The drumbeat for legalizing or decriminalizing drugs grows louder by the day. Recent headlines in the Gazette proclaim: "Panel: Drug war failed; explore legalization" (June 2), "Cash spent in drug war called wasted" (June 9), "More reasons to end the drug war" (June 10). The latter, an editorial by the Orange County Register, cites the conclusions of several world leaders (whose wisdom or political agendas are not universally accepted) and the widely trumpeted results of Portugal's 2001 drug decriminalization.

Readers should be wary of swallowing whole the opinions of the nabobs mentioned in the Register piece or assuming that the results of the Portuguese experiment would be duplicated in the huge and diverse United States: Tiny Portugal has a homogeneous population of about 10.7 million.

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In response to the June 10 editorial "Our View: More reasons to end the drug war," there are several issues I'd like to address.

First, the term "war on drugs" is a misnomer: although that phrase has roots back in the Nixon era over four decades ago, it is no longer used by U.S. government officials, for a variety of reasons.

A primary reason is that the problem today is much larger than just drugs: Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) active in our region have expanded their "business" lines of operation into dozens of other illegal activities, including weapons and human trafficking, kidnapping, money laundering, extortion, agricultural/mineral/oil theft, piracy, and even gruesome, medieval-like crimes such as "body parts harvesting." Looking through the sole lens of drug trafficking minimizes the bigger picture.

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Cortez city officials are looking for community members interested in the medical marijuana issue to serve on an ad-hoc advisory committee assembling to explore potential regulations of the industry and their impacts on the community.

City Manager Jay Harrington said the committee will advise the city council on what to do with medical marijuana policy. The group could make a wide range of recommendations - from only allowing existing medical marijuana centers to operate, to a licensing system similar to liquor sale, to an all-out ban on centers within the city limits.

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Dear Editor:

As a retired detective I thank you for the excellent op-ed on drug prohibition/war on drugs ("Who thinks Aspen's just like Pakistan? The DEA, of course," Andy Stone, June 8, 2011, The Aspen Times).

Yes, the DEA is mostly concerned about losing their paycheck. They know better than anyone that police efforts are equal to a mosquito on the butt of an elephant.

Most street cops privately agree that we should treat marijuana like beer. Their command officers, however, know that without prohibition, our profession will lose about $12 billion in good overtime and job security. Thus, they blackmail politicians to keep the money rolling in by threatening them with loss of political support.

It is a sad picture indeed.

Howard Wooldridge

Golden

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Dear Editor:

I would like to congratulate Aspen law enforcement for having the courage to boldly look the other way as a declared noncombatant in the war on drugs. In fact, I think the taxpayers of Pitkin County would support extending the intractable logic of their position on drug enforcement to other areas of the law. Say, for instance, if a local bank is robbed I am sure local law enforcement would pull out all the stops and canvas the bank for clues, actively pursue the perpetrators and even scour the county and beyond in search of clues, participants, aiders and abettors. But why?

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Dear Editor:

Regarding Andy Stone's June 8 column ("Who thinks Aspen's just like Pakistan? The DEA, of course"), I'm not surprised to read that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration treats Aspen like Pakistan.

There is a major drug war schism underway, with enlightened states like Colorado pursuing reform and a federal government stuck in the past. Don't look to the Obama administration for change. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy immediately rejected the high-profile Global Commission on Drug Policy call for reform and defended the "balanced drug control efforts" of the federal government. These "balanced" efforts have given the land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world.

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(Re: "Seed-to-sale surveillance," cover story, June 2.) Hopefully, everyone who saw the barcode on the picture of a cannabis leaf on the front of the Boulder Weekly realized that something has gone terribly wrong in Colorado. The purpose of Colorado's medical marijuana amendment was to allow sick and dying people the opportunity to use cannabis without fear of law enforcement reprisal. However, it seems the opposite is becoming true, and patients have become targets for barcodes tracked by law enforcement.

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Regarding Bryce Crawford's June 2 CannaBiz column ("Keef crumbs"), not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences.

Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

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The separation of bank and dank is now complete.

Alpine Bank's lawsuit against Alpine Dank and its founder was quietly dismissed last month in the U.S. District Court of Denver. The dismissal comes after the Glenwood Springs-based bank, which has locations throughout the Western Slope, sued Alpine Dank and Jeffrey Lessard for trademark violation and other federal claims, alleging the marijuana dispensary had created confusion in the marketplace.

"I think they just recognized it was futile to try and do anything against a registered trademark," said Bob Young, chairman of Alpine Banks, on Wednesday. "We didn't want to be identified closely with a medical-marijuana shop and they [Alpine Dank and Lessard] didn't feel like pursuing it and elected to go another way."

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Because We Care

In an e-mail titled "The End of Caregivers?" advocacy organization Sensible Colorado warned of an upcoming meeting by the Colorado Board of Health wherein "sweeping rules" regarding the relationship between a caregiver and their patient could be passed.

So, what's the deal?

"What's new about these rules, is [there are] more of the details," says outreach director Josh Kappel, adding that the organization's main worry is a broad requirement that caregivers have "significant responsibility" over their patients.

