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DEA denies campaign ties
By David Pollan and Lou Christopher
dpollan@mscd.edu
achris25@mscd.edu

Controversy surrounds an e-mail, allegedly from an agent in the Drug Enforcement Administration, looking for someone to lead a campaign to defeat an initiative that would legalize marijuana in Colorado.

The e-mail stated that Colorado’s Marijuana Information Committee was looking to hire a campaign manager to defeat the aforementioned initiative. It also stated that the committee has $10,000 readily available to launch the campaign and hire a manager.

Interested candidates were told to contact DEA agent Michael Moore, and were given his work and cell phone numbers, as well as his U.S. Department of Justice e-mail address.

DEA public information officer Susan Halonen said the e-mail did not originate from the DEA and Michael Moore had no prior knowledge of the e-mail, despite having all his pertinent information and listing him as the contact.

There is no $10,000 and no campaign startup originating from the Denver DEA office, according to Halonen.

Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation of Colorado, or SAFER Colorado, started the initiative and were successful in getting it on the November ballot.

The e-mail has members of SAFER outraged, claiming the DEA should be enforcing the law and not funding a campaign to overcome a state-level initiative.

“This should concern everyone, because they (the DEA) are potentially breaking federal law, according to the Hatch Act,” said Mason Tvert, campaign director for SAFER Colorado. “People in Colorado should be upset that the federal government is coming to the state and trying to prevent it from making its own laws.”

The Hatch Act regulates the political participation of executive branch employees.

The act was designed to “keep government from playing a role that is influential in shaping policy,” said Robert Hazan, chair of the Political Science Department at Metro.

According to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the “Hatch Act restricts the political activity of executive branch employees of the federal government, District of Columbia government and some state and local employees who work in connection with federally funded programs.”

Amendments to the act in 1993, however, greatly increased federal employees’ abilities to participate in campaigns. A select few high-level employees still remain under tight restrictions.

“I think that (the Hatch Act) can be invoked,” Hazan said, regarding the legitimacy of SAFER Colorado’s complaint.

Even if the e-mail originated from DEA sources, which Halonen said is not the case, “it does not run afoul of” the law. She added that the agents are still citizens, and can take part in personal fundraising.

“We don’t have the time or the money,” Halonen said. “The SAFER people have millionaires from Florida and New York that have the resources to fund this initiative.”

According to Hazan, if the DEA as an agency is involved in the campaign it is illegal. But if agents act as individual citizens to raise money to combat the initiative, then what they are doing is legal.

“This is a highly controversial issue and the DEA’s position is clear,” Hazan said about the DEA’s denial of any wrongdoing.

He suggested that maybe politically active agents were just “loyal soldiers to the objectives of the DEA.”

“There will be an investigation,” Hazan said concerning what would take place if the DEA was in violation of the Hatch Act.

SAFER Colorado gathered 130,815 signatures of Colorado residents to get the initiative on the November ballot. Only 68,000 signatures were necessary. The initiative will legalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for adults 21 and older.

SAFER Colorado has momentum on their side, having introduced the Denver Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative on last November’s ballot and passing the measure to make the use and possession of one ounce or less of marijuana legal for adults 21 or older within Denver city limits.