February 14, 2011 08:04 PM UTC

Own Worst Enemy Watch: Pothead Scuttles Friendly Amendment?

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• by: Colorado Pols

An interesting story from the Colorado Independent’s Joseph Boven Friday, worth a mention:

A tense exchange Thursday sidetracked a House amendment that would end a proposed requirement that medical marijuana patients for tax purposes to present their ID cards to be videotaped during dispensary visits. An advocate for the amendment managed to so antagonize amendment sponsor Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, that Sonnenberg pitched the amendment in the trash…

“Apparently one of the lobbyists was making a backroom deal to get rid of one of the cameras (required in dispensaries). We were asking for transparency and they didn’t want to include us. So Rep. Sonnenberg turned around and ripped up [the amendment] in front of us, with really, not what I would say was appropriate candor for a state house official,” Lopez said.

…Lopez said he was videotaping the House meeting in the interest of transparency.

Lopez said that after Sonnenberg went into chambers, lobbyist Kara Miller came outside and started screaming at him. “She was saying that I F’d it up,” Lopez said.  

Sonnenberg said that’s not the whole story. He said Lopez actually spit at Miller after she went to smooth things over with him. Sonnenberg also said Lopez was then escorted out of the Capitol.

What we’ve heard about this incident would appear to back up the account of Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg above. Now, Rep. Sonnenberg may or may not have been unduly testy with the marijuana activist videotaping him (which isn’t a crime, of course), but the bottom line is, if a legislator is in the process of trying to get your amendment passed, do not gratuitously antagonize a person who is, at that moment, your very best friend.

This wouldn’t be the first time that overzealous activists, or medical marijuana activists in particular, have made counterproductive idiots of themselves, and shot their own agenda squarely in the foot out of sheer pointless belligerence–needlessly alienating would-be supporters.

But we really do suggest that they work on this if they desire, you know, successful outcomes.