DENVER (AP) – Colorado has seen feisty debates this fall, with candidates in close races for governor, Senate and the U.S. House arguing over abortion rights, energy policy and the death penalty. Just don’t expect any of them to talk much about the biggest news of the year: legal pot.
While the state’s 10-month-old marijuana retail experiment has received worldwide attention and sales of recreational and medical pot have generated more than $45 million for state coffers, most voters have collectively shrugged. Predictions that they would go scrambling back to the polls to repeal the legal pot law they passed in 2012 haven’t yet materialized.
Instead, the political landscape has changed, with some candidates, including the governor, accepting tens of thousands of dollars in donations from people within the fledgling pot industry.
Now, the only ones bringing it up on the campaign trail are third-party and independent hopefuls – all backers of legal pot. Many of them take issue with the state’s high pot taxes – more than 30 percent in many jurisdictions – or with regulations they consider onerous.
“I don’t know why politicians aren’t talking about this,” said independent gubernatorial candidate Mike Dunafon, a long-shot candidate who is touting endorsements from rappers Snoop Dogg and Wyclef Jean because of his embrace of the drug.