DENVER MAYOR, 4 COUNCIL MEMBERS ADMIT TO POT USE

DENVER (AP) -- Heading into a meeting to discuss whether marijuana
should be the lowest priority for police, Mayor John Hickenlooper and
four City Council told a newspaper they had smoked pot.

But the city leaders, who are debating whether to put the marijuana
initiative before the voters, said their experiences have nothing to
do with public policy.

The Denver Daily News surveyed the mayor and 13-member council on
marijuana use and published the results Monday. Six members refused
to answer. Three said no.

"I had a brownie once, there may have even been a bowl going with
it," Councilwoman Marcia Johnson told the newspaper. "I got a good
taste and even a case of the giggles, but I voted against (the
marijuana measure) because I'm thinking of the message to little children."

Hickenlooper had previously admitted smoking marijuana.

"As I've already been open about in the past -- and as I assume many
would expect -- I made personal choices when I was younger that I
neither support nor condone for others and certainly wouldn't
encourage through public policy," Hickenlooper said.

The other members who admitted to using marijuana were Rick Garcia,
Carla Madison and Jeanne Robb.

In 2005, Denver residents passed an initiative making possession of
small amounts of marijuana legal. Police said they would continue
prosecuting people under state law, which marijuana proponents tried
but failed to change through a vote last year.

Mason Tvert of Citizens for a Safer Denver, which is leading the
marijuana decriminalization effort, said the group has enough
petition signatures to place an initiative on the ballot that would
direct police to make marijuana their lowest priority.

Denver's charter requires the City Council to review initiative and
either enact it or send it to voters, mayor spokeswoman Lindy
Eichenbaum Lent said.

"Proceduraly they're bound (obligated) to do it," she said. "Sending
it to voters doesn't imply that they endorse it."