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Second Regular Session

Sixty-first General Assembly

LLS NO. R98­0941.01 JGG

STATE OF COLORADO




BY REPRESENTATIVE Anderson;

also SENATOR Wells.

JUDICIARY

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 98-1042


WHEREAS, We the elected representatives of the citizens of the state of Colorado are committed to protecting the health and safety of our citizens, especially our children; and

WHEREAS, Our state is now under attack by groups of persons who are part of a well­organized and well­financed national movement to legalize marijuana, which groups are targeting Colorado by organizing an initiative campaign to place on the ballot for the next general election a measure to legalize marijuana in the Constitution of Colorado; and

WHEREAS, One initiative petition that is currently being circulated misleads the voters of Colorado to believe that there are medicinal uses for marijuana; however, the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, and other medical associations have rejected marijuana as a medicine; and

WHEREAS, Research demonstrates that marijuana actually harms the brain, heart, lungs, and immune system and that it impairs learning, memory, perception, judgment, and the ability to operate a motor vehicle; and

WHEREAS, Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law, indicating that it has a high potential for abuse and that it is recognized as a gateway substance of abuse that frequently leads to the abuse of other drugs, including cocaine, "crack" cocaine, methamphetamine ("speed"), and heroin; and

WHEREAS, There are safe, effective, legal, medical alternatives for those suffering with chronic pain and other medical problems; and

WHEREAS, The legalization of marijuana would decrease the perception of risk associated with the abuse of drugs, especially in the eyes of our youth; and

WHEREAS, The proportion of drug possession arrests attributable to juveniles has increased by three hundred twenty­seven percent in Colorado between the years 1991 and 1996; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Sixty­first General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the Senate concurring herein:

That the General Assembly hereby opposes any effort to mandate in the Constitution of Colorado that marijuana be described as medicine or that the possession and use of it be decriminalized for medicinal or any other purpose.

Be It Further Resolved, That any information provided to the general public that attempts to mislead the public into believing that marijuana has medicinal uses for which less harmful, legal, and medical substitutes could be utilized is hereby rejected.


Created: 4/16/98 Updated: 4/16/98