People 21 and over in Aspen and Glenwood Springs seeking marijuana without a prescription are on track to be able to buy it at a retail outlet starting Jan. 1. One cannabis-store operator said he has the requisite permits, and Aspen City Council today is poised to pass a new ordinance that will govern retail marijuana shops - there could be as many as eight in town by next year - much like liquor stores. Council members discussed the proposed Ordinance 38 on Sept. 16, and assistant city attorney Debbie Quinn wrote in a recent memo that the law's final language is ready for review after a few minor changes. [continues 764 words]
With marijuana poised to become big business in Colorado, some Roaring Fork Valley banks say they'd like to serve the legal marijuana industry. Yet they fear the federal government, which considers it money laundering every time a pot grower makes a bank deposit. "At one point in time we had a few accounts [with pot businesses], back when they first opened up," said Glen Jammaron, president of Alpine Bank in Glenwood Springs. That changed, Jammaron said, in September of 2011, when he got a newsletter from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the agency that insures all U.S. bank deposits. [continues 1002 words]
Dear Editor: I was going to stay out of this crap, but in the words of Michael Corleone, "They just keep dragging me back in." Aside from my misspelled word or 10, I've made a mistake I'd like to retract. Hey, you there! Yeah, you, without a faux pas now and then. Go ahead, chunk the first hunk. Anyway, I accused politicians of lying and then tried to honey it up a bit by saying they were simply bait-and-switch artists and that it was a federal crime. Well, it is but not for politicians. They are immune to this federal statute that prohibits people from being baited by advertising and promises only to be switched to a different article after they've taken the bait. Apparently this protects only consumers, not voters. What this means is that politicians cannot be held accountable for promises made to get elected. They can prolong an issue (sandbag) until the November elections so they don't alienate conservative voters. But you knew this, right? [continues 232 words]
Some elected officials in Glenwood Springs and Carbondale are concerned that there isn't enough space inside their town limits for the number of recreational marijuana grow operations that could apply for licenses there in the coming months. The Garfield County Commissioners banned recreational grows from unincorporated parts of the county earlier this week, and that decision will force at least 10 medical-marijuana cultivation facilities now operating in Garfield County into Carbondale, Glenwood Springs and perhaps New Castle and Rifle if they want to get a license to supply the recreational market. [continues 853 words]
(Editor's note: This is the final story in a three-part series examining the Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team, the drug task force known as TRIDENT; its undercover work and use of confidential informants; and its history, including the federal funding it receives, and why some law enforcement agencies have opted out of joining. Thursday's installment focused on TRIDENT's undercover operations; on Friday, an informant's story about why he signed on to help TRIDENT and the ramifications of his assistance, along with allegations about his behavior during that time, were covered.) [continues 2285 words]
Amendment 64 Could Make State the First to Allow Legalization Colorado has become the epicenter of the movement to legalize and regulate marijuana, and a proposed amendment on the November ballot that would allow adults over 21 years old to use and grow the herbal drug could have the added effect of delivering the state for President Obama, panelists said Friday at a discussion on the current state of pot reform. While there is no official coordination, Brian Vincente, a Denver attorney who is working to pass Amendment 64, said the "yes" on 64 camp is using a consulting firm that also is working with the Obama campaign, and that his group has been relaying messages to the campaign's Colorado staff. Specifically, they've shared information from one poll on voter enthusiasm that showed single women under 40, Latinos and so-called "surge voters" in Colorado - all of whom Obama needs a strong turnout from to win the state - are excited to pull the lever for Amendment 64, Vincente said. [continues 607 words]
If Pitkin County moves forward with banning medical marijuana grow operations and dispensaries in certain areas, it doesn't appear it will affect the status quo of the legal, local pot industry. County commissioners are working toward legislation that would, for the first time, regulate the pot trade in unincorporated Pitkin County. The new rules would issue business licenses to medical marijuana growers and dispensaries, allowing them to continue operating in the county. The state has asked for local rules to be put in place by July 1. [continues 371 words]
Aspen and Pitkin County's top lawmen met with federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents on Wednesday in an attempt to shed light on why they weren't notified beforehand of last week's arrests of six local residents on suspicion of alleged cocaine distribution. After meeting for an hour and a half, Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo and Aspen Police Chief Richard Pryor said the relationship with federal drug enforcement officials remains strained. "We don't feel we have taken any great strides forward," Pryor said, adding he is disappointed that no concrete agreement was reached. [continues 883 words]
Since the medical marijuana industry started budding in the Roaring Fork Valley, millions of dollars in weed sales have been realized for dispensaries, according to sales tax receipts in area municipalities. According to the finance directors in Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, in which there are a combined total of 20 dispensaries, $3.1 million in medical marijuana and related products have been sold. That equates to $52,000 generated in sales tax revenue for Glenwood Springs from September 2009 - when the city began tracking the industry - to this past October, according to finance director Mike Harman. During that period, $1.4 million was sold in pot and related products in Glenwood. [continues 329 words]
