Recently, my girlfriend and I were driving on a remote county road surrounded by Bureau of Land Management lands. A BLM law enforcement official clocked us at 53 mph in a 40, and pulled us over. During the traffic inspection, he believed he smelled marijuana, and asked to search the vehicle. We both refused, so he called in a canine unit from Cortez – about 40 miles away. Though we believed we were being quite cooperative, he felt it necessary to threaten my partner with a brandished Taser for being unclear on his orders as well as detain me in handcuffs for asking to get my jacket out of the car. When the canine and two deputies arrived, a search was completed and nothing was found.
The incident sheds light on a complex and confusing issue regarding possession of marijuana on federal lands. I understand that consumption in public places is not allowed, nor is drugged driving, but I also understand that the federal government is not planning to interfere with the new Colorado law that makes possession legal. But what about simply transporting it over federal lands? In Telluride, one can purchase marijuana legally. The law states it’s legal to transport it in your trunk within Colorado. But to take it anywhere from Telluride, like, say, back to your house down the road a few miles, you have to cross federal lands.
While it has become clear in recent weeks that the federal government is cracking down on consumption on federal lands like ski resorts, my horrendous experience seems to imply that you can’t even have it in your trunk if that involves crossing any federal property – a regular scenario for most southwestern Coloradans.
If you live in Durango and take a bag to a friend’s house in Silverton, for example, you could get thrown in jail, and obviously there are officers out there who wish to do just that.
The state and federal governments need to make some sense of this situation before more people are harassed.
Peter Dronkers
Dolores
