Zatch
10-17-2010, 02:41 PM
Tancredo tells Loveland audience that legalizing pot is the best option
By Jeff Stahla
Loveland Reporter-Herald
Amid the cheers and laughs, the applause and affirmations, Tom Tancredo brought a couple of hundred area residents to a sober silence Saturday night.
The American Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate told a reverent audience that Loveland native David Hartley died as part of a war on drugs that the United States is losing, killed by a cartel looking to protect marijuana supply routes across Mexico and into the United States.
He said he talked to Hartley’s mother on Saturday and hoped to see her during his speaking event at the Message of Life Ministries church in southwest Loveland.
Hartley was shot to death Sept. 30 while on a watercraft on Falcon Lake, a reservoir on the Rio Grande that straddles the U.S.-Mexican border.
His body has not been found, and an investigator looking into the case also has been killed, purportedly by cartel members.
By trying to stem the tide of marijuana to the American public, this nation is running the risk of having the level of corruption now found in Mexico, which Tancredo said is already under the cartels’ control.
“The corruption is endemic,” Tancredo said. “I guarantee you it’s coming.”
Tancredo said he would support legalizing marijuana for adults while steeply increasing the penalties for selling the drug to minors.
Doing so, he said, would drain the money from the illegal marijuana trade, which is the main profit source for the Mexican drug cartels.
“Your ally in the opposition to legalization is the drug cartels,” he said.
“I think alcohol is much more harmful to your health and to society,” he said.
During a wide-ranging discussion at the church, Tancredo also laid out an ultimatum for conservatives in Colorado.
“A vote for Dan (Maes) is not an option,” Tancredo said during the event organized by the Loveland 912 project and other like-minded groups in Northern Colorado.
A recent Rasmussen poll showed that Tancredo has 38 percent support, which Maes, the Republican nominee, is at 12 percent.
“If you want to do something that’s important for this state … vote for Tom Tancredo,” he said. Otherwise, the state will be stuck with Democrat John Hickenlooper, whom he called the most liberal politician in the Rocky Mountain region.
Tancredo, formerly the Republican congressman from the 6th Congressional District south of Denver, is running on the American Constitution Party ticket.
Tancredo jumped into the gubernatorial race after both candidates for the Republican nomination, former Rep. Scott McInnis and Evergreen businessman Dan Maes, ran into campaign trail questions about their ethics.
© Copyright 2010 Loveland Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.reporterherald.com/news_story.asp?ID=29818
By Jeff Stahla
Loveland Reporter-Herald
Amid the cheers and laughs, the applause and affirmations, Tom Tancredo brought a couple of hundred area residents to a sober silence Saturday night.
The American Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate told a reverent audience that Loveland native David Hartley died as part of a war on drugs that the United States is losing, killed by a cartel looking to protect marijuana supply routes across Mexico and into the United States.
He said he talked to Hartley’s mother on Saturday and hoped to see her during his speaking event at the Message of Life Ministries church in southwest Loveland.
Hartley was shot to death Sept. 30 while on a watercraft on Falcon Lake, a reservoir on the Rio Grande that straddles the U.S.-Mexican border.
His body has not been found, and an investigator looking into the case also has been killed, purportedly by cartel members.
By trying to stem the tide of marijuana to the American public, this nation is running the risk of having the level of corruption now found in Mexico, which Tancredo said is already under the cartels’ control.
“The corruption is endemic,” Tancredo said. “I guarantee you it’s coming.”
Tancredo said he would support legalizing marijuana for adults while steeply increasing the penalties for selling the drug to minors.
Doing so, he said, would drain the money from the illegal marijuana trade, which is the main profit source for the Mexican drug cartels.
“Your ally in the opposition to legalization is the drug cartels,” he said.
“I think alcohol is much more harmful to your health and to society,” he said.
During a wide-ranging discussion at the church, Tancredo also laid out an ultimatum for conservatives in Colorado.
“A vote for Dan (Maes) is not an option,” Tancredo said during the event organized by the Loveland 912 project and other like-minded groups in Northern Colorado.
A recent Rasmussen poll showed that Tancredo has 38 percent support, which Maes, the Republican nominee, is at 12 percent.
“If you want to do something that’s important for this state … vote for Tom Tancredo,” he said. Otherwise, the state will be stuck with Democrat John Hickenlooper, whom he called the most liberal politician in the Rocky Mountain region.
Tancredo, formerly the Republican congressman from the 6th Congressional District south of Denver, is running on the American Constitution Party ticket.
Tancredo jumped into the gubernatorial race after both candidates for the Republican nomination, former Rep. Scott McInnis and Evergreen businessman Dan Maes, ran into campaign trail questions about their ethics.
© Copyright 2010 Loveland Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.reporterherald.com/news_story.asp?ID=29818