Beginning last week, Colorado law mandated that medical marijuana dispensaries grow -- or have a plan to grow -- 70 percent of their own product, and Pitkin County officials are now evaluating how they ought to regulate the rural pot farms linked with local shops. Five marijuana farms are zoned for agricultural use in Pitkin County, according to county community development director Lance Clarke. Growers statewide were required to report themselves to local jurisdictions by July 1, when state regulations went into effect, along with a moratorium on new pot operations. [continues 448 words]
This year's annual Squirm Night likely marked the first time that any candidates for Pitkin County commissioner have been asked how they planned to regulate marijuana stores and growing facilities in the county. The five men currently running for commissioner were asked, "what kind of role should the county have when it comes to medical marijuana laws and regulations?" It's a question never asked of candidates for county commissioner. While medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2000, it wasn't after the 2008 elections that dispensaries and grow operations moved into relatively secure compliance with federal policy and state law. [continues 636 words]
Pitkin County Undersheriff Joe DiSalvo, who is running for sheriff, said Wednesday night the last time he did illegal drugs was in 1984. That drew an incredulous response from one of his opponents in the race, Rick Magnuson, who is a 14-year veteran of the Aspen Police Department, which shares the basement of the county courthouse with the sheriff's office. "You've never done drugs, since 1984?" Magnuson asked DiSalvo. "I didn't say never," DiSalvo said. "I said the last time I did drugs was 1984. My answer was 1984." [continues 1054 words]
At least six would-be medical marijuana dispensaries filed paperwork with the city of Aspen indicating they would like to set up shop in town before a July 1 deadline. Pitkin County also received an application for a dispensary at the Airport Business Center, plus applications for four marijuana growing operations and three kitchens producing pot-infused edibles. The flurry of applications all came within a week of this past Wednesday, which was a deadline set under new state laws regulating the medical marijuana industry. After Wednesday, a moratorium was imposed on new dispensaries and grow operations while the state's new regulatory framework comes into play. [continues 439 words]
Multiple parties seeking to enter the medical marijuana business in Aspen filed paperwork for sales tax licenses Wednesday in order to comply with a state deadline. State laws passed this spring by the Legislature place a moratorium on new dispensaries that aren't already established or don't have an application in the pipeline before today. Aspen currently has four operating dispensaries, which sprung up last summer. It was not clear Wednesday night how many more had applied before the deadline, but local attorney Lauren Maytin confirmed that the deadline prompted activity. [continues 486 words]
GLENWOOD SPRINGS -- With the boom in medical marijuana dispensaries in the Roaring Fork Valley, area schools and businesses find themselves struggling to update their policies to address a question they never had to deal with before. How do you handle a student, or an employee, who shows up stoned -- with a prescription? State law allows marijuana use to treat medical conditions. Federal law doesn't. Unlike alcohol use, medical marijuana use can start at 18 -- or even younger with parents' consent. And also unlike alcohol, since marijuana is legal within a context of medicine, some users feel they're not only allowed to use it, but they have to use it. [continues 940 words]
After 11 years of working as a carpenter, Billy Miller watched the economy sour. But after watching interest grow locally around providing marijuana to patients legally registered to use the plant for medicinal purposes in the state of Colorado, the Carbondale resident found his new calling. The result is Aspen L.E.A.F. (Local's Emporium for Alternative Farms), one of two medical marijuana dispensaries to open in Aspen last week. Three other similar businesses are operating downvalley. In a former dentist's office at the corner of Spring and Main streets, Miller, 32, and two partners in the business say this is only the beginning. [continues 892 words]
Medical marijuana dispensaries are allowed anywhere in Aspen that allows an office, the city's top planning director said Thursday. The zoning interpretation came in response to at least two enterprises that have inquired where pot clinics could possibly open up in the city. Aspen's land-use code does not specifically recognize marijuana dispensaries but Chris Bendon, the city's community development director, said his office examined various zoning definitions and determined the dispensaries should generally be treated like pharmacies. [continues 668 words]
DENVER -- Hundreds of marijuana smokers stood up at a Colorado Board of Health meeting Monday and dismantled the pothead image one stereotype at a time. For starters, they motivated off their couches and packed the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria campus to protest a proposal to limit medical marijuana providers to five patients each. The audience was made up of persons in wheelchairs and crutches, reefer-promoting police officers, AIDS and cancer patients, and a woman who described herself as a "pro-life Republican mother." [continues 746 words]
"Aspen" and "cocaine" are nearly as synonymous as "Philadelphia" and "cheese steak." But when a 30-year-old local man was accused of selling and using heroin in Aspen last month, people were shocked. Most American heroin addicts, it turns out, are a lot like Ryan Welgos, the Aspen native who was arrested at the end of a months-long federal undercover operation. They are male, they are white, and they do not live in large cities. That last characteristic belies the notion that heroin use is an urban phenomenon, or that it doesn't exist in well-to-do places like Aspen. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 60 percent of heroin users live in rural areas. [continues 298 words]
There are some things higher than the laws. -- Clarence Darrow, 1920 The number of Americans arrested for marijuana-related offenses is inching toward 20 million. The first such arrestee, it turns out, was an unemployed overall-clad Colorado farmhand who sold two marijuana cigarettes to an undercover federal agent in a Denver hotel in October 1937. Sentenced to four years in prison, Samuel Caldwell died of stomach cancer in Leavenworth prison before he could complete the term -- also making him, some believe, the first unofficial medical marijuana patient. [continues 844 words]
