
Everybody is blowing a lot of smoke about marijuana these days.
So I thought it would be fun to ask each member of the Colorado Springs City Council whether they had ever had a personal relationship with maryjane.
Here’s how they answered:
Councilwoman Jan Martin said she tried it once and only once.
“I was so paranoid and looking over my shoulder the entire time that I decided it just wasn’t worth it and never tried it again,” she said. “That’s a very honest answer from a politician.”
Councilman Tom Gallagher wouldn’t answer the question directly but hinted he had.
“I’ve got over 500,000 miles on a Harley Davidson,” he said. “What do you think?”
Vice Mayor Larry Small said he never had the opportunity to smoke weed.
“When I was growing up, drugs just weren’t a fad in those days,” said Small, who is 68. “In fact, about the only knowledge I had of drugs was what I learned in high school about the various drugs. At that time, they were talking about opium. They were talking about heroin. They were talking about the hard drugs. Marijuana wasn’t even on the radar.”
Councilman Randy Purvis, an attorney, gave a lawyerly answer.
“Not that I’m aware of. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t at a party where someone else was smoking,” Purvis said.
Councilman Darryl Glenn, a hardcore Republican, sounded like former President Bill Clinton.
“I never inhaled, never will inhale,” Glenn said. “The answer is no.”
Councilman Bernie Herpin said the only marijuana he had ever seen was on TV.
“Until I visited a dispensary, I had never actually seen marijuana in the flesh,” Herpin said.
Councilman Scott Hente said he “never” smoked marijuana.
“Look where I graduated from,” said Hente, a retired lieutenant colonel who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1975.
Councilman Sean Paige said it was nobody’s business.
“What people choose to consume is a private matter in which the government and the press have no right to pry,” said Paige, a journalist and former editorial page editor of The Gazette.
Mayor Lionel Rivera said he’s never smoked marijuana. When asked if he had ever ingested it in any other way, he said he hadn’t. When asked if he had never had the opportunity or if he thought drugs were for dopes, the mayor declined to comment.
“You got my two answers. That’s all you’re getting,” he said.
The answers provided by Paige and Gallagher are very telling, esp taking into account their support of everything pro marijuana.
[...] The three council members who served on council before answered the question a few years ago. [...]