most recent column and Colorado
cannabis issues each Thursday morning on KGNU. 
http://news.kgnu/category/features/weedbetween-the-lines/ 
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MAP posted-by: Richard