According to an article that appeared in this weekend's Summit Daily News, a 2008 citywide legalization initiative spearheaded by Sensible Colorado has made a very positive impact.  Arrests have plummeted, no problems have arisen, and this year was the popular ski town's busiest in a decade.

Of course we were very happy to see initiative proponent (and Sensible Colorado cofounder) Sean McAllister make this extemely compelling point:

“I think people who live here realize that marijuana is not as harmful as alcohol,” McAllister said. “I think there's more of an openness to it in the mountains.” 

Over the past several years, SAFER has used the alcohol-fueled mayhem surrounding St. Patrick's Day to highlight the relative safety of marijuana compared to alcohol. Click HERE and HERE to see news stories about them.

This year, a group of activists in New York City are carrying the torch by calling on the city to allow partygoers to make the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol that day, if that is what they prefer. 

Their press release is after the jump, or read it on-line at the StoptheDrugWar.org.

This weekend the Providence Journal ran an article about Colorado's medical marijuana program.  One of the individuals it quoted was Nederland Police Chief Ken Robinson, who came right out and asserted that marijuana is safer than alcohol, particularly based on his experience as a law enforcement officer.

As the Journal reported:

Robinson, who was a police officer in Tempe, Ariz., for more than 30 years before coming to Nederland, said that alcohol abuse is a much bigger problem.

“I don’t ever remember going to a house where people are beating each other up because they just smoked marijuana,” he said. “Marijuana should have been decriminalized a long time ago.