Personal Freedom: An Interview with NORML Founder Keith Stroup

Keith Stroup, who founded NORML in 1970 and currently serves as its legal counsel, was in Denver recently and took a few minutes to talk to CULTURE about two important issues facing Colorado.

First, Keith opined on the measure which will appear on Colorado’s ballot this fall; Amendment 64: “Colorado may well become the first state in the country to fully legalize marijuana, and that would be an incredibly important development, not only in Colorado, but nationwide. By enacting this voter initiative, Colorado would be advancing the policy debate and taking a step that would likely force the federal government to re-think their position.”

The only previous legalization initiative in Colorado was Amendment 44 in 2006, which lost 61 percent to 39 percent. But public support appears far stronger this time around.

“Colorado has become the epicenter for the legalization movement in America, with the most advanced political thinking and the most accepting attitude towards marijuana smoking,” Stroup says. “We are only incidentally talking about marijuana. We are really talking about personal freedom.”

While Colorado medical marijuana laws have allowed many patients access to marijuana for medical reasons, thousands of people annually are still being criminally charged in Colorado for marijuana offenses. “We should not have to be ill in order to be left alone by the government,” Stroup says. “It is none of the government’s business whether we smoke or why.”

Stroup points out that expanding the use of marijuana to adults 21 and over, much like alcohol, will not diminish the protection currently provided to medical users, nor will it undermine the thriving medical marijuana industry that has developed in Colorado.

Colorado’s second major issue is the conflict between state and federal laws. “While marijuana may soon be fully legal in Colorado, it remains illegal for any use under federal law. Only by having a few states legalize marijuana, creating a legal showdown with the federal government, can we force the feds to finally come up with a new, reasonable marijuana policy—one that recognizes the right of the states to determine their own marijuana policies,” Stroup states.

“The federal government needs to do what they did at the end of alcohol prohibition,” he adds. “They need to remove federal marijuana prohibition altogether and permit the states to do whatever they wish in this area.”

Ann Toney, P.C. is a Denver-based law firm that focuses on medical marijuana business law and marijuana defense; and defending people charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs (DUI/DUID). Ann Toney can be contacted via phone or web at (303) 399-5556 and www.anntoneylaw.com.