BOULDER DEMOCRAT POLIS PLANS TO PUSH DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA AT FEDERAL LEVEL

If Colorado was allowed to treat marijuana like alcohol - or any
other medicine, for that matter - pot dispensaries could freely set
up business bank accounts without fear of federal prosecution and
marijuana could, like corn and wheat, be grown openly in national forests.

This is according to U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Boulder Democrat, who
said he plans to push a law in the new Congress that would
decriminalize marijuana at the federal level so that states with
medicinal laws on the books, like Colorado, could treat it as they wish.

Under Polis' structure, marijuana laws would be extremely local -
similar to states that have so-called dry, alcohol-free counties.

"It's not in the federal government's realm," Polis said. "I'm proud
of Colorado being a pioneer in this regard and setting up a
regulatory structure. We've benefited in tax revenues and I think
it's dealt a big blow to criminalize it."

The Obama administration has urged federal prosecutors' tolerance in
prosecuting pot possession in the more than a dozen states that have
medical-marijuana laws on the books.

But Polis continues to push full decriminalization in case future
administrations - and federal Drug Enforcement Agency chiefs - may
not be so friendly.

He also believes that a law protecting states means banks would be
more comfortable setting up interstate accounts with pot dispensaries.

In August, Wells Fargo & Co. said it was going to stop handling
marijuana-dispensary accounts because of federal laws.

Though other banks will take the accounts, Polis wants dispensaries
to have a choice.

Polis has supporters in the libertarian movement, who believe that
legalizing marijuana would be kind to already-clogged courts and,
perhaps, cause less havoc because people "are a lot less danger to
themselves and society when they are smoking marijuana than when they
drink too much alcohol," said David Kopel, an adjunct law professor
at the University of Denver.

"Marijuana was legal from the time when the pilgrims showed up
through the 1930s, and the country grew from humble beginnings to a
world superpower with legal marijuana," Kopel said. "I think it's a
waste of criminal justice resources," to prosecute pot cases.

But former U.S. Attorney Troy Eid has a different opinion. He is not
in favor of full decriminiliazation but respects voters' approval of
a medical-marijuana laws. He wants to see it put through a clinical
trial like other drugs.

"With all due respect, we just don't know the pros and cons of
marijuana as medicine from a scientific perspective," said Eid, now a
private attorney. "It's very important we have a dispassionate
conversation about this. Voters have said they want medicine. We
should treat it like medicine."

Polis plans to push his proposed law in Washington early this year,
though its prospects in a Republican-controlled House appear to be dim.

Plans are underway to get a pot legalization ballot measure on
Colorado's 2012 ballot (a similar measure failed in 2006).

"Every state should be able to take this issue on its own," said
Mason Tvert, executive director of SAFER Alternative for Enjoyable
Recreation, which is working on fundraising for the ballot measure.

Tvert said the rumored help from Democratic billionaire George Soros
was not true, but "if whoever is saying that wants to put us in
touch, that would be wonderful."