Front Tea & Art Shop Becomes Hive CO-Op At Night

LAFAYETTE -- By day, The Front Tea & Art Shop sells papier-mache piggy banks, handmade flutes and elaborate carvings alongside tea leaves and hemp coffee.

By night, the eclectic cottage at the corner of S. Public Road and Cleveland Street becomes the Hive Co-Op, billed as Colorado's first cannabis-friendly coffee and tea shop, where customers can gather to smoke pot or use vaporizers.

The co-op is BYOC: bring your own cannabis. There's a 1-ounce limit, $5 cover charge and 21-years-of-age requirement with a valid ID. Oh, and a point of decorum -- former Lafayette dispensary owner Veronica Carpio, who runs the place, prefers the word "cannabis" over "marijuana."

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Republican Tillie Bishop: 'We're law-abiding regents'

The University of Colorado Board of Regents on Wednesday approved a resolution opposing Amendment 64, the state ballot measure that seeks to legalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol.

The measure passed 5-0 after an attempt by Regent Stephen Ludwig, D-Denver, to suspend the motion indefinitely.

Three regents abstained from the vote: Ludwig, Irene Griego, D-Lakewood, and board chairman Regent Michael Carrigan, D-Denver. Regent Joe Neguse, D-Boulder, was absent.

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Shutting down the University of Colorado's campus to visitors Friday thwarts the public's right to protest government policy, Mark Silverstein, legal director of the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said today.

CU announced that the grassy area of Norlin Quad -- which in past years has drawn more than 10,000 people for the unsanctioned 4/20 marijuana smokeout -- will be closed entirely, and the school will apply a fish-based fertilizer to the lawn.

The entire CU-Boulder campus will be closed to the public, unless visitors have gained permission ahead of time.

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Drug-Related Hearings Had Been Increasing With Medical Marijuana Boom

University of Colorado student Andreas Wion got caught with a marijuana-packed pipe outside of his dorm room last school year.

To satisfy the sanction from the school's judicial branch, Wion paid fines and performed five hours of community service by helping with a school recycling project. Wion said he took a survey about his marijuana usage and the sophomore, who now has a medical marijuana license, said he wrote a paper about how he wouldn't smoke pot -- on campus.

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Campus Also Ranks No. 13 For Hard Liquor, No. 16 Party School

The University of Colorado's Boulder campus slipped a notch in the "Reefer Madness" ranking from the Princeton Review this year, coming in at No. 6 on the 2010 list, which was unveiled Monday.

Students on the Boulder campus have been behaving slightly better, according to the latest round of ratings.

The Boulder campus this year also ranked No. 13 for "Lots of Hard Liquor" and No. 16 for top "Party Schools." Last year, CU ranked No. 11 for "Lots of Hard Liquor" and "Party Schools."

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Benefits Of The Drugs May Be Minimal For Those With Mild, Moderate Depression

Antidepressants have little effect on people with mild or moderate depression, according to a new study that involved a University of Colorado researcher.

The new study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the benefits of antidepressant medications may be minimal or nonexistent for those with moderate or mild depression.

However, the benefit of medications is substantial for patients with severe depression. University of Pennsylvania researchers led the study, which included research from Sona Dimidjian of CU-Boulder.

The study suggests that doctors should consider recommending self-help, exercise or psychological therapy as alternatives to antidepressants for patients with mild or moderate depression cases.



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Student smokers, in perhaps the cliched easy-going fashion associated with marijuana, are getting ready for the annual 4/20 celebration on the University of Colorado campus.

Official smoke-out T-shirts sold online simply say: "University of Colorado. April 20. Farrand Field." And a group on the networking Web site Facebook is demanding that Slightly Stoopid, an acoustic reggae hip-hop group, come play at CU for Sunday's event -- but it stops short of organizing a concert. "Nobody got in touch with us," said Matt Phillips, public relations coordinator for the group, adding that Slightly Stoopid is interested in coming to Boulder for a fall concert. (The band is playing at Red Rocks on Aug. 15, and signed a contract agreeing not to play in the nearby market for five months prior to the concert).

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University of Colorado police on at least five occasions this semester have taken marijuana away from smokers on campus and gave warnings instead of tickets, records show.

According to police, the warnings have nothing to do with the campus initiative students passed last spring that asked officials to lighten up the penalties for lighting up their pipes.

"It has no bearing on how we're doing business," CU Police Lt. Tim McGraw said Thursday.

CU officials have said they will not bend to a marijuana reform group that pushed the student measure through last spring and now is waging a controversial campaign in Denver.

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New student leaders also elected; fee for crew fails

University of Colorado students this week approved a measure that asks officials to ease up on marijuana penalties.

The referendum, put forth by the Boulder-based group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, asks that university officials make sanctions for marijuana use no more severe than they are for comparable alcohol violations.

Polls in the campus wide election closed Friday night. Students approved 10 of the 11 referenda that were put before them.

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SAFER Wants Priority Shifted to Alcohol Enforcement

Marijuana is a much safer drug than alcohol, a new campaign says, and punishments for smoking a joint or taking a hit from a bong are too harsh.

"Alcohol has long been linked to overdose deaths, sexual assault, violent crime and vandalism on campus," said SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert, a recent graduate from the University of Virginia. SAFER stands for Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation. The nonprofit group was founded last month and is organizing campus chapters at the University of Colorado and Colorado State University, Tvert said.

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