December 09, 2012 06:13 AM UTC

Polis Busts Bruce Benson on Amendment 64: "No Basis In Fact"

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• by: Colorado Pols

Quite the Saturday dust-up in Boulder, beginning with this message from University of Colorado President (and longtime Colorado Republican kingpin) Bruce Benson to all staff and students:

When Colorado voters in November passed Amendment 64, which legalized small amounts of marijuana for personal use, it led to a number of questions. Most uncertainty surrounds the conflict between the new state law and federal law, under which marijuana remains illegal. Amendment 64 will be signed into law in January and take effect in January 2014.

But for the University of Colorado, the issue is clear. Marijuana threatens to cost the university nearly a billion dollars annually in federal revenue, money we can ill afford to lose.

I was personally opposed to Amendment 64 and worked on my own time to defeat it. But it passed and CU, like many entities, is working to determine the implications.

The glaring practical problem is that we stand to lose significant federal funding…

Rep. Jared Polis, whose district includes the Boulder campus, calls BS on Benson shortly after:

“The University of Colorado is not in jeopardy of losing a single dime of federal funding due to Amendment 64. President Benson has allowed his personal opposition to Amendment 64 to compromise his responsibility to the university by spreading an alarmist claim that has no basis in fact.

“The legality of marijuana in Colorado tomorrow will not impact CU any more than the legality of alcohol does today. The federal Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act requires universities to adopt and implement drug prevention programs to prevent the unlawful possession, use, or distribution of illicit drugs or alcohol by students and employees on school premises or as part of any of its activities. The University’s alcohol and drug policy bans the use of alcohol and marijuana on campus [Pols emphasis] and satisfies the federal requirement.

“I will not stand by and allow the reputation of the University of Colorado to be sullied by the non-existent threat of losing one billion dollars. As the federal representative the University of Colorado at Boulder, I want to reassure parents, students, and faculty that CU is not in danger of losing any federal funding due to Amendment 64. I call upon President Benson to immediately retract his message and clarify that the University is not in danger of losing any federal funds due to the passage of Amendment 64.”

To be fair, Benson does say in his letter that the university is required to comply with federal Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, but he leaves out something obvious: the school is already in compliance with this law. That means CU risks no loss of federal funding due to the passage of Amendment 64. Most likely, this is something Benson used while campaigning against Amendment 64 that was never actually true, and nobody ever corrected him.

It reminds us of the lobbyists who darkly warned 2006’s Amendment 41 would prevent any state employee’s child from ever accepting a scholarship, when as it turned out, it was actually just about those free Rockies club seats and lunches at The Palm. The point is that sometimes losers get kind of Chicken Little about the consequences of their loss, only to belatedly concede the sky did not fall. It doesn’t help them in the long run with credibility, but it’s cathartic at the time.

Well, despite the irresponsible speculation of CU’s President, Rep. Polis wants you to know that legalized weed is not going to bankrupt Colorado’s flagship university.

Which just happens to be Princeton Review’s “top school to smoke marijuana” anyway.