Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper: It was 'reckless' to legalize marijuana

Marijuana is legal in Colorado, yet in the state's tight gubernatorial race, it remains a thorny campaign issue.

In a debate Monday, Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper said it would be "reckless" for other states to follow Colorado's lead in legalizing pot. He suggested he wasn't comfortable with his own constituents getting their (legal) Rocky Mountain High on, though he waffled over whether the 2012 referendum that legalized weed was "reckless."

"I think for us to do that without having all the data, there is not enough data, and to a certain extent you could say it was reckless," he said. "I'm not saying it was reckless because I'll get quoted everywhere, but if it was up to me, I wouldn't have done it, right? I opposed it from the very beginning."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

After a pause though, he changed his mind: "In matter of fact, all right, what the hell, I'll say it was reckless," he said.

Hickenlooper did publicly come out against legalization in 2012, though voters approved the ballot measure with a robust 55 percent of the vote anyway. A Marist poll last month found that 55 percent of the residents still supported the state's legal marijuana law.