November 16, 2012 07:11 PM UTC

Officials Statewide Follow Stan Garnett's Lead on Amendment 64

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• by: ColoRabble

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

(Disclosure: I was a proponent of Amendment 64.)

As reported here on Pols yesterday, Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett announced that his office will be the first to begin conforming to Amendment 64 by dismissing cases of adult marijuana possession. Since then, prosecutors and police in Denver, Mesa, and La Plata counties have indicated they will be following his lead.

The Denver paper reports this morning that Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey’s office will no longer charge adults 21 and older for private marijuana possession, and it is reviewing pending cases to determine whether they fall under the law.

In Grand Junction, KREX CBS 5 reported last evening that Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger’s office will begin taking Amendment 64 into consideration police will no longer be citing adults for possession:

The Grand Junction Police Department recently stated: “Although the final certification of the election results have not yet occurred, effective immediately it is the policy of the GJPD not to cite persons age 21 or older that possess and/or consume marijuana, 1 ounce or less of marijuana, and/or cultivate and possess six or less plants as allowed by the amendment.”

And in Durango, the Horse Gulch Blog reported last evening, that La Plata County District Attorney Todd Risberg’s office is also going to take action to follow the initiative:

“Realistically, even if we proceed those cases to be able to seat a jury who says we think this should be against the law at this point, you know we don’t have a reasonable likelihood of success, and we ethically shouldn’t prosecute those cases,” said Risberg [Emphasis added]. “Any new cases coming in, they wouldn’t get to even a hearing before the law is in effect and they wouldn’t be illegal then, so there’s no point in that.”