Amendment 64 approved: Mason Tvert celebrates, John Hickenlooper talks Cheetos
Moments ago, 9News projected that Amendment 64, the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act had won approval from a majority of Colorado voters.
Proponent Mason Tvert, speaking amid a boisterous celebration at the measure's victory party, puts the historic achievement in perspective.
"This shows that Coloradans are ready to move beyond marijuana prohibition," he says. "They demonstrated it tonight by approving Amendment 64.
"Eighty years ago, Colorado voters approved a repeal of alcohol prohibition, demonstrating a desire to take a more sensible approach to how we treat alcohol," he continues. "It doesn't come as a surprise that they're now taking sensible steps when it comes to the way we treat marijuana."
Mason Tvert.
Some observers were predicting that the vote on the proposal would be so close that a winner might not be announced until the wee hours of tomorrow morning. However, Tvert says he isn't surprised that a call was made well before 10 p.m.
"It really jibes with the numbers we've seen for the last eighteen months or two years," he notes. "Those numbers show that the majority of Coloradans want to regulate marijuana like alcohol, and they demonstrated that with their votes tonight."
Implementing Amendment 64 will be a challenge, given that Colorado's law, as altered by the act, will directly contradict with federal policy, which continues to treat marijuana as illegal. However, he says, "we look forward to discussions with state and federal officials. We're looking forward to working with them -- and looking forward to seeing that marijuana is regulated and treated in a sensible fashion."
Update: Just received a statement from Smart Colorado, the No on 64 campaign, about the passage of Amendment 64. Campaign director Roger Sherman writes:
We knew all along this was an uphill battle against a well-funded national movement.Continue to read statements about Amendment 64's passage from Governor John Hickenlooper and U.S. Attorney John Walsh.
We appreciate the efforts of Governor John Hickenlooper, former Governors Bill Owens and Bill Ritter, Attorney General John Suthers, Mayors Michael Hancock and Steve Hogan and countless other sheriffs, county commissioners, district attorneys and local elected officials who joined with the business community and citizens of Colorado to oppose this ill-conceived amendment.
We can only hope that our concerns and fears about amending the Constitution to make Colorado the first state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana do not come true.
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