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Question 300 passed by a margin of less than than 2,000 votes last Tuesday. The margin of victory represented just four percent of the total vote.

Yet Bob Powell, Chairman of Concerned Fort Collins residents, a group of residents who made it their mission to ban dispensaries within city limits as a response to dubious claims of increased â€œmarijuana crimeâ€ among the Fort Collins youth, made statements more akin to a landslide.

â€œI am really, really pleased for Fort Collinsâ€™ citizens who are on the â€˜forâ€™ side because they knew of the tremendous uphill climb we were up against,â€ Powell said.

Well Bob, I think youâ€™ve deluded yourself into believing your quixotic quest to take down medical marijuana dispensaries was something other than the height of hypocrisy in action.

Did you see the published photos of the celebratory party in the middle of a massive snowstorm last week? The Concerned Fort Collins residents were celebrating with drinks in hand.

Thatâ€™s certainly taking responsibility to, in the words of your own website, â€œ â€¦ cultivate an environment that will support the healthy development of our youth.â€ Way to lead from the bottom, Bob.

â€œPoudre School District attributes a significant increase in middle school and high school students’ use of marijuana due to easy access and availability since the MMDâ€™s opened,â€ according to the CFCC website.

Rather than allow your young minds to be further corrupted by the insane paranoia and idiocy of the baby boomers, allow me to point out that the likelihood of dispensaries as the source of youth access to pot, as opposed to the home growers CFCC has pledged to leave alone, is scant.

Dispensaries knew they were on the razorâ€™s edge immediately as the incompetent and corrupt federal Drug Enforcement Agency made no bones about their view of marijuana as the reason for everything â€“â€“ from why the Cubs canâ€™t win the World Series to the rampant consumption of low-quality processed pseudo-baked goods.

The hypocrisy of the CFCC, or rather, their utter failure to recognize it at the federal level, completely undermines their perceived success in banning dispensaries.

From the CFCC website: â€œIn July, 2011, the U.S. Attorney General made it very clear that the operation of any aspect of a medical marijuana enterprise is a Federal crime and re-clarified that marijuana is an illegal drug. The term â€˜medical marijuanaâ€™ is inherently deceptive since marijuana is NOT a drug been proven to be a safe, effective medication, is NOT approved by the FDA for safe consumption, can NOT be prescribed by physicians, and can NOT be controlled or dispensed by a pharmacist.â€

While the attorney general may have made it clear in July of this year, for the three years previous, they made clear they had no intention of pursuing the industry.

The claims of deception are, themselves, deceptive. It truly boggles the mind how we give credence to the same federal government proven willing to lie to the public about virtually anything in order to fulfill their agenda, but at some point the younger generations of Americans have to wake up.

It was the federal government that brought us the Bay of Pigs, Gulf of Tonkin, TARP, Cash for Clunkers, the housing bubble, the auto bailouts, Operation Iraqi Freedom and a litany of other poorly executed decisions based on lies sold to the American people.

Why would we take the FDAâ€™s word for it that weed is unsafe? These are the same people who told us Aspartame is a safe, zero-calorie alternative to sugar after heavy lobbying on behalf of the manufacturer.

Evidence against Aspartame mounts with every passing day, and itâ€™s likely served a direct role in the growing obesity epidemic as itâ€™s an ingredient in virtually every food product sold under the guise of â€œdiet.â€

The exact same pattern of behavior exists in virtually every aspect of the federal government. Our economy took a major nosedive in 2007 thanks to the toxic environment of Wall Street occupying D.C. via campaign contributions and lobbies. Why do we pretend the legislative war against marijuana is any different?

Alcohol causes more traffic accidents, acts of violence, idiotic political arguments and coyote ugly mornings by far than marijuana. Yet pot is going to cause us more health and character problems than booze? Let me suggest to you, marijuana is only a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance because of the undeniable influence the pharmaceutical and alcohol lobbies have in D.C.

The concerns of the baby boomers that kids will be corrupted by weed is absurd, but the young voters who recognized this hypocrisy and did nothing as it was being perpetuated against us by the boozing generation of borderline geriatrics who have run the federal, state and local government into the mud is unconscionable.

Congratulations, CFCC: Youâ€™ve brought D.C.â€™s culture of corruption and tyranny to Fort Collins. Enjoy your gin, you loathsome hypocrites.

Seth J. Stern prefers stoners running the world over drunks. His corruption and hatred for stupidity in government appears Mondays in the Collegian. He can be reached at letters@collegian.com.