COLO. TOWN DEBATES ALL BUT IGNORING MARIJUANA LAW

Ballot Measure Would Assign Lowest Priority

TELLURIDE, Colo. -- Nestled in the San Juan Mountains, home to
moneyed hippies, artists, and nature buffs, Telluride is a
live-and-let-live kind of town.

A sign assures visitors that they are in a "civil liberties safe zone."

The 15-mph speed limit, which applies in most of the town, is largely
enforced by placing a police hat on the tip of a stick and perching
it in the driver's seat of a squad car.

In the center of town is the Freebox, a collection of wooden bins
where people swap bootleg concert tapes, alpine gear, and more,
regulated only by the principles of karma.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that although Telluride
cannot legalize marijuana, it may do the next closest thing:
officially declare possession of pot for personal use to be the
town's "lowest law enforcement priority."

In August, the Town Council voted 6 to 0 to put the issue on the Nov.
1 ballot. Residents will be asked whether to instruct town marshals,
the local law enforcement, to make the investigation, arrest, and
prosecution of marijuana possession their lowest priority. The
proposal applies only to the possession of an ounce or less of
marijuana by people 18 or older.

Several cities already have what proponents term sensible marijuana
ordinances, most notably Seattle, where voters in 2003 approved an
initiative to make the possession of small amounts of marijuana law
enforcement's lowest priority.

Still, Telluride's vote will be closely watched, specialists said,
because it is the first marijuana ballot proposal since the Supreme
Court ruled in June that the federal government could enforce its
zero-tolerance policy on marijuana, even in the 10 states that permit
its use for medical purposes. Colorado is among those states; the
others are Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada,
Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.

Allen F. St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the fact that the Supreme
Court did not strike down the state laws seemed to suggest "concern
by justices about thwarting local control, local values."

People who favor relaxing marijuana laws -- many of whom believe the
government wastes public resources by targeting low-level drug
offenders -- hope Telluride sets a national example, St. Pierre said.

"The great disconnect at the policy level is here in Washington,
D.C.," he said. "Congress is frozen in a sort of reefer madness that
states and localities are not."

But Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America
Foundation, said the agenda behind local initiatives "clearly is the
legalization of drugs."

"They have made it very clear that they are going to keep pushing,"
Fay said. Her argument has gained more traction here recently than it
might have a few years ago. A famously fun-loving town with a
year-round population of about 2,000 and an in-season population
close to 10,000, Telluride has become a ritzy resort in recent years
and is peppered with log cabin mansions and swanky restaurants that
require reservations, even if you can still wear flip-flops or the
T-shirt you hiked in all day.

But the town's newer arrivals have tempered its freewheeling ways.

"Telluride is really in transition," Chief Marshal Mary Heller said.

J. Michael Dorsey, who served in several high-profile federal
government posts before he retired, moved to town a year ago. He was
the assistant secretary for public and Indian housing during the
Reagan administration and sat on the national drug policy board, and
he has become a leading critic of the Telluride proposal.

Dorsey said the proposal was misguided, partly because voters should
not establish law enforcement priorities. He also objected to a
second portion of the initiative, which would declare that Telluride
would approve if Colorado decided to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana use.

That would "tell people in town that we think marijuana should be
legal, and it will tell people who visit that we think marijuana
should be legal," he said. "I think that's the wrong message to give
to families in town, and I think it's the wrong message to give to
families who are coming here."

To supporters, the proposal reflects the ethos here. Much of the town
seems to celebrate the fact that the word "high" can refer both to
its lung-clenching altitude -- it sits 8,750 feet above sea level --
and to the heady smoke that wafts intermittently through town.

One bustling restaurant is called Baked in Telluride; a popular
T-shirt reads, "Honey, I think the whole town is high."

"In Telluride, we tend to respect an adult's right to make decisions
for themselves, within reason," said resident Ernest Eich, 30, a
leading backer of the proposal. "I think this has a very good chance."

Eich said that with fewer marshals in town -- three of the
department's 10 positions are vacant -- those on patrol should pursue
crimes that people find more worrisome than marijuana possession.

Heller, the chief marshal, said the initiative wouldn't have much
practical impact. Marijuana possession, she said, typically is
charged only as a secondary offense, such as when an officer pulls
someone over on suspicion of drunken driving and happens to find a bag of pot.

Even then it is treated under Colorado law as a petty offense,
similar to a traffic citation.