July 08, 2011 10:06 PM UTC

Not Your Dad's Hippie Marijuana Legalization Campaign

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

As the AP’s Kristen Wyatt reports:

A campaign to legalize small amounts of marijuana for adult recreational use in Colorado is aimed at middle-aged, budget-conscious voters – not the pot smokers typically associated with such efforts…

The representatives of the “Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol” wore suits and stood on a public lawn before the state Capitol and made their case that marijuana legalization would raise needed tax revenues and save money spent on arresting and prosecuting small-time pot users.

Again and again, they talked about how they would aim to limit the legalization effort – only for adults and only in small quantities…

Mason Tvert said the campaign wants to appeal to Republicans and older voters, not just young people who typically turn up at smoke-filled pot rallies. A 2006 measure to legalize marijuana in Colorado was soundly defeated, as was a legalization measure last year in California.

“We think this is going to appeal to a lot more people,” Tvert said.

For one thing, our use of the term “legalization” runs counter to the message of this campaign–they are working hard to frame the discussion in terms of “ending prohibition,” hoping (smartly in our opinion) to conjure up images of G-men dumping casks of booze in the gutter and other images of the failed Prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s. And of course, most of the hippie kids who were previously targeted as potential legalization voters had never heard of Prohibition.

It’s always been our opinion that dispassionate fiscal arguments–both the tax revenue that could be raised from marijuana, as well as reduced costs of processing marijuana offenders through the criminal justice system–were much more effective than silly comparisons between the “dangers” of pot versus alcohol or nonprescription medications. Even if the argument had merit, that conversation, which formed the basis of the failed 2006 campaign, began at a huge disadvantage with, say, people who neither smoke pot nor drink alcohol.

If you want pot made legal, and you intend for more than the potsmokers themselves to actually turn out and vote for legalization, you’ve got to show the sober voters what’s in it for them. If that’s what the pro-pot crowd intends to do this time, they might indeed have more success.