The five people who were integral in pushing Amendment 64 to the finish line in 2012 took a look back at Colorado’s landmark vote last night at Denver’s Ritz Carlton, gathering at a “fireside chat” to share stories about the campaign.

Attendees paid $250 a ticket to hear from Rob Kampia, founder and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a nationwide organization that works decriminalize marijuana. Proceeds benefited the project.

At the event, Kampia, Betty Aldworth, Steve Fox, Mason Tvert and Brian Vicente recounted stories and talked about the hurdles along the way.

Aldworth served as spokesperson and advocacy director for Colorado’s successful 2012 Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

Fox is co-founder and strategic advisor for the National Cannabis Industry Association and is co-founder and board member for SAFER, an organization dedicated to challenging the stigma against cannabis.

Tvert worked to legalize marijuana in Colorado and has since worked with several other states. He now is working at the federal level to push a for a nationwide lift on the ban of marijuana sales and consumption.

Vicente is a partner at Vincent Sederburg, the “marijuana law firm.”

Politicians and marijuana business leaders also joined the group conversation.

“When it comes to Amendment 64, our five featured speakers quite literally wrote the law; other states that have since passed similar laws have followed the legislative blueprints created in Colorado in 2012 – as well as legislatively before and after that election,” MPP said in a press release. “Since passage of the Colorado and Washington laws, six more states have legalized marijuana for adult use, and more than half the country now has access to medical marijuana.”

Marijuana policy reform is no longer a third-rail issue, organizers said.

Opponents of the law disagree.

The Marijuana Accountability Coalition also gathered at the Ritz-Carlton last night to push back on the recreational marijuana industry.

“We’re not better off,” said founder Justin Luke Riley.

“While the marijuana moguls are celebrating their financial success at the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel, we’re here standing with our friends and neighbors who have been hurt, whose families have been hurt by commercialized, legal pot,” Riley said in a press release. “Colorado continues the pay the price for marijuana’s rapid spread into our communities, our schools and our families.” 

The coalition is working to draw awareness to items “that range from bud to edibles to highly pure (sometimes 99.9 percent) concentrates.” Edibles, the group says, are offering “frighteningly common products laced with THC.”

Riley says normalizing marijuana has resulted in Colorado being the No. 1 state for youth drug use in the country, with kids being expelled at higher rates than other states, and that the state has seen more road deaths from driving impaired since Amendment 64 passed in 2012.

“Turning a blind eye to those who are hurt is typical of a big business like this,” Riley said. “The millionaires make their money and real people get hurt. Even today, the industry refuses to fess up to the astronomical societal costs of this experiment.” 

Colorado Christian University is also speaking out against the law.

The school hosted a symposium with law enforcement, medical, youth, family, education, business and public policy experts that looked at the effect of legalization five years ago.

Like the Marijuana Accountability Coalition, CCU also points to youth use rates and fatal crashes.

“One Pueblo hospital is reporting nearly half the babies tested in one month had marijuana in their systems,” Jeff Hunt, Vice President of Public Policy at CCU points out. And “between 2013 and 2016, Douglas County Schools have seen a 149 percent increase in juveniles caught with marijuana” according to Deputy Jay Martin, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

“So far, the only thing that the legalization of marijuana has brought to our schools has been marijuana,” said Cherry Creek Schools Superintendent Dr. Harry Bull.

The Colorado Department of Public Safety reports that 58 percent more black youth and 29 percent more Hispanic youth have been arrested for marijuana possession since legalization, Hunt said.

“To grow revenue, the predatory pot industry seeks to get as many people as it can hooked on this drug, especially young people and minorities,” Hunt said. “Drug dealers in suits are making millions while Colorado taxpayers are stuck with the bill for the impact of marijuana on our communities.”