Whoa super intense!! Looking forward to more updates!!

Hi Michelle,

First and foremost, it was great seeing you at the tea last week. It’s been a while since we last saw one another.

I just wanted to reply to your e-mail quickly with a couple important comments and corrections. I apologize for the lengthiness of my response, but as you seem to agree, this is a very important issue. Thus I feel it is very important to have an in-depth discussion about it.

1) At 18 you can kill for your country; vote; and are emancipated. I believe an 18 year-old must take responsibility for their own mental and physical health.

This is absolutely right on and I agree completely, hence my very public support for lowering the drinking age to 18 (an effort that has picked up quite a bit in the past few years). I have no doubt that most in the reform community would also agree. That said — and I’ll get into this further down — there are several very critical reasons why 21 is used as the age when it comes to ballot measures and other reform efforts.

2) These registered voters would be eliminated during the petition process on every campus in Colorado: not only eliminating legal signature drives but the petition drive would suffer the real loss of the enthusiasm and support of Colorado’s young student activists volunteers to get an initiative on the ballot.

This is absolutely not the case. Whether the proposed age limit is 18 or 21, EVERY registered voter, whether they’re 18-20, 21, or older is able to sign a ballot initiative petition. In fact, history has shown that the 18-20 age group is most excited to sign, regardless of whether the initiative is specific to 21 and older (as it was here in CO in 2006, during which time we had massive support from 18-20 year olds). Spreading the message that any group of registered voters cannot sign a petition is very problematic and counterproductive, so I hope this is something that could be corrected or at least no longer spread to the potential universe of petition signers.

3) To eliminate this age group would create a special class of criminals whose only crime is choosing marijuana, hopefully over alcohol, and thus to be discriminated against for being the wrong age.

Actually, it wouldn’t create any new or special class of criminals, as it is already a crime for 18-20-year-olds to possess and use marijuana. However, it will remove everyone 21 and older from the special class of criminals that stems from marijuana prohibition. Moreover, it is highly likely that once marijuana is legal for adults, infractions by those 18-20 will no longer result in such harsh punishments and will instead be similar to the slap on the wrist issued for drinking underage.

4) If the intent of any ballot initiative is to change Article XVIII of the Colorado Constitution from 18 to the age of 21 to gain protection from prosecution of possession of medical marijuana, it is a step BACKWARDS and this age group will not forget, can and will organize to defeat any initiative put forth that would eliminate them and criminalize them in particular.

I cannot speak for anyone else, but our current 2012 initiative coalition will not be addressing or amending Article XVIII (or were you referring to Amendment XX, regarding medical marijuana?). Either way, the proposed initiative will not have ANY effect on Amendment 20 or medical marijuana laws and protections, including anything that pertains to 18-20-year-olds.

Just to be clear, the initiative we are proposing (and hope you will support) does NOT lock in a 21 age limit forever. The legal age could be lowered by the legislature or a ballot initiative in the future, once the system is in place and people are comfortable with it. The fact remains, however, that any initiative that sets 18 as the age limit will be destroyed on Election Day. It will without a doubt result in less than 30% in support, as opposed to 50+% who currently support a limit of 21. If we truly want to protect 18-20-year-olds, we should be taking the steps necessary to reduce the harm done to them both now and in the future. Killing an initiative will simply result in those 18-20-year-olds continuing to face harsher punishments than if a measure passes. And it will result in them getting busted once they turn 21, not to mention their family members, friends, etc. continuing to get busted. If we want to ever see an age limit of 18, we must first end prohibition for those 21 and older. Otherwise, it will be another 25+ years (if ever) until we see any changes.

Again, I completely hear you on this issue, and if it were at all possible, I’d absolutely love to set the limit at 18. But doing so will simply result in marijuana prohibition continuing for everyone for a very long time.

Thank you for bringing up this important subject. It is one worthy of discussion, and it’s my sincere hope that we can have this discussion openly amongst the community so that other reform supporters develop an understanding of the proposed 21 age limit and how it is the quickest way to reach our shared goal of broader freedom for all adults, 18 and older.

Please do not hesitate to drop me a line if you’d ever like to talk about this or any other issue. You can reach me any time at the number below.

All my best,

Mason

Mason Tvert
Executive Director
SAFER Voter Education Fund
P.O. Box 40332, Denver, CO 80204
phone: 303-861-0033 ⎮ fax: 303-861-0915
mason@saferchoice.org ⎮ http://www.saferchoice.org

On May 9, 2011, at 5:48 PM, Cannabis University wrote:

Dear fellow marijuana activists:
I personally have made the decision to be a voice for 18, 19 and 20 year-old voters/marijuana users in upcoming discussions about ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana in 2012, of which there already several camps, because:
1) At 18 you can kill for your country; vote; and are emancipated. I believe an 18 year-old must take responsibility for their own mental and physical health.
2) These registered voters would be eliminated during the petition process on every campus in Colorado: not only eliminating legal signature drives but the petition drive would suffer the real loss of the enthusiasm and support of Colorado’s young student activists volunteers to get an initiative on the ballot.
3) To eliminate this age group would create a special class of criminals whose only crime is choosing marijuana, hopefully over alcohol, and thus to be discriminated against for being the wrong age.
4) If the intent of any ballot initiative is to change Article XVIII of the Colorado Constitution from 18 to the age of 21 to gain protection from prosecution of possession of medical marijuana, it is a step BACKWARDS and this age group will not forget, can and will organize to defeat any initiative put forth that would eliminate them and criminalize them in particular.
I insist that the age for possession of all quantities of cannabis be 18. 303-886-7998

@Mason–WOW! after talking to you this weekend and then jumping online now to read your responses–all I can say is that you are full of BS—legalize 2012 will be posting your emails to prove you are full of SHIT—anyone that reads see’s whats going on here.

All Coloradans need to know is:

NOT ONE person got to review the out of state language on 8 initiatives BEFORE they were ‘quietly’ filed.

Your out of state funded language brings the DUI-M into the Colorado constitution–After citizens just spent 5 months fighting to kill it in the legislature and winning.

It’s no wonder NORML supported the 5 nano limit in the legislature–they needed it for your initiative language, which says “under the influence”.

I am sorry to say this and i am sure people will disagree but 18 years and over will not fly. And i am not willing to sacrifice my chance of finally getting legal for some 18 year old kid who like alcohol can just wait a few more years. We as a people are ok with 21 for alcohol, why not cannabis???

@Chippi – Gee your on another board publicly attacking people you disagree with. Really, this is getting old – you’ve been doing this for over a year now.

Please learn some civility, or leave.

wht are you doing for us kids.. who is look out for me and my under age mmj patients is this going to hurt us??

the real chaz moore aka bill smith

People forget that politics is about forming alliances, not in attacking your friends. Seems like both sides of this little flame war would have been well served to have remembered this. Nice to know our legalization efforts are in the hands of such amateurs.