"don't break out the cheetos just yet" [View all]

[backtoblue]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/07/politics/marijuana-legalization/index.html

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Pro-pot groups cheered passage of referendums legalizing recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington state as the "light at the end of the tunnel" in their 50-year campaign to make the drug legal nationwide.

"Yesterday's elections have forever changed the playing field regarding cannabis prohibition laws in America (and probably in large parts of the world, too)," Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, wrote in a celebratory blog Wednesday.

But Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper warned it's too soon to "break out the Cheetos," because his state must still navigate federal laws before citizens can legally buy and sell cannabis.

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NORML's main argument is that marijuana is "far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco," which are the only recreational drugs more popular than pot in the United States.

"Marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose," while hundreds of thousands die from tobacco and alcohol use each year, NORML's website says.

Legalization could save U.S. taxpayers the $10 billion spent each year on enforcing marijuana prohibition, and eliminate the criminal cases against more than 750,000 people arrested per year for possession, which NORML says is "far more than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault."

"The voters have spoken and we have to respect their will," Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper said in a written statement released by his office.

"This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don't break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly," he said, referring to two snack food products.

Marijuana could be legal across Colorado within two months, according to a spokesman for the governor's office.

The 536 medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado could begin selling to the general public then, according to University of Denver law professor Sam Kamin.

Whether the federal government allows that to happen is "a billion dollar question," Kamin said.

"Every store that sells marijuana here is violating federal law," he said. "The federal government could come in and seize assets. They could charge people criminally. They could send people to jail for scores of years. They have chosen, so far, not to do that."

With almost half the states now legalizing marijuana to some degree, the federal government will have to make a decision, he said.

"It simply can't go on the way it is," Kamin said. "It can't be a big industry and a Federal crime at the same time."

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