Advocates call for no pot tickets on St. Patrick's Day

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 14, 2007 at midnight

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BOULDER — If everyone getting drunk on St. Patrick’s Day would smoke marijuana instead, the car crashes, fist fights and sexual assaults would plummet, pro-marijuana advocates said today.

The speakers at a gathering on the Pearl Street Mall called on Boulder police to issue no citations for marijuana use on Saturday, St. Patrick’s Day, as a way of encouraging recreation that leads to less violence than alcohol does.

"I’ll come back to the dorm about 1 a.m. and there will be people screaming in the hallways, writing rude things on the wall, verbally abusing and sexually abusing other people," University of Colorado sophomore Summer Weirich said, describing a typical scene when people have been drinking. "Guys try to wander in your room and see what you’re doing, see if they can hook up."

Conversely, "If I’m around people who’ve been smoking marijuana, I’m not afraid they’re going to trap me somewhere."

Boulder police did not immediately respond to questions about the appeal to issue no marijuana-possession citations.

Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation, cited the rash of recent Boulder arrests for assaults and bias-motivated crimes, most of them involving people who seemed to be very drunk.

"If police allowed these people to go to the safer alternative of marijuana, many if not all of these incidents wouldn't have happened."

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