<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of the Magic Valley Times-News at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ayp44rc">http://tinyurl.com/ayp44rc</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "></p><h1 style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; "></h1><h1 style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; "><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Blaine County GOP Votes to Support Legalizing Marijuana</span></font></h1><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE • A group of Republicans in the Wood River Valley want to change how Idaho looks at marijuana criminalization.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Tuesday, the Blaine County Republican Central Committee passed a resolution to legalize marijuana.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The resolution isn’t law, nor will it necessarily lead to a law. A resolution simply states the central committee’s support for a proposed policy.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Committeman Mike Connor said the resolution passed 6-2. Much of the discussion before the vote focused on the failure of the War on Drugs and how to most effectively keep marijuana away from children, he said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The Blaine County GOP believes that the time has come to amend criminal prohibition and replace it with a system of legalization, and education,” the resolution says. It goes on to discuss violent crime and the black market that marijuana criminalization has created, and how legalization will help regulation.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Not all Blaine County Republicans agree with the resolution. Sheriff Gene Ramsey, who didn’t attend the meeting, said marijuana and other drugs should remain illegal.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I think that we need to, as a nation, take a hard stand on drugs,” Ramsey said. With marijuana decriminalization, “we’re sending the wrong example to our youth.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After passage, the Blaine County Republicans will send the resolution to the state committee.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“That’s probably as far as it’s going to go for now,” he said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Idaho Republican Party executive director Joshua Whitworth said county central committees pass resolutions all the time.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“That’s the first I’ve heard on marijuana,” he said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Connor said the Blaine County Republicans aren’t trying to encourage drug use.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s not about doing drugs. I want to be very clear about that,” he said. But regulation will ensure criminals won’t benefit from the sale of marijuana, he said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ramsey acknowledged that there might be problems with the War on Drugs.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It may not be working, but that doesn’t mean you should just give up,” he said. “I think law enforcement’s role is to stay proactive on this issue.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; ">Blaine County Resolution</p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">WHEREAS, despite almost a century of prohibition, thousands of Idahoans today regularly consume marijuana and other cannabis products. It has had no effect on adult consumption but it has made it much easier for children to buy the drug;</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">WHEREAS, Criminal marijuana prohibition is a failure. Over 20 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana offenses since 1965. The Blaine County GOP believes that the time has come to amend criminal prohibition and replace it with a system of legalization, and education.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">WHEREAS the failed prohibition of marijuana has exhausted countless billions of dollars spent on ineffective or incomplete enforcement and has resulted in unnecessarily dangerous and expensive congestion in our judicial system;</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">WHEREAS the legal status quo for the criminal regulation of marijuana continues to endanger Idahoans by generating significant resources for gang-related violent criminal activity and weapons smuggling – a reality which could be very easily confronted by the regulation and legitimization of Idaho’s marijuana industry;</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">WHEREAS there is a creeping influx of violent criminals coming to Idaho to profit from a black market that should not exist in a free society;</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">WHEREAS the prohibition of marijuana has had the effect opposite from that intended. We have hurt those we intended to help, by incarcerating marijuana users-ruining lives and tearing families apart. We have helped those we intended to hurt by creating a lucrative black market for those unscrupulous enough to deal in illegal drugs</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BE IT RESOLVED that the price of marijuana be regulated by free market forces. The black market in this drug must be eliminated to provide a safer and more secure living environment for all Idahoans</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BE IT RESOLVED that the state government should legalize marijuana and ensure the regulation and taxation of its production, distribution, and use, while enacting strict penalties for illegal trafficking, illegal importation and exportation, and impaired driving;</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the state government should invest significant resources in prevention and education programs designed to promote awareness of the health risks and consequences of marijuana use and dependency, especially amongst youth;</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the state government should work with the county and local governments of Idaho on a coordinated regulatory approach to marijuana which maintains significant state responsibility for marijuana control while respecting district health jurisdiction and particular county concerns and practices.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Resolution be sent to the members of the Idaho</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Republican State Central Committee, District 26 Republican legislators, and the</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Governor.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Blaine County Republican Central Committee</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Attest</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Secretary County Chairman</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Suzan Stommel, 788-9703 Scott Freeborn, 720-5959</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Think about it, Idaho . . .</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><img id="image-index-0" src="http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/magicvalley.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/b5/8b533df8-5ab6-11e2-a9d9-0019bb2963f4/50ee0121d4608.preview-620.jpg" alt="Marijuana Leaf" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; z-index: 1; cursor: pointer; max-width: 620px; max-height: 500px; text-align: center; "></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; "><img src="cid:E782FFF4-C856-480E-93E4-1AB0C77C3641" alt="IdahoTax_enl.jpg" id="E782FFF4-C856-480E-93E4-1AB0C77C3641" width="300" height="296"></p></p><p></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div> </div></div><div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>