POT AMENDMENT HEADED TO COURT

Proponents Want Wording Changed In Voter Guide

DENVER - Amendment 44 would make it legal to give up to one ounce of
marijuana to anyone ages 15 through 20, as long as no money changes
hands, according to a ballot-information booklet the Legislature has
prepared for Colorado voters.

"This was not our intention," Amendment 44 proponent Mason Tvert told
the Legislative Council last week.

It's also untrue, Tvert said Monday, because anyone giving marijuana
to anyone younger than 18 could still be charged with contributing to
the delinquency of a minor.

Tvert, a spokesman for Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation,
announced Monday that SAFER intends to go to court to try to postpone
production of the voters' guide because its analysis of Amendment 44
is inaccurate.

The measure seeks to make it legal under state drug laws for anyone
age 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana. Under
Colorado law, anyone caught possessing an ounce or less of marijuana
can be charged with a Class 2 petty offense, punishable by a fine of
up to $100.

However, the Legislature's staff has told lawmakers that Amendment 44
would also void a prohibition that also makes it a "possession"
offense to transfer up to one ounce to another person.

That's a petty offense now, also punishable by a $100 fine, as long
as there is no payment or other compensation for that marijuana transfer.

"This initiative was only intended to address the possession of
marijuana by adults," Tvert told state lawmakers on the Legislative
Council last week.

"We do not believe that the use or possession of marijuana by minors,
especially by individuals under the age of 18, should be legal,"
Tvert said at a Thursday hearing on language that legislative
staffers had drafted for the Amendment 44 section of the voters'
guide.

Tvert said SAFER would propose that next year's Legislature adopt a
bill "to cure this matter" if voters approve Amendment 44 in November.

Tvert said last week that SAFER is asking lawmakers to make it a $100
fine for the non-compensated transfer of less than an ounce of
marijuana to 18- 19- or 20-year-olds, and a $200 fine to give
marijuana to 15-, 16- or 17-year-olds.

Tvert and Steve Fox, an attorney for SAFER, were unable last week to
get the Legislative Council to remove the voters' guide statement
that under Amendment 44, the types of "possession" the measure would
legalize for adults 21 and older would "include transferring up to
one ounce of marijuana to another individual 15 years of age or
older, as long as there is no compensation."

Tvert and Fox say Amendment 44 would not change current law's
definition of possession.

But Robert McGuire, an attorney for Guarding Our Children Against
Marijuana, said adoption of Amendment 44 would amount to "legalizing
a favorite marketing tactic" of drug dealers, "giving away free samples."

House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, told Tvert that "it's not
our responsibility to fix your poorly worded amendment."

Tvert said Monday that initiative proponents discovered after last
week's Legislative Council meeting that another section of Colorado
law makes it a Class 4 felony -- punishable by up to six years in
prison and a fine of up to $500,000 -- to aid or encourage a child
younger than 18 to violate any federal or state law.

At the very least, Tvert suggested, the voters' guide language should
be rewritten to say that Amendment 44 would make it legal to
transfer, without compensation, small amounts of marijuana to
individuals "18 years of age or older," Tvert said Monday.

Giving any amount of marijuana to an individual younger than 15 is
now -- and, under Amendment 44, would continue to be -- a Class 4
felony crime.

Tvert noted that the measure also would keep it a petty offense,
punishable by a fine of up to $100, for anyone younger than 21 to
possess marijuana, if Amendment 44 passes.