Pubdate: Sun, 28 Dec 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

ONE YEAR AFTER THE LEAP INTO LEGALIZATION, WORLD'S EYES ON COLORADO

One year after he became, unofficially, the first legal recreational 
marijuana customer in America, Sean Azzariti sits on a couch in 
Denver's 3D Cannabis Center and looks up to see ... himself.

The 4-foot-wide photo hanging over the couch shows Azzariti, an Iraq 
war veteran chosen for the ceremonial first purchase for his advocacy 
on post-traumatic stress disorder, cocooned by cameras on Jan. 1. The 
subsequent year - media requests, speaking gigs, advocacy awards, 
cannabis celebrity - washed by in what Azzariti calls "waves of 
awesomeness." Shane Martin checks out the grow room Jan. 1 after 
buying recreational marijuana at 3D Cannabis Center in Denver. (RJ 
Sangosti, Denver Post file)

"So, I have to ask," a somewhat star-struck young guy says to 
Azzariti, nodding toward the picture. "Did you really say, 'One 
marijuana, please?' when you were at the counter?"

Azzariti laughs no. It's just an urban myth that arose from an 
artist's rendering of the first purchase.

"But feel free," he jokes, "to tell people that I did."

Only one year in, Colorado's unprecedented jump into marijuana 
legalization has become the stuff of legend.

For opponents and supporters, the state comes up repeatedly in the 
evolving discussion about marijuana. It is perhaps the most 
underappreciated consequence of legalization. By becoming the first 
place in the world to actually legalize commercial sales of marijuana 
to anyone over 21, Colorado made the worldwide debate over pot more 
vibrant than it has ever been.

Those in favor of legalization now think of Colorado - and, to a 
lesser extent, Washington state, which debuted a smaller marijuana 
market later in the year - as a kind of political homeland. The 
states' campaigns and resulting industries were the inspiration for 
pro-pot successes in two more states this fall and are the blueprints 
for coming 2016 campaigns in as many as a half-dozen states. They 
helped foment never-before-seen congressional rebellion against 
federal enforcement of marijuana laws.

"It would not have become a topic of national debate so immediately 
if Colorado's laws hadn't come online early in the year," said Aaron 
Houston, a D.C. lobbyist for the company WeedMaps who has worked on 
pro-marijuana issues since 2003. "Colorado's law was a game-changer 
because it shifted the debate at the federal level from if to when." 
Many strains are visible through the glass cases at High Country 
Healing. (Kathryn Scott Osler, Denver Post file)

Those opposed to legalization, though, see Colorado as a cautionary 
tale - hard evidence of the kinds of dangers that they previously had 
been able to warn of only in the abstract. In speeches in states and 
countries considering legalization, marijuana opponents now talk 
about accidental pot ingestions, lower-than-predicted tax revenue, 
gaudy industry advertising and even deaths. They cite examples of 
each from Colorado's first year of legalized sales.

"We're able to say, 'Here is what legalization looks like in 
practice, not just in theory,' " said Kevin Sabet, one of the 
nation's most prominent legalization foes as a co-founder of the 
group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. "That's actually very valuable."

The on-the-ground reality, of course, has been less stark than either 
side's version. Marijuana legalization has changed Colorado. It's 
just tough to say exactly how.

Marijuana is more available in Colorado than ever before, but it's 
unclear whether marijuana consumption has risen as a result. Teens 
are less likely to think that marijuana is harmful, and marijuana 
arrests at Denver schools are up, but that hasn't yet translated into 
measurably increased use. More people may be driving stoned, but 
traffic fatalities are down.

The smell of pot is more common along Denver's 16th Street Mall.

Tourism to the state hit record levels this year. But how much of 
that has to do with marijuana?

After a full year, legal marijuana sales are an experiment still very 
much in progress.

"People are trying to jump to conclusions much faster than the data 
allows," said Andrew Freedman, the man in charge of coordinating 
Colorado's policy efforts on marijuana legalization.

