Update: Holy shit, we did it. Colorado legalized marijuana. So did Washington, which is fairly amazing because, when I was in Seattle for Hempfest this summer, the division within the pot bloc was so intense people were expecting them to start shooting each other. But Colorado notched the historical milestone first and it was kumbaya as far as the eye could see at the official election party in Denver.
I went less as a journalist than as a guest, happy to see the topic I covered for nearly three years in Pot Inc. come to some sort of conclusion. The gang was all there: Lawyers Rob Corry, Warren Edson and Brian Vicente; SAFER director Mason Tvert; Marijuana Policy Project director Rob Kampia; Amendment 64 Advocacy Director Betty Aldworth; and even my buddy Ed Rosenthal, the Guru of Ganja, who’d flown in from California for the election. I wasn’t alone in maintaining a defensive pessimism about the outcome. Most of those I talked to were aware that the historical odds were not in favor of the amendment’s passage, even if the polls never showed anything but a lead since it qualified for the ballot. A barrage of last minute “no on 64” propaganda and some public in-fighting with a fringe group of hard-core MJ activists meant that there was no guarantee.
The exception was Rosenthal, a prolific cultivation writer and former High Times columnist who was busted by the DEA in 2002 for growing pot. His case dragged on for years as he appealed his conviction all the way up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in an effort to overturn the token one-day sentence he’d been given. If anyone had reason to be pessimistic, it was him, but he was elated. “I’ve been waiting for this day for 45 years,” he told me.
It was only then that I started to really think it could happen. The Guru of Ganja basically just predicted victory. It was infectious … everywhere I looked in the event hall, a rented nightclub decorated with balloons and conspicuous signs warning attendees not to smoke marijuana on the premises, people were picking up the vibe and getting a little giddy with anticipation.
Finally, just before 9 p.m., Betty Aldworth caught my eye as she waited to go live on Fox 31 … she was struggling so hard to contain her excitement and emotions that I thought she was going to blow an artery. I gave her a “what gives?” shrug and she motioned for me to come over. “The opposition is going to concede,” she said.
Then the wave crested. Holy fucking shit. We really are legalizing marijuana. Tom Angell, the spokesperson for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, put it best when he told The Huffington Post, “To put this into historical context, there is no historical context.”
Of course, the place went totally apeshit when Betty went live and was simulcast on a 10-foot TV screen in the main hall, announcing victory. Beer glasses were tipped over in hugging frenzies, people wept on the shoulders of strangers and the bartenders quickly ran out of microbrews, leaving us with nothing but Dos Equis and Budweiser for the celebration.
The public celebration, that is. I’m certain that another substance was called upon to mark the occasion, but (somewhat surprisingly) no one that I saw pushed their luck by firing up in the event hall or even outside its doors. Maybe that’s because it was pretty surreal in those long moments after the amendment was declared passed. Or it could be that no mind-altering substance was necessarily required. The passage of Amendment 64 left a contact high that I’m expecting to last for quite some time.
The scene at Casselman's bar in Denver, site of the Yes on 64 party.
Betty Aldworth waiting to go live on TV to announce 64's passage.
Watching the returns.
Chris Vanderveen of 9News, looking like he lost a bet.
Ed Rosenthal.
#boom
