SAFER Files Lawsuit, Citing Inaccurate Voter Information: Hearing To Be This Afternoon

Update: See SAFER Case Dismissed, But May Continue.

Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), the group campaigning to make a small amount of pot legal for adults 21 years and older in Colorado, filed a lawsuit today alleging that a detail set to appear in voter information booklets (the blue book) is inaccurate.

The problem? A paragraph stating that the cannabis initiative (Amendment 44), if passed, would make the transportation of marijuana to a minor 15 years or older legal, provided there is no compensation.

But this fact goes against a section in Colorado’s Revised Statues says SAFER, which prevents any adult from contributing to the delinquency of a minor. And now the group is prepared halt the production of blue books until the issue is resolved.“The purpose of our initiative is to make the procession of marijuana legal for adults,” said Mason Tvert, a SAFER spokesman, in a press conference yesterday.

“For some reason, the Legislative Council wants to make the debate about children, and the furtherance of this mission has disregarded their duty to provide a fair, impartial, and accurate analysis to the voters of Colorado.”

Colorado’s Legislative Council, headed by Kirk A. Mlinek, is the research arm for the General Assembly, and works in creating the blue books.

House Speaker and Council Chairman Andrew Romanoff did not agree with the suit however, and said that the writing used in the blue books is clear and impartial.

“Mr. Tvert’s language is rather reckless, to suggest that the legislature, the staff of the legislature, and the federal government have all engaged in some grand conspiracy to cook the blue book is ludicrous,” said Romanoff

“What the  blue book tried to do was summarize the effect of Amendment 44 on marijuana procession laws,  which is what’s in play here.”

The issue is set for a hearing today, at 2PM in Denver.

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.