The jumps are even bigger because of Colorado's data-collection woes. 
The state lacks systems for quick, accurate measurements of youth 
use, marijuana-related incidents at schools, stoned driving and many 
other questions. State officials this year commissioned a 74-page 
report titled "Marijuana Data Discovery and Gap Analysis" just to 
address the problem. One person in the Department of Public Safety is 
now in charge of coordinating data-collection efforts for 2015.

"If we can't measure something," a frustrated-sounding Barbara Brohl, 
the executive director of the Department of Revenue, said during an 
October meeting on marijuana regulations, "we can't improve on it."

Even when there are numbers to measure legalization's impacts, they 
often tell unexpected tales.

For instance, state tax revenues from recreational marijuana once 
were predicted to top $100 million in the current fiscal year. 
They're on pace for a little more than half that. And, aside from the 
dollars constitutionally mandated to go to school construction, state 
officials haven't seen the revenue as a budgetary windfall. They've 
instead proposed the money all go toward marijuana-related issues.

In 2014, police said marijuana legalization would cost more for them 
to enforce than marijuana prohibition. Employers tightened their 
drug-testing policies, even though it was legal for their employees 
to use marijuana. More people became registered medical marijuana 
patients, despite the presence of a less-restrictive recreational market.

"The big assumption here was that human behavior is a light switch," 
said Skyler McKinley, Freedman's deputy, "that you legalize marijuana 
and everything changes overnight."

That resiliency of old ways proved a boon to state regulators trying 
to implement legalization. Because Colorado already had a robust 
medical marijuana industry - and because the recreational marijuana 
industry initially was restricted to people who already owned a 
dispensary - the transition into legal sales was more of an evolution 
than a revolution.

Freedman said Colorado's years-long struggle to develop effective 
regulations for medical marijuana ended up being "pre-turbulence" for 
the roll-out of the recreational industry. Washington state, which 
didn't have a well-defined medical marijuana industry, has seen a 
much bumpier start to recreational sales.

But Colorado had its notable problems in 2014 - issues over the 
packaging and potency of edible marijuana products were especially 
unforeseen. But for supporters of legalization, the lack of drama 
locally over the opening of new marijuana businesses is Colorado's 
greatest success.

"We can't say the state has gone to hell in a handbasket," said Brian 
Vicente, one of the leaders of the legalization campaign in Colorado.

"The number of I-told-you-sos that I have had to do," said Mason 
Tvert, another legalization leader, "has been remarkable."

That is not to say that things haven't changed.

Toni Savage, the owner of 3D Cannabis Center, said the most she ever 
grossed in a single year operating a medical marijuana dispensary was $400,000.

This year, she's on track to top $3.5 million in sales - with more 
than half of those coming from out-of-state tourists.

But bigger sales means bigger tax bills. Not only is she paying 
nearly $100,000 a month in state and local taxes, she also expects to 
have a $500,000 federal tax bill because she can't deduct business 
expenses in the same way that stores that aren't illegal under federal law can.

"I made a ton of money," she said, "but I owe more than I have."

The situation could get even tougher in 2015 because the state has 
started to allow newcomers into the recreational marijuana business. 
Savage said stores fear a glut of marijuana, which could drive down 
prices that have budged only slightly since the beginning of 2014.

"If you're in the business, it's going to get really ugly," she said.

It's the change in the amount of attention Colorado has received from 
outside the state that defines the first year of legal marijuana 
sales. This was the year a New York Times columnist got stoned in a 
Denver hotel room, hallucinated that she had died, then wrote about 
the whole experience. Snoop Dogg recorded a theme song for a Colorado 
gubernatorial candidate, and Bill O'Reilly, upset over legalization, 
mused about running for the same office.

It was a sign of things to come that, on opening day, one of the 
first people in line behind Azzariti at 3D Cannabis Center was a 
documentary filmmaker.

Azzariti said the interest has given him opportunities around the 
country to talk about using marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

But, befitting the transition the nation finds itself in over 
marijuana, he's also discovered the attention goes only so far.

It turns out, Azzariti never smoked what he bought on Jan. 1. 
Instead, he's hoping he can donate it to a museum.

"I even called the Smithsonian," he said. "But I don't think they 
thought I was serious. They were like, 'Yeaaah, we'll get back to you.' "
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom