A group that claims marijuana use is safer than drinking ran newspaper ads Saturday mentioning allegations that President Bush once drunkenly challenged his father to fight and Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a friend after drinking.

SAFER Colorado, which put a measure on the Colorado ballot to legalize possession of marijuana, placed an ad in a newspaper in Greeley, where Bush made an appearance on Saturday.

Referendum 44, which is on Tuesday's ballot, would allow adults to carry up to an ounce of marijuana, similar to an ordinance Denver voters approved last year. No other state allows pot possession for anything other than medical use. Federal law also prohibits possession.

A recent poll of 625 registered voters by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research found 34 percent of voters supported the measure, while 57 percent opposed it. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

What a great step forward Colorado! ...keep it coming.

You do like that word don't you?

By Steven Wishnia, AlterNet. Posted September 11, 2008.

Economists estimate tens of billions for governments if we taxed pot like tobacco and stopped wasting money on the drug war.

If marijuana were legal but taxed like alcohol and tobacco, how much money could it bring in to cash-strapped state governments?

One 2006 study called cannabis the top cash crop in the nation, worth more than corn and wheat combined. It was the leading crop in 12 states, outstripping grapes in California and tobacco in North Carolina, and one of the top three in 18 others, coming in just behind apples in Washington and cotton in Georgia. So with states facing massive deficits, could reefer revenues help?

The answer is unclear, but it could be lucrative for governments, especially when combined with the savings from ending prohibition. As the U.S. marijuana market is illegal, there are no sales figures. Estimates of its size range from $10.5 billion a year to $113 billion. But three studies done by economists and policy analysts say ganja taxes could bring in anywhere from $2.4 billion to $31.1 billion in revenue, depending on how big the sales really are. About one-third of that would go to the states.
...