Colorado marijuana activists, undaunted by California's failure to legalize the drug, said Wednesday they are launching two separate campaigns to legalize pot for adults in 2012.

The pot groups announced their intentions even as voters in more than two dozen Colorado municipalities decided Tuesday to ban medical marijuana centers. But advocates who want to legalize the drug see hope in Colorado, one of 14 states where medical marijuana is legal, and where Denver voters approved an ordinance making pot possession the "lowest law enforcement priority."

"Colorado is ready," said Mason Tvert, the head of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, which was behind the Denver ordinance a few years ago. Tvert's SAFER and Sensible Colorado said Wednesday they would work together to let voters decide whether to make marijuana legal for adults 21 years and older and regulate the drug like alcohol.

Read the entire story at http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20101103/NEWS/101109946/1077&ParentProfile=1058

Yesterday, we told you about the planned launch of Legalize2012.com, a drive to legalize marijuana for adult use in Colorado -- and noted that organizers planned to move forward even if Proposition 19, a similar measure in California, failed at the ballot box -- which it did. But advocates Mason Tvert and Brian Vicente, while downcast about the Prop. 19 results, see the opportunity to now cast Colorado in the history-making role.

Shortly after the die was cast last night, Tvert, of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, aka SAFER, and Vicente, who heads Sensible Colorado, jointly released statements expressing confidence that the Prop. 19 vote won't doom legalization efforts in Colorado. To the contrary, they suggest that the "no" vote in Cali will energize their push over the next two years.

Read the entire story at: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/11/proposition_19_loss_gives_co_chance_to_be_first_state_to_legalize_marijuana_says_mason_tvert.php

Safer Texas is a group that doesn't like alcohol, at least compared to marijuana.

They say they work "to address increasing concerns that our laws prohibiting the marijuana market are sending a dangerous message to the public that alcohol is more acceptable than marijuana. "

You can win $10,000 from them if you prove these three statements are not true:

1. Alcohol is significantly more toxic than marijuana, making death by overdose far more likely with alcohol.

2. The health effects from long-term alcohol consumption cause tens of thousands of more deaths in the U.S. annually than the health effects from the long-term consumption of marijuana.

3. Violent crime committed by individuals intoxicated by alcohol is far more prevalent in the U.S. than violent crime committed by individuals intoxicated by marijuana only.

The three statements are:

1. Alcohol is significantly more toxic than marijuana, making death by overdose far more likely with alcohol

2. The health effects from long-term alcohol consumption cause tens of thousands of more deaths in the U.S. annually than the health effects from the long-term consumption of marijuana

3. Violent crime committed by individuals intoxicated by alcohol is far more prevalent in the U.S. than violent crime committed by individuals intoxicated by marijuana only.

Read the entire story at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/group-offers-10000-disprove-marijuana-safer-alcohol-claim/

Political yard signs pack the busy medians of Denver's largest suburb and bickering candidates fill the airwaves. But the hottest political question for many here is whether to ban commercial marijuana sales...

"The fact that so many communities are voting on how to handle the sale of medical marijuana, we view that as a positive," Tvert said. "We're beyond debating whether marijuana should be allowed, but debating how and where it should be allowed, which is how it should be."...

Read the entire story at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/39855376

Is the party of ‘Just Say No’ morphing into the party of ‘Just Say Grow’?

...It’s the Nixon-goes-to-China phenomenon: people who might ignore a Democrat talking about legalization will give a fair hearing to a Republican. Mason Tvert, executive director of SAFER, the leading marijuana-reform group in Colorado, is no longer surprised when a Republican candidate answers a questionnaire saying he or she favors legalization. He was in the room at the Lincoln Club earlier this year when former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo, now running for governor of Colorado on the Constitution Party ticket, told the elderly Republican crowd that even though he might be committing “political suicide,” the time had come to think about legalizing drugs. In a September debate, Tancredo went even further, declaring, “Legalize it. Regulate it. Tax it.” After lagging in the race for months, the candidate saw his poll numbers jump 10 points this month, bringing him close to his Democratic opponent, who is against legalization. Asked by NEWSWEEK about his official stance, Tancredo was more circumspect than he has been, saying in a statement: “With regard to marijuana, I have no plans to push for its legalization. I simply believe that taking money away from the drug cartels, taking the incentive out of pushing marijuana to kids by imposing the most serious penalties possible on those who do so, focusing our resources on stopping illegal aliens and hard drugs from entering the country, and reducing the corruption now eating away at our law-enforcement establishment has merit and deserves to be debated.”...

Read the entire story at: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/25/the-conservative-case-for-legalizing-pot.html