Larimer sheriff Justin Smith debates Colorado marijuana legalization

KUSA— A half dozen Colorado sheriffs joined their counterparts in Nebraska and Kansas last week in a lawsuit that seeks to strike down Amendment 64, Colorado's voter-enacted law which made our state the first in the nation to offer legal recreational sales of pot to adults.

Lead plaintiff and Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith sat down to a debate on this week's program with Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Projects, one of the leaders of the campaign to legalize marijuana.

The program begins with a discussion on suspicions each side has about the other's motives.

The two spent plenty of time prodding each other:

TVERT: "You don't like adults who use marijuana. That's what it comes down to."

SMITH: "I like the rule of law, Mason. I like the rule of law."

TVERT: "Then follow our laws! Follow our laws!"

SMITH: "That's why we're going to court, because we believe this amendment does not follow the rule of law."

Smith took care to portray his interest in the lawsuit as one of clarifying the conflict between federal law and state law, either way it shakes out.

9NEWS political reporter Brandon Rittiman pressed Smith about his avoidance of expressly stating he wants to undo legalization, asking, "you don't think you're taking an anti-marijuana stance here?"

"What I'm taking is a pro-constitution stance," Smith replied. "No matter what we do, no matter how well-intentioned it is... if it doesn't follow the constitution, then it's not valid so that's what we're coming down to is maybe, just maybe, this was done in a method that didn't follow the constitution"

Tvert wasn't convinced.

"I'd like to think that our law enforcement officials have more pressing things to do than flying to DC to stand with the drug-free America foundation, a anti-marijuana activist group, and try to turn these laws over," Tvert said.

Rittiman also pressed Tvert on his interpretation of the supremacy clause of the US Constitution.

Tvert pointed to a Congressional Research Service report which casts some doubt the amount of authority Congress intended to assert over drugs when it passed the Controlled Substances Act.

See more on the debate at 9News.com (KUSA-TV © 2015 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)