September 24, 2012 10:11 PM UTC

Tanc in the Tank for Amendment 64

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• by: ProgressiveCowgirl

Tom Tancredo, that unlikeliest of progressive allies, has reiterated his opposition to marijuana prohibition (first announced, if I recall correctly, in a Denver newspaper editorial) and officially endorsed Amendment 64. His endorsement appeared originally in the Colorado Springs Gazette on September 21st, 2012, and has been preserved for posterity on the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol website. An excerpt:

I am endorsing Amendment 64 not despite my conservative beliefs, but because of them.

Throughout my career in public policy and in public office, I have fought to reform or eliminate wasteful and ineffective government programs. There is no government program or policy I can think of that has failed in such a unique way as marijuana prohibition.

Our nation is spending tens of billions of dollars annually in an attempt to prohibit adults from using a substance objectively less harmful than alcohol.

Yet marijuana is still widely available in our society. We are not preventing its use; we are merely ensuring that all of the profits from the sale of marijuana (outside the medical marijuana system) flow to the criminal underground.

Regardless of what ultimately happens on the federal level, we have an opportunity to stop pouring money into a failed system in Colorado. According to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, we current spend anywhere from $25 to $40 million dollars per year arresting, citing, processing, and prosecuting marijuana offenders throughout the state. A recent report from the Colorado Center on Law and Policy found that savings achieved through eliminating these law enforcement costs, combined with increased tax revenues generated from the legal production and sale of marijuana, would net the state $60 million in the first year alone.

Curiously, this endorsement puts Tancredo somewhere to the left of Governor Hickenlooper, who is still frequently described as a Democrat.