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Pot initiative booster Tvert: Reach for your beer, podners

Rocky Mountain News

Published September 27, 2006 at midnight

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In politics, there are debates and then there are challenges. Consider the recent proposal by Mason Tvert to be in the latter category.

The campaign director for Amendment 44, a statewide ballot measure seeking to legalize marijuana use for adults, on Tuesday threw down the bong . . . er . . . gauntlet to Mayor John Hickenlooper and Pete Coors.

The challenge? For every beer Coors or Hickenlooper drinks, Tvert will take a hit of marijuana - ostensibly to demonstrate that marijuana is safer than alcohol.

Tvert argues that Hickenlooper is hypocritical for making his fortune by opening Wynkoop Brewing Co. and allowing the Great American Beer Festival to be held in Denver but opposing a city ballot measure that sought to legalize pot use within the city limits. That ballot measure passed.

Tvert said he believes that if either man takes the challenge, he would pass out while standing.

"They know they couldn't possibly hang," Tvert said, while acknowledging he didn't expect either to bite on the challenge. "But they know their product would kill them and the one I use won't."

Hickenlooper's spokeswoman, Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, said, "You've got to give this guy credit for his creativity - he'll do anything to get himself and his cause in the media."

Coors could not be reached for comment.