Editor’s note: La Voz continues its political coverage of the latest this election season. Amendment 64 is a highly controversial topic on this year’s ballot.

It would be fascinating to hear what former Denver residents Sam Caldwell or Moses Baca had to say about Colorado’s Amendment 64. If passed by voters in November, Amendment 64 will legalize possession of limited amounts of marijuana to adults over the age of 21.

If approved, Amendment 64, formally called “The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012,” would allow for individuals to possess limited quantities of marijuana for personal use and eliminate criminal penalties. The state would continue to regulate it. Colorado is among nearly twenty states that allow use of medical marijuana.

Why Caldwell’s or Baca’s opinion on Amendment 64 might be interesting is because in 1937, when the U.S. government declared war on marijuana, the pair became the first two people arrested in the country for violating this new federal statute.

On Oct. 2, 1937, the day the government’s Marijuana Tax Stamp Act went into effect Caldwell and Baca were arrested by government agents at Denver’s Lexington Hotel. Caldwell, a 58-year-old unemployed laborer, and Baca, 26, were caught with two marijuana cigarettes.

Caldwell was charged and convicted with sales of a dangerous drug; Baca with possession. Caldwell got four years, Baca received 18 months.

Within days, the pair was convicted, sentenced and shipped off to do hard labor at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Each served their entire sentence. Caldwell died a day after his release.

If the pair was arrested today in Colorado for the same offense, their prosecution would be far less serious. The two joints that earned them hard labor in Leavenworth would be handled as a misdemeanor carrying a $100 fine.

There would also be no jail time and, with a deferred prosecution, perhaps include scrubbing the crime from their records altogether. A growing number of Coloradans think it is time to look at pot from a different perspective.

A recent Denver Post poll showed 51 percent of Colorado voters favor Amendment 64. However, supporters say the only poll that matters comes in November. Until then they plan to continue providing literature and answering questions that might sway undecided voters.

For state political leaders, there is little undecided. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper says Amendment 64 has “the potential to increase the number of children using drugs.” He also doesn’t like the idea of giving kids the idea that drugs are OK.

But proponents of legalized marijuana see passage of Amendment 64 as a more efficient way of keeping pot out of the hands of minors. “We believe it will reduce teen access to marijuana,” says Brian Vicente, Co-Director of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

“Teens say marijuana is universally available to them,” he says. On any given day, it’s harder for a teenager to get alcohol or tobacco than marijuana. The new law will actually take it off the street and limit youth from access to it. “Drug dealers,” Vicente says, “don’t ask for ID.”

Surprisingly, two conservative Republicans, former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo and Broomfield State Sen. Shawn Mitchell have both come down strongly on the side of Amendment 64.

In a September column Tancredo stated bluntly, “marijuana prohibition has failed,” while giving Amendment 64 his full support.

Mitchell, like Tancredo, says the ‘war on drugs,’ a forty-year-old campaign initiated by President Nixon, has just not worked. He says it is time to find a new solution. He also says that despite this national effort to end drug usage, a member of his own family has struggled with drug issues for a number of years.

There is also a surprising collection of well-known national leaders who have also joined in the call to redirect state and national resources away from the problematic approach to this issue. Among them are former Secretary of State George Schultz, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and conservative columnist George Will.

Will argues that arresting someone for a street level drug transaction and imprisoning them at the cost of hundreds of thousands dollars over a period of years simply makes no sense. Further, once back on the outside, these, mostly young minority men, have little chance at finding good, well-paying jobs and quickly find themselves once again earning a living with drugs

If Amendment 64 passes, the state Department of Revenue must formulate the rules and regulations that will govern this new policy by next July. It will be responsible for setting fees for licensing, application, proper implementation, background checks and more.

Proponents believe passage of new laws governing marijuana will have a number of positive side effects, including a new revenue stream for construction or public schools. Any funds generated by marijuana sales are already dedicated to education. It estimates that $40 million will be generated the first year alone from sales of marijuana.

“I think it will be a good thing,” says Calvin Cage, a self-described ‘budtender’ at Northern Lights, a Denver medical marijuana business. “Arresting people using taxpayers’ money is a huge waste.”

Cage, a disabled veteran from the Iraq War and a medical marijuana user, says making pot legal for over the counter sales will also make it available to others who need it but can’t afford the state-mandated fees necessary to qualify as a legal medical marijuana patient.

He says most of his customers are older and do not fit the description of someone simply looking to get high. “I’ve even had a nun who bought herself a gram,” he recalled. She told him that she preferred to use medical marijuana instead of prescription drugs for a chronic medical condition.

A lot of his customers also take advantage of a Veterans Administration program that allows them to legally buy marijuana. “Some use it for pain, others use it for anxiety. We sell different strains for different conditions.”