Lawmakers Plotting Repeal of Marijuana Legalization, Warn CO Activists

They plan to extort high taxes in return for allowing pot use

The campaign behind Amendment 64 has called a news conference Friday morning to decry what they say is an effort to repeal the marijuana-legalization measure.

In a news release sent early Friday, Mason Tvert, one of the amendment's authors, said "numerous" lawmakers are secretly considering putting a measure before voters that would repeal marijuana legalization in Colorado if voters don't pass a separate measure on marijuana taxes this November. The tax measure — which received approval in a legislative committee Thursday and is scheduled to go before another committee Friday — would place state sales and excise taxes on recreational marijuana that could approach 30 percent of the retail price.

No lawmakers have publicly discussed a repeal proposal.

"Placing such a (repeal) measure on the ballot would amount to extortion of the voters," Tvert said in a statement included in the news release. "They will be told that they must vote for whatever taxes the legislators choose in order to prevent the repeal of the constitutional amendment they just approved."