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ASPEN -- Acting on advice from their attorney, who said adopting medical marijuana regulations would put county employees in the position of abetting the violation of federal drug laws, Pitkin County commissioners voted 4-0 Wednesday to reject the proposed rules.

With that action, the county will have no zoning regulations specifically aimed at the medical marijuana industry, including grow sites, dispensaries and manufacturing facilities for pot-infused products. The omission left Commissioner George Newman puzzled.

"You know, we don't have zoning regulations for a variety of different illegal activities," Ely assured him.

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WHO THINKS ASPEN'S JUST LIKE PAKISTAN? THE DEA, OF COURSE

So the DEA has come and gone - parachuting in, zapping the bad guys and flying away again.

And, in the process (as a cheerfully cynical friend pointed out), U.S. government agents treated local law enforcement the same way they treated the government of Pakistan when they went in and nailed Osama bin Laden: not evil enough to be shot, but not reliable enough to be trusted.

And there is, of course, no worse insult than to be considered untrustworthy by an undercover drug agent.

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I am the face of cancer; I have been fighting this battle for the last two years.

In that time, I have had seven surgeries, and I'm now undergoing six rounds of chemotherapy. I have been prescribed numerous costly pain and nausea medications. Many of those drugs have very unpleasant side effects.

In my journey for relief, I made the conscious decision to try medical marijuana. I contacted a caregiver and applied for a legal license, which I was granted due to my cancer diagnosis.

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Public Hearing Scheduled for June 21

For decades, Telluride has had a liquor licensing authority to regulate the sales of booze in town. Now, it appears it will create a similar authority for the regulation of medical marijuana.

The Telluride Town Counsil gave preliminary approval this week to an ordinance that would create a licensing authority as well as tweak some of the town's existing medical marijuana regulations.

Council gave unanimous approval to the ordinance on Tuesday. A final reading and public hearing is scheduled for June 21.

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ASPEN -- Limiting the cultivation of medical marijuana in Pitkin County to a level that essentially fulfills local needs is among the proposed regulations that will get an initial review this week.

Local governments in Colorado have until July 1 to establish their own regulations and licensing procedures for the medical marijuana industry, or to prohibit such facilities altogether; in jurisdictions that take no action, state standards will apply.

In Pitkin County, the drafting of regulations has been a work in progress since last September, when county commissioners advised staffers to take a light-handed approach to governing the industry and to talk with neighborhood caucuses about what they'd like to see. The resulting proposals will go to the county's Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday and county commissioners on Wednesday.

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Amid federal uncertainty over the medical marijuana industry, Gov. John Hickenlooper's somewhat quiet signing of additional regulations Thursday signified a friendly smoke signal for local business owners.

"We're excited Colorado is continuing forward to help legitimize the industry," Tanya Garduno, president of the Colorado Springs Medical Cannabis Council, said Friday. "Everyone's been afraid with the federal warnings, so Colorado making sure there are unambiguous questions about our laws gives us a little more of a sure feeling."

Among other provisions, House Bill 1043 extends the moratorium on new businesses for another year, until July 1, 2012. The ban took effect July 1, 2010, in order for the state's Department of Revenue to create rules based on legislation that was passed last year and get a handle on what had become an explosion of businesses entering the market.

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Rob Corry, one of Colorado's most prominent medical marijuana attorneys, says the new regulatory system that goes into effect on July 1 holds some inherent advantages for "edibles," or marijuana-infused products.

After all, it's not just about the brownies any more. One can now easily find marijuana-infused lollipops, chews, drinks, pills -- even medicated olive oils and balms.

Corry says there was an intentional effort in the 2010 legislation HB 1284 to give edibles an advantage over marijuana that is smoked or vaporized, in part because of a perception that it is safer for patients.

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Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Deal With Bushels of New State Regulations

The medical marijuana game is about to get some new rules that will make it a lot harder to play in the state of Colorado.

On July 1, 77 pages of regulations from the state's Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division (MMED) will go into effect, stipulating in excruciating detail everything from the type of locks to be installed on dispensaries' doors to the kind of cable used for their video monitoring equipment. The regulations come on top of -- and as a result of -- a series of bills that have been passed in the state legislature over the past 18 months designed to both crack down on the industry and take advantage of its tax revenue potential.

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Tanya Garduno first heard about the street-side sign spinners directing people to Tree of Life Wellness Center (559 S. Eighth St., 227-8733) some two weeks ago. Owners from Denver had just purchased the center and were advertising the change; this didn't go over so well with the president of the Colorado Springs Medical Cannabis Council.

"We started receiving some complaints about the sign flyers because, as you know in Colorado Springs, we work very hard to not have that type of image," Garduno says. "We told them that we were receiving complaints, and we asked them if they would stop."

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Dear Editor:

Etna Taucher has apparently forgotten that medical marijuana is now legal in Colorado ("Please, DEA, keep fighting war on drugs," letters, May 30, 2011, The Aspen Times). Evidently the will of the voters is meaningless to her. Another point of ignorance on her part is the fact that marijuana prohibition is based on absurd racist lies.

"Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men-s shadows and look at a white woman twice." - Hearst newspapers nationwide, 1934

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