Pubdate: Sun, 04 Jan 2015
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Author: Tim Walker

GOING TO POT: COLORADO LEADS THE WAY

While Federal Law Says Possession and Sale Is Still Illegal, You Can 
Now Buy Recreational Marijuana in Four US States

Last year, on New Year's Day, I spent two hours queuing in the bone- 
chilling cold of a Denver January to be one of the first few people 
in the world legally to buy recreational cannabis over the counter. 
The drug has traditionally been tolerated in the Netherlands, but 
never truly legal. Portugal decriminalised it more than a decade ago. 
California legalised medical marijuana in 1996, and has since been 
followed by 22 other US states and Washington, DC.

But when Colorado's recreational marijuana dispensaries opened their 
doors on the first day of 2014, it was the first time the drug had 
been legal to buy for anyone over the age of 21, anywhere in the US, 
since the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937. After the 
dispensary staff checked the age on my driving licence and handed me 
a complimentary commemorative T- shirt, I picked out a bar of 
cannabis- infused chocolate and a premium, pre-rolled joint called a 
"caviar stick".

I kept the receipt for posterity and pulled it from my files this 
week. My purchases came to an almost round $ 30.54 (UKP 20), of which 
$ 5.53 were taxes destined for the state's coffers, to be used for 
schools and public building projects. One customer complained about 
the prices: $ 400 per ounce of cannabis, plus that hefty tax. The man 
muttered that he could buy the same quantity for $ 250 on the street, 
taxfree. But in the end he took his free T- shirt and paid for his 
goods like the rest of us.

Everyone I spoke to in Denver then seemed happy about legal pot. A 
year on, they're still happy  whether they've been smoking it or not. 
Colorado collected more than $ 60m in taxes, licences and fees for 
marijuana in the first 10 months of 2014, a figure that doesn't 
include the harder-to-gauge savings made from not enforcing the 
defunct drug laws. Opponents of legalisation have disputed FBI data 
that appeared to show a significant drop in crime in the state, but 
reports suggest legal weed has at least had an impact on the criminal 
trade in Mexico, by undercutting the price of cartel cannabis.

Colorado's pioneering experiment has proved successful enough to 
inspire other states, and in November Alaska and Oregon both 
legalised marijuana for recreational use, while Washington DC opted 
to legalise the growth and possession of small amounts of the drug. 
With the movement gaining momentum, as many as 10 further states may 
be asked to vote on the issue in 2016.

Legalisation has gone less smoothly in Washington state, which, like 
Colorado, voted to create a legitimate recreational weed market in 
2012. Unlike Colorado, however, it lacked an existing, regulated 
medical marijuana system to provide a framework for the recreational 
marijuana trade. Washington opened its first dispensaries in July, 
but prospective pot-business proprietors have faced an interminable 
licensing process, a supply shortage and major competition from the 
black market, yielding only around $ 15m in taxes in the second half of 2014.

There have been bumps in the road for Colorado, too. Its marijuana 
tax revenues may sound impressive, but they're modest in the grand 
scheme of a state budget. The pot tourism boom promised by advocates 
of legalisation has so far failed to materialise. And the state is 
now looking at extra legislation to govern the production and sale of 
popular but potent pot-infused food.

So-called "edibles" may be a more practical alternative to smoking 
the drug  the law prohibits smoking pot outdoors, and few hotels 
allow it on their premises  but many consumers have complained of 
uncomfortable experiences after mistakenly ingesting too much 
marijuana too quickly. Others fear that children will confuse 
colourfully packaged cannabis products for regular sweet snacks. A 
decision on new rules for edibles will be made by Colorado 
legislators this year.

And yet, strip away all the peripheral details of legalisation 
social, financial, digestive  and you are left with the simple fact 
that Colorado residents and visitors can now use marijuana in all its 
forms without fear of legal consequences. In a society that also 
permits people to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol and drive cars, 
that only seems right. Last January, in an interview with

The New Yorker, Barack Obama suggested as much, when he said he 
believed pot was less dangerous than alcohol "in terms of its impact 
on the individual consumer". The President, who smoked marijuana as a 
young man, said he saw weed, "as a bad habit and a vice, not very 
different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up 
through a big chunk of my adult life".

Marijuana possession and sale remains illegal under US law; and while 
the Obama administration has allowed legalisation to spread through 
several states unhindered, the chances of federal legalisation are 
still far off. A push for national reform would mean doing battle 
with several government agencies built especially to wage the War on 
Drugs, not to mention the mighty US prison-industrial complex, almost 
half of whose inmates are incarcerated for drug offences.

So it is up to the states, not all of which are pleased about the new 
legal trade. Last month, Nebraska and Oklahoma brought a l awsuit 
against neighbouring Colorado, claiming they were being inundated 
with cannabis from across state lines. There is, of course, a much 
cheaper option than taking legal action - and that would be to 
legalise the drug themselves.

Rupert Cornwell is away
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom