OFFICIALS, PRO-44 LOBBYISTS CLASH

DENVER -- Supporters of Amendment 44 outnumbered the state and local
law enforcement officials who gathered Friday on the state Capitol
steps to detail their opposition to that marijuana-legalization initiative.

"This is a sad day for Colorado," Gov. Bill Owens said after the
pro-44 demonstrators heckled and chanted during the anti-44 news conference.

Owens, one of the featured speakers at the news conference, complained
he'd never before seen a news conference where a legitimate debate by
organizers was "shouted down."

Owens ignored a challenge from Amendment 44 proponent Mason Tvert to
debate the initiative, which asks voters to make it legal under state
law for anyone age 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.

In the news conference sponsored by Save Our Society from Drugs, one
of the groups campaigning against Amendment 44, Owens and Colorado
Attorney General John Suthers were joined by about a dozen law
enforcement officers, including Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle and
Weld County Sheriff John Cooke.

But more than four dozen marijuana-legalization supporters showed up,
many of them wearing green "Yes on 44" shirts and carrying signs
directed at the anti-44 law officers that said, "Protect the People,
Not Your Jobs." Demonstrators aligned with SAFER, the group supporting
Amendment 44 that contends marijuana offers a safer alternative to
alcohol, jeered when Suthers said: "There is nothing safe about marijuana."

Accompanying Tvert and the SAFER protestors was Norm Stamper, a
34-year law enforcement veteran who was a San Diego police officer
before serving as Seattle's police chief from 1994 to 2000.

Stamper said in an interview that drug prohibitions have led to more
death, disease and crime than would have been the case under a system
of taxation, regulation and control of drugs like marijuana.

Marijuana laws now "are not working and need to change," Tvert
said.

But Owens, Suthers and law enforcement officials at the news
conference offered a laundry list of reasons against the measure.

"We are also concerned that legalizing marijuana will cause a spike in
impaired-driving fatalities and injuries caused by more motorists
driving impaired on marijuana," said Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener,
president of County Sheriffs of Colorado.

"The reality also exists that it is more difficult for law enforcement
to detect impairment caused by marijuana and other drugs as compared
to alcohol," Wegener said.