GOLDEN, Colo. - It has been a little over a month since Coloradans approved a groundbreaking law legalizing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. Now that the celebratory haze has settled, state officials and marijuana advocates on Monday began sifting through the thorny regulatory questions that go beyond merely lighting up. Among them: Who can sell marijuana? How should consumer safety be accounted for? How might employers and employees be affected by the new law? At a packed meeting at a state building in this suburb west of Denver, a task force convened by Gov. John W. Hickenlooper began wrestling with some of these questions in an effort to forge a framework for how the law should work. [continues 525 words]
ANYONE PAYING attention knows that prohibition of pot alone has done little to prevent kids from using it. Today's children have no difficulty finding the drug. In fact, anti-marijuana legislation may have had the unintended and disastrous effect of giving parents and school officials a false sense of security. Beyond question, prohibition put the trade entirely into the hands of underground dealers who never check IDs. It is potentially easier to keep children off cigarettes because they are sold by regulated vendors who put their livelihoods at risk if they sell to minors. Underground dealers have no such concerns. [continues 475 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - President Barack Obama says he won't go after pot users in Colorado and Washington, two states that just legalized the drug for recreational use. But advocates argue the president said the same thing about medical marijuana - and yet U.S. attorneys continue to force the closure of dispensaries across the U.S. Welcome to the confusing and often conflicting policy on pot in the U.S., where medical marijuana is legal in many states, but it is increasingly difficult to grow, distribute or sell it. And at the federal level, at least officially, it is still an illegal drug everywhere. [continues 888 words]
The voters of Washington state are way ahead of the politicians in Washington, D.C. The cautions outlined in a Dec. 6 editorial, "Pot: Proceed with caution," highlight the pressing need for marijuana law reform on a national level. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. As a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy, I think the federal war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. Robert Sharpe Washington, D.C. [end]
RE 'TIME TO RETHINK the war on pot' (editorial, Dec. 11): The voters of Colorado and Washington state have made it clear that the federal government can no longer get away with confusing the drug war's collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has a higher rate of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana laws are rarely enforced. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. It's time to stop the arrests and instead tax legal marijuana. Robert Sharpe Arlington [end]
Did President Obama just create a thaw in the very cold, decades-long war on drugs? Following the passage of marijuana legalization measures in Colorado and Washington, Obama spoke to ABC's Barbara Walters with a new sense of gravity about drug policy. The Colorado and Washington ballot measures have put those states in direct conflict with federal law on marijuana, but Obama seems to be aware of shifting public opinion on this issue. "This is a tough problem, because Congress has not yet changed the law," Obama said, a phrase that seemed to open the door for Congress to do just that. He also said that the country needed to have "a conversation," whatever that means, but that he didn't think pursuing recreational marijuana users in Colorado and Washington should be a "top priority" of federal law enforcement. [continues 192 words]
President Barack Obama says he won't go after pot users in Colorado and Washington, two states that just legalized the drug for recreational use. But advocates argue the president said the same thing about medical marijuana - and yet U.S. attorneys continue to force the closure of dispensaries across the U.S. SAN FRANCISCO - President Barack Obama says he won't go after pot users in Colorado and Washington, two states that just legalized the drug for recreational use. But advocates argue the president said the same thing about medical marijuana - and yet U.S. attorneys continue to force the closure of dispensaries across the U.S. [continues 953 words]
Having followed the marijuana fiasco closely, I need someone to explain a few things to me. Although the possession of marijuana by those 21 years and older is legal, there has yet to be established an outlet where marijuana can be legally purchased. So where did the hundreds of those who were smoking pot under the Seattle Space Needle get their stash of pot from? Surely they were not all medical marijuana patients. Once the marijuana outlet stores are established, won't they become a revenue (tax) source for the political pocket picker? Larry Patella Vancouver [end]
Parker has decided to exercise its local control regarding Amendment 64 and outlaw retail marijuana shops while allowing regulated cultivation. The town outlawed medical-marijuana dispensaries in 2011. The majority of Douglas County voters voted down Amendment 64, which makes it legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana by anyone 21 or older, and allows cultivation and retail sale of the drug. Douglas County also recently outlawed retail stores in unincorporated parts of the county. "Our citizens don't want the medical marijuana and other dispensaries in our town," Parker Mayor David Casiano said. "Parker is a family town; we have a lot of kids. You've seen on Broadway all the dispensaries-we don't need that in Parker." [continues 143 words]
While the president says prosecuting pot users isn't a priority, what about growers and sellers? Many marijuana legalization supporters may be breathing easier today after hearing President Barack Obama say prosecuting recreational users is not a "top priority." But Obama's remarks-his first on the topic since voters in Colorado and Washington legalized pot for recreational use-fall short of the clarity needed on the issue from the federal government. Still unanswered is how the Justice Department will treat those who grow or sell marijuana commercially - in compliance with state laws, but in violation of federal law. [continues 362 words]
