Too many people are smoking pot legally in Colorado, and Tea Party darling Bob Beauprez wants to put a stop to it if he’s voted into office. (I had previously speculated on Beauprez’s views in an earlier article, and it appear I was on the mark!) Although it’s not clear how Beauprez would try to circumvent the state constitutional amendment that legalized marijuana for recreational use, he has let voters know in no uncertain terms that repeal is on his agenda.
First of all, Beauprez complained too many people were using medical for medicinal purposes. On the subject of medical marijuana, Beauprez said the following during a recent debate. :
“Well, I think anybody who’s just a little bit objective about this understands that it’s being abused right now. It’s being abused intentionally, and it’s being abused at the risk of a whole lot of people in our society. That’s the challenge in front of us. And we’ve now got it in our law, whether we like it or not — and I didn’t like it, for the record.
“But it is the law, and I’ll take an oath to uphold the law and enforce the law, but what we have to do is regulate it as tightly as we can within the law and the understanding of the law. We had a medical marijuana first and now we’ve got Amendment 64 that says it’s supposed to be recreational, but that it’s not supposed to be used in public, but yet we see it used all around town, including out in front of the governor’s office in Civic square park in public.
The Cannabist, a project by the Denver Post that covers news for Colorado’s marijuana industry, also caught Beauprez admitting his feelings are quite sour on the marijuana industry at a later debate last week.
When asked, “Should we repeal the law allowing legal sales of recreational marijuana?”
“Yes, I think we’re at that point,” Beauprez said, “where the consequences that we’ve already discovered from this may be far greater than the liberty, I guess, that the citizens thought they were embracing.”
As for the revenue the state has made this year, Beauprez has yet to acknowledge that financial benefits exist. It doesn’t appear he is prepared for the reality of the marijuana business community that is likely to put big bucks in to fight repeal tooth and nail. While he’s campaigning, the marijuana industry continues to adapt it its explosive growth, carving out more revenue from business partnerships and ventures.
In fact, Beauprez has all but ignored the multi-million dollar marijuana industry in his state, and has not mentioned the millions of dollars that legalization has added to the state coffers via taxation. Since Jan. 1, Colorado has brought in more than $37.5 million in taxes, licenses and fees for recreational and medical marijuana, and in July 2014, customers purchased more than $29.7 million in recreational marijuana — up from $24.7 million in June.
If he ignores it all, maybe it will go away?
They don’t exist, how could they? I mean everyone knows that selling something like this is not profitable in any way shape or form, right? The dude really needs to open his eyes and get out of the old mindset here.
Money is all people seem to care about and I already know that the marijuana business is going to be very profitable. Yes, people may “abuse” marijuana, but there are far more important things to worry about.