DENVER - Capping a sometimes bitter campaign rife with allegations of misleading voters and exploiting their fears of violent crime, residents Tuesday legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, 54 percent, or 56,001 voters, cast ballots for the measure, while 46 percent, or 48,632 voters, voted against it.

Also Tuesday, voters in the ski resort town of Telluride rejected a proposal to make possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by people 18 or older the town's lowest law enforcement priority. The measure, rejected on a vote of 308-332, was placed on the ballot in August by the Town Council.

"We educated voters about the facts that marijuana is less harmful to the user and society than alcohol," said Mason Tvert, campaign organizer for SAFER, or Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation. "To prohibit adults from making the rational, safer choice to use marijuana is bad public policy."

Bruce Mirken of the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project said he hoped the approval will launch a national trend toward legalizing a drug whose enforcement he said causes more problems than it cures.

He said government regulation - and taxation - of the drug would halt clandestine growing operations, make it more difficult for teenagers to obtain marijuana and free space in prisons.

But the Denver proposal seemed to draw at least as much attention for supporters' campaign tactics as it did for the question of legalizing the drug.

Tvert based the campaign on his argument that legalizing marijuana would reduce consumption of alcohol, which he said leads to higher rates of car accidents, domestic and street violence and crime.

The group criticized Mayor John Hickenlooper for opposing the proposal, noting his ownership of a popular brewpub. It also held up recent violent crimes, including the shootings of four people in a span of several hours last weekend, as a reason to legalize marijuana to steer people away from alcohol use.

The tactics angered local officials and some voters. Many opponents also said it made no sense to prevent prosecution by Denver authorities while marijuana charges are most often filed under state and federal law.

Tvert defended his actions, saying the campaign's statements were based on facts gleaned from government studies and crime reports. He also said he doubted that enforcement of federal laws would be strengthened in Denver, and said continued or increased enforcement of state laws in the city would violate voters' will.

Chris Bogren, 21, a political science major at the University of Colorado-Denver, said he came close to voting against the proposal because he was "really disgusted" by the campaign, but said he agreed with underlying arguments

"It is a lot more sedate of a drug than alcohol or a lot of other things," he said. "It doesn't necessarily lead to violence and the gateway-drug theory is bunk."

Under the measure, residents over 21 years old could possess up to an ounce of marijuana. It would not affect the medical marijuana law voters approved in 2000.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that medical marijuana laws in Colorado and nine other states would not protect licensed users from federal prosecution.

Tvert has said the campaign in Denver and similar, nonbinding initiatives passed by students at the University of Colorado in Boulder and Colorado State University in Fort Collins are part of a larger plan to move to state regulation and taxation of marijuana.