Colorado initiative would remove any fines and sentences for cannabis possession in Colorado

While Coloradans did legalize limited amounts of pot for adults 21 and up in 2012, we didn’t make all cannabis possession legal and, in fact, you can still be fined and even arrested for having more than one ounce on you at any given time.

One Colorado activist is trying to change that with a ballot initiative that would remove pot penalties from the books. Proposed ballot initiative #3 would eradicate all fines and sentences for the possession of cannabis, and guaranteeing that in the Colorado Constitution.

But its proponents have just one more week to collect the required signatures, and efforts are lagging.

Here’s the wording of Initiative #3:

Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution prohibiting courts from imposing any fine or sentence for the possession of cannabis?

If that sounds familiar, it’s because proponent Michelle LaMay used the same language in 2012, when she attempted to put the proposal on the ballot the first time.
Possession of under an ounce of marijuana is legal in Colorado today. But LeMay argues that Colorado should get rid of all fines and sentences for cannabis possession “because the people find that the punishment is inconsistent with the damage possessing cannabis imposes on the people of Colorado” and the punishment “exceeds the fiscal and social costs that possessing cannabis imposes on the people of Colorado.”

In fact, LeMay believes the amendment could have a positive financial impact. “This would greatly reduce the cost to taxpayers for conviction and enforcement,” she says.

Read the rest over at the Denver Westword.

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Colorado initiative would remove any fines and sentences for cannabis possession in Colorado