Telluride – Walk the streets and alleys in this funky resort town, and you’re likely to catch a whiff of pot smoke trailing from a passing bike, wafting from the back door of a restaurant or clinging to the fleece jackets of a group of 20-somethings taking in the sun on Colorado Avenue.
This live-and-let-live locale has been immortalized in the Eagles’ drug anthem “Smuggler’s Blues.” The sheriff has authored two books criticizing the nation’s war on drugs. And it wasn’t that long ago that the town board included a dreadlocked member known as Rasta Stevie.
“This is a pretty anti-establishment community. You fit in here by being abnormal,” said resident John Albertson.
But that doesn’t mean that a ballot issue to ease marijuana enforcement in this high-altitude hamlet is a big hit with the locals.
Even residents who might be expected to champion the measure, which calls for ranking possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults the lowest priority for the Telluride Marshal’s Department, are refusing to back ballot Question 200.
“To me, it’s a bad idea,” said San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters, who has made national waves as a libertarian critic of drug laws he calls ineffectual.
The complaints about Question 200 center on who is backing it, whether it is necessary and what kind of outside drug-enforcement cross hairs it might place this town in if it were to pass.
“We already don’t chase marijuana people down. We don’t go looking for them,” said town board member Mark Buchsieb, who calls the measure unnecessary.
The issue has been pushed by a Denver-based nonprofit called Sensible Colorado. Brian Vicente, the group’s executive director, said the measure was introduced in Telluride because “it is a forward-thinking community where almost everyone you talk to says the war on drugs has been a failure.”
Vicente said his group is not affiliated with Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), the force behind an initiative that would make it legal for anyone 21 or older to possess an ounce or less of marijuana in Denver, although Sensible Colorado supports the cause.
Vicente moved to this town of about 2,300 people nestled in the San Juan Mountains about four months ago and said he plans to leave sometime after the election. His organization has put $9,000 into the Telluride measure, prompting complaints from town officials that Question 200 is not a local issue.
“Outside forces want to make a poster child out of Telluride,” said town trustee Stu Fraser.
But local street musician Martin Thomas, longtime San Miguel County Coroner Bob Dempsey and hydrogen-fuel proponent Earnest Eich, who has since moved to Durango, were among those who circulated petitions that forced the marijuana measure onto the ballot with just 82 signatures.
The town council had to either pass the measure or put it to a vote. To date, none of the council members, nor any of the three candidates running for office, has expressed support for Question 200, Fraser said.
The Telluride Crime Action Committee, started by Vicente, is trying to reach the people by posting signs around town saying “Get Smart on Crime. Vote Yes on 200.” The committee says marijuana enforcement takes resources away from fighting more serious crime.
The committee also has passed out fliers saying that San Miguel County has the fourth-highest rate of marijuana arrests in the state – a statistic Masters and Telluride Chief Marshal Mary Heller question.
There were 17 citations issued for marijuana possession in the past year, and Heller said most of those were made after someone was contacted for some other type of offense.
Heller, who took over as Telluride’s top cop a year ago, said she is not taking any position on the marijuana measure. She said marijuana is already a low priority in her department. Most of the policing is centered on minor assaults, stolen bikes and drunkenness.
That has prompted a number of locals to say the town should crack down on booze violations.
“How many people get drunk and fight compared to how many get stoned and laugh?” asked Drew Graham as he pawed through the town’s famous free box of ski clothing.
Eich said that whichever way the vote swings Tuesday, he hopes to send a message to other towns that might consider what is being attempted in Telluride.
“We want to say we think the legislature would figure out a way to deal with this. It would be great if this was that catalyst,” Eich said.
Eich also said outsiders watching this measure should know that it isn’t about trying to gain the right to puff joints in public.
“It was never about that,” Eich said. “There is a larger issue surrounding this. Personal freedoms and states’ rights are all wrapped up in this.”
But this is Telluride. And Telluride is still a very laid-back place, even though it has evolved from the stoner paradise of the ’70s to a more upscale resort where it’s no longer odd to spot Hummers bearing “W” stickers.
Bob Hooper, a “jack-of-all- trades” who was sipping coffee midmorning in the Between the Covers bookstore Thursday, echoed many up and down Colorado Avenue in saying, “I could care less about this.”