Local cities think they can use zoning to ban medical marijuana dispensaries ("Medical marijuana dispensary ban upheld again," Dec.3). But the majority of Californians voted to approve Prop. 215, legalizing medicinal pot, and local politicians should not have the after-the-fact power to ban it. The California Supreme Court also has ruled that medical marijuana patients have the same right to obtain their legal medicine as other patients do to obtain their prescription medication. The same legal principle should hold true of San Bernardino County's indoor-only cultivation policy ("Pot dispensaries banned," March 22, 2011). It should be an unconstitutional amendment of Prop. 215 because the people didn't approve it. The power of the people is stronger than the people in power. Steven Ruddick Angelus Oaks [end]
A man jurors acquitted of multiple marijuana felonies has sued the Larimer County Sheriff's Office after his 42 plants were destroyed, according to a lawsuit recently filed in 8th Judicial District Court. Denver lawyer Rob Corry said his client expects to receive $5,000 per plant (totaling $210,000), based on what law enforcers have testified a marijuana plant is worth, in addition to attorney fees. Kaleb Young, 34, had been growing the plants in a Wellington home in compliance with Colorado's medical marijuana laws and during a warrant search in September 2010 had shown deputies paperwork authorizing him to do so, according to the lawsuit. [continues 402 words]
Most of the discussions I have read about the legal ramifications of the passage of Amendment 64 seem to revolve around the level of intoxication as it relates to marijuana usage in the education setting, drugged driving, amount in possession and other criminal issues. However, I believe that a significant issue that is being overlooked is the matter of civil liability that could confront a business owner because of marijuana's characteristic of being detectable up to 72 hours after usage. [continues 191 words]
As Authorities Try to Nip OMMP Abuse in the Bud, Those Impacted Say They've Gone Too Far A FedEx box containing $29,920 of cleverly disguised cash bore Sherry Beveridge's name on the label, and she had an intriguing story to tell the cops who wondered why it was there. During a road trip to South Dakota, the Grants Pass woman told a Medford police officer, she had an amazing run of luck at a string of Indian casinos. She told police she cleared $40,000 by the time she reached her destination in Sioux Falls. [continues 1438 words]
Elections have consequences. Mitt Romney was poised to be President of the United States. He lost the election and ended up on the Marriott hotel chain's Board of Directors. He went from nearly being the next leader of the free world to trying to keep hotel guests from stealing from their hotel room mini-bars. Overlooked in the long race for president (won, as most marathons are, by a Kenyan) were some state votes on social issues. Washington State was the first to legalize the possession of marijuana without a doctor's prescription; Colorado followed this week. In a related story, Twinkies maker Hostess quickly emerged from bankruptcy. [continues 627 words]
Two States Wait to See If U. S. Officials Will Block New Laws SEATTLE (AP) - Officials and pot advocates looking for any sign of whether the Obama administration will sue to block legal pot laws in Washington state and Colorado or stand idly by as they are implemented got one from the president himself. But it did little to clear the air. While they welcomed President Barack Obama's comments that catching pot users was a low priority for his administration, they said it didn't answer a bigger question: Will federal prosecutors and drug agents also look the other way? [continues 634 words]
Regarding Tony Norman's Dec. 11 column ("Will Obama Let the Reefer Madness Go On?"), the voters of Colorado and Washington state have made it clear the federal government can no longer get away with confusing the drug war's collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. It's time to stop the arrests and instead tax legal marijuana. ROBERT SHARPE Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
Ah, the great American West, where man can generally breathe free and also inhale - woman, too. Thank you, thank you, voters in Colorado and Washington state, for legalizing marijuana. But will Washington, D.C., leave you alone? Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department will weigh its response to the state referenda. A new national poll finds 58 percent of Americans in favor of making marijuana legal and only 39 percent against. A raft of other state laws easing the prohibition on pot and growing public contempt for the existing law should be enough to change the policy. And so should a basic sense of decency. [continues 515 words]
The national buzz over decriminalized marijuana is threatening to cast a smoky pall over a vitally important, long-time-coming improvement in Indiana's criminal sentencing laws that deserves to gain General Assembly approval in 2013. Don't confuse the limited legalization of pot in Washington state and Colorado with what is happening in Indiana. Instead of making possession of even a small quantity of marijuana legal, Indiana is, so far, taking another approach. Here, an arm of the General Assembly, the Criminal Code Evaluation Committee, will put forth recommendations on marijuana possession violations as part of a comprehensive balancing of penalties - the sentences those convicted of crimes receive. That committee's work, some of which stretches back at least three years, is designed to better use Indiana's prison capacity and corrections dollars to punish the most serious offenses, such as rape, child molesting and other violent crimes. [continues 567 words]
On January 1, 2013, our new medical marijuana law goes into effect, but only as to doctors and patients. Dispensaries await licensing by the Department of Public Health after rules have been issued and the worthiest non-profit entities have been selected for licenses to cultivate and distribute medical marijuana to patients whose doctors approve. Initially, there will be a minimum of 14 dispensaries and a maximum of 35, statewide, with at least one, but no more than five, in each county. [continues 635 words]
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