Colorado Marijuana Initiative Could Pressure Feds To Shift Policy

A signal to D.C. of changes in public sentiment

Should voters worry that if they pass Amendment 64, Coloradans would still be subject to federal prosecution for the cultivation, sale and possession of marijuana?

That's what opponents of Amendment 64 argue — adding, in partial contradiction, that the state would also become a magnet for visiting "marijuana tourists." It's not a pretty picture.

Then again, neither is the picture of a federal government dismissing shifting public sentiment and the latest research regarding marijuana — a federal government, for example, that classifies marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act in the most restrictive Schedule I category, along with the likes of heroin and LSD.