--- title: Jared Polis Introduces 'Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol' Bill description: Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado introduced a bill in Congress that borrows its name from the successful ballot measure to legalize pot. canonical: https://time.com/3717175/regulate-marijuana-like-alcohol/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-20T21:36:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:35:44.441Z article:section: Politics og:title: Colorado's Pot Rhetoric Hits Capitol Hill og:description: Four simple words to sell marijuana legalization og:url: https://time.com/3717175/regulate-marijuana-like-alcohol/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8fd30a5a86baacf/69877de9428a9e3f96cc6ffd/marijuana-dating-app-tinder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: File - In this May 5, 2011, an unidentified man is seen smoking medical marijuana during karaoke night at the Cannabis Café, in Portland, Ore og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colorado's Pot Rhetoric Hits Capitol Hill twitter:description: Four simple words to sell marijuana legalization twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8fd30a5a86baacf/69877de9428a9e3f96cc6ffd/marijuana-dating-app-tinder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Colorado's Pot Rhetoric Hits Capitol Hill > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 20, 2015 9:36 PM UTC  A man is seen smoking medical marijuana during karaoke night at the Cannabis Café, in Portland, Ore. in 2011. A man is seen smoking medical marijuana during karaoke night at the Cannabis Café, in Portland, Ore. in 2011. Rick Bowmer—AP by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 20, 2015 9:36 PM UTC Marijuana legalization advocates appear to know a good slogan when they see one. Democratic Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado [introduced a bill](http://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397743) in Congress Friday that borrows its name from the successful ballot measure in his home state: The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act. As the title suggests, the legislation would remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances and put oversight of it under the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rather than the Drug Enforcement Agency. Like similar bills introduced by Polis and former Reps. Barney Frank and Ron Paul, it’s not going anywhere in Washington any time soon. While legalization of recreational marijuana may be underway in [Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia](http://www.governing.com/gov-data/state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html), it remains a non-starter on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers [even moved to bar D.C.](http://blogs.rollcall.com/hill-blotter/cromnibus-would-ban-d-c-from-legalizing-recreational-pot/?dcz=) from going ahead with its plans. But Polis’ bill title is revealing. Prior efforts to roll back federal marijuana laws went for 10th Amendment language ([Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2013](https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1523?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22marijuana%22%5D%7D)) or harkened back to fights over alcohol in the 1920s and ’30s ([Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011](https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/2306?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22HR2306%22%5D%7D)), while ballot measures outside Colorado went by numbers ([Initiative 502](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/i502.pdf), [Ballot Measure 2](https://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/bml/BM2-13PSUM-ballot-language.pdf), [Measure 91](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/measure91.pdf)). But “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol” is catchy and succinct. It avoids the pitfalls of talking about “legalization” (too vague), “prohibition” (too old-timey) and “recreational marijuana” (too permissive). And it makes its case in four quick words. Whether it’s on Capitol Hill or in the next statehouse fight, expect to see this phrase more in the future. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3717175/regulate-marijuana-like-alcohol/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3717175/regulate-marijuana-like-alcohol/"},"headline":"Colorado's Pot Rhetoric Hits Capitol Hill","datePublished":"2015-02-20T21:36:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:35:44.441Z","description":"Think booze, not drugs","url":"https://time.com/3717175/regulate-marijuana-like-alcohol/","keywords":["Congress","Marijuana","Drugs"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8fd30a5a86baacf/69877de9428a9e3f96cc6ffd/marijuana-dating-app-tinder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8fd30a5a86baacf/69877de9428a9e3f96cc6ffd/marijuana-dating-app-tinder.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"File - In this May 5, 2011, an unidentified man is seen smoking medical marijuana during karaoke night at the Cannabis Café, in Portland, Ore","caption":"File - In this May 5, 2011, an unidentified man is seen smoking medical marijuana during karaoke night at the Cannabis Café, in Portland, Ore","creditText":"Rick Bowmer—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3717175/regulate-marijuana-like-alcohol/","name":"Colorado's Pot Rhetoric Hits Capitol Hill"}}]}] ```