June 14, 2012 01:27 AM UTC

Ken Buck Caught Between Pot and a Hard Place

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• by: ColoRabble

(Disclosure: I am a proponent of Amendment 64)

Ken Buck has some explaining to do, either to the voters of Colorado, or to the campaign he is now leading against Amendment 64, the initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol.

According to Lynn Bartels of the Denver newspaper, members of Buck’s group sent a letter yesterday to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, asking the federal government to join their effort to defeat Amendment 64. Unfortunately for Buck, the request stands in stark contrast to the position he took while running for the U.S. Senate a couple years ago.

As the Centennial Citizen reported on May 23, 2010:

“If the State of Colorado decides it wants to legalize marijuana, the marijuana is grown in Colorado, it is distributed in Colorado, it is used in Colorado, it is none of the federal government’s business what happens here,” [Ken Buck] said. “The federal government needs to understand what the 10th Amendment says.”

Today, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol called on Buck to stand behind his past statement. Specifically, the campaign is asking Buck to disavow the letter his group sent to the Feds.

The campaign issued a press release with the following statement from advocacy director Betty Aldworth:

“We are simply asking Mr. Buck to stand behind what he told Colorado voters during his statewide campaign in 2010 – making marijuana legal in Colorado is ‘none of the federal government’s business.’ His very clear statement directly conflicts with the letter his group sent to the U.S. Attorney General, asking that they get directly involved in Colorado’s marijuana policy decisions. We hope Mr. Buck will disavow this letter or explain his sudden change of position.

“We are pleased that District Attorney Buck is among the many thousands of Coloradans who believe the state should be able to exercise its right to regulate marijuana like alcohol without federal interference. We sincerely hope he will stand up for his beliefs and disassociate himself from the letter sent by his campaign, as well as refrain from working with federal officials to dictate marijuana policy in Colorado.”