Pubdate: Thu, 15 Jan 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

TOP COPS GATHER TO LEARN POT LAW

Law Enforcers From Across U. S. Come to Study Colorado's Ways

Lone Tree - Fairbanks, Alaska, deputy police chief Brad Johnson 
stepped out of a meeting room Wednesday with the look of a freshman 
on the first day of class.

"It's a bit overwhelming," he said.

Ever since Alaska voters late last year legalized recreational 
marijuana, Johnson said he and other officials in the state have been 
rushing to catch up with the soon-to-be-enacted law, a scramble that 
led them to the Lone Tree Performing Arts Center on Wednesday.

There, about 500 law enforcement officers, regulators and government 
officials from across the country - including, Johnson said, about 40 
from Alaska - gathered for the first day of a three-day conference on 
the lessons and consequences of marijuana legalization in Colorado.

The conference is being hosted by the Colorado Association of Chiefs 
of Police and will feature panels on marijuana-infused edibles, the 
dangers of hash oil extraction and post-legalization home marijuana 
grows - topics that are familiar in Colorado but foreign to cops in 
many parts of the country.

Erie Police Chief Marco Vasquez said the goal is to share Colorado's 
hard earned knowledge on legalization with officials from around the country.

"The over-riding message," Vasquez said, "is, ' Don't underestimate 
whether marijuana legalization will occur in your community or state.' "

Scheduled speakers at the conference include former Colorado Attorney 
General John Suthers, Colorado U. S. Attorney John Walsh and Barbara 
Roach, the Drug Enforcement Administration's top agent in the state. 
Conference panels and speeches are closed to the media. Vasquez said 
conference participants wanted to have an open conversation about legalization.

A spokesman for Walsh, the state's top federal prosecutor, said 
Walsh's remarks Wednesday focused on the importance of collaboration 
between state, local and federal officials.

All of the scheduled speakers at the conference are from Colorado. 
But Ken Corney, the police chief in Ventura, Calif., said law 
enforcement officials from other states also will be able to add 
their perspectives. Corney said California "discovered the unintended 
consequences and impacts of things that weren't properly vetted," 
with its laws for medical marijuana businesses, which are not subject 
to the same kind of statewide regulations in California that they are 
in Colorado.

Johnson said he expects the conference to be invaluable as Alaska law 
enforcement officials prepare for the state's first marijuana stores, 
which are expected to open next year.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom