......for what it's worth:
FALTERING FLAME
Monday, Oct 17, 2012 the
Denver Post released the results of its latest survey of likely voters concerning
Amendment 64 (
regulatemarijuana.org): Support for the marijuana decriminalization initiative fell from 51 percent to 48 percent, with opposition rising from 40 to 43 percent.
"The most noticeable swing in the new poll, taken [last] Tuesday and Wednesday for the
Denver Post by SurveyUSA, came among women," wrote John Ingold. "The previous poll showed the measure succeeding with women 49 percent to 39 percent. The new poll, however, shows women opposed 48 percent to 40 percent.
"Men continue to support the measure, as do young voters and those ages 50 to 64. But a slender lead among voters ages 35 to 49 has turned into a 4-point deficit, while voters 65 and older disapprove of the measure by a wider margin."
Also on Monday, the campaign experienced a morale boost when the state's largest union, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7, endorsed the amendment.
In a statement, union president Kim Cordova says, "Removing marijuana from the underground market ... will create living-wage jobs and bolster our state and local economies with tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenue and savings."
Courting fire
The Washington, D.C.-based
Americans for Safe Access (
safeaccessnow.org) organization continued its efforts to compel the Obama administration to reclassify marijuana from its status as a Schedule I substance when its case began Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Three judges will determine a number of issues, reports the Associated Press, including whether ASA has experienced enough harm to have the legal standing to bring the lawsuit in the first place. If so, they will then look at the actions of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which took nine years to reject the original 2002 reclassification request.
Adding numbers
Taxes related to medical marijuana, collected by the city of Colorado Springs, continue to rise. Reflecting sales of some $4.5 million, the September report showed an all-time high of $112,132 deposited in government coffers, an increase of roughly $15,000 from a month earlier and $38,000-plus from the same time last year. Year to date, the city has brought in almost $700,000, already topping last year's total of $510,881.
Meanwhile, numbers from the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment show that the number of MMJ patients in El Paso County keeps creeping back upward. As of July 31, 13,721 people possessed a red card, an increase of 194 from the month before. The county hit its peak in July 2011, when 14,828 people were registered. Statewide, the number is 101,220.
