International Church of Cannabis faces off with City of Denver
“The dispute centers on social consumption stemming from a 4/20 service where the church was cited for public consumption of marijuana and violating the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act.” ABC
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Never smoked it, don’t want to, but let’s be serious here. Unless we want government taking away the box of fried chicken at church potlucks sometime in the future, we’ve got to get government out of the business of trying to regulate away every risk we face, and that includes this one. Yes, pull dopers over if they drive stoned. Absolutely. Those who get people hurt with the stuff by mislabeling it can face civil and criminal charges, you bet.
That noted, a core issue here is whether we really want the government taking action to prevent every action by which we might harm ourselves. Eating too much. Riding a bicycle in traffic, or a motorcycle. Driving after dark. Teaching a kid to drive a vehicle with a manual transmission. Running in the winter. Being outside without sunscreen.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
This actually concerns laws already on the books and whether a group that claims to be a church gets to be an exception to well-established rules. Whether or not clean interior air rules should have been enacted, they were. Personally, I’m glad they were. I’m old enough to remember how difficult it used to be to avoid cigarette smoke in public places and ordinary businesses. These are not aimed at protecting us from ourselves but at protecting us from one another.
Unfortunately, it’s always a foolish few who abuse liberties and get them taken away for everybody. Just reality. So this cannabis group is probably going to weaken religious liberty, at least in CO. Where there is a lack of self restraint, there ends up being external restraint.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
The “church” may well win, because their case is that the Clean Indoor Air Act of Colorado wasn’t intended to apply to private gatherings and their meetings are private. They’re not really making a religious liberty case, fortunately. And it’s hard to see how CIAA applies to their case unless the city can show that they are using weed in public gatherings.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Yes, the law’s on the books, but it strikes me that the last time I remember, apart from being in Vegas or something, going into a restaurant and smelling cigarette smoke, Reagan was still President. Private markets were doing just fine without the law, and the fact that people still visit the Vegas strip despite even the sidewalks reeking of stale cigarette smoke kinda gives me the hunch that large portions of people aren’t all that worked up about it. We should let them be, especially since the “research” that “justified” the laws was specifically rebuked by a judge who pointed out that when you’re doing statistical work, you don’t get to play games with the confidence level to fudge a result.
We all have a lot to fear when government starts acting “for our own good”. I hate cigarette smoke, but really….
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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