In the week leading up to the end of the Second Regular Session of the State Legislature, two major pieces of marijuana legislation met their fates.

In the first week of May, a proposal to certify organic marijuana at the state level was rejected in a Senate committee by a vote of 4-3, while Jack's Law, a bill requiring Colorado schools to accommodate the use of non-smokeable medical marijuana by students, passed both the House and Senate.

These bills are small, but significant pieces of legislation. They were necessitated by conflicts between state and federal laws concerning the rights of cannabis patients and consumers.

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Dear Stoner: I have a metal pipe that I can unscrew and clean, and the other day I had a great idea: What if I put a nug in there to get nice and sticky after smoking a few bowls? Will it be more potent?

JustBlaze

Dear Blaze: Now I know why natives get so annoyed with transplants, because no one who grew up here would ever think of doing such a stupid thing. No offense. Yes, sticking a nug in a pipe while you smoke can be a jailhouse way of coaxing it to get you a little higher, but it comes at the cost of your tastebuds, lungs and brain cells. That black stuff that covers the inside of your pipe is basically tar with some THC in it. Smoking it gets you high, but it's not worth the damage it does to your lungs or brain cells while you're coughing for five minutes - and it tastes like Bigfoot's dick.

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"The moratorium will not be extended" reads a line in the ordinance that the Colorado Springs City Council passed in late November, establishing a six-month moratorium on marijuana business licensing. Now, with that moratorium due to expire on May 25, Council is considering putting a new one in place - this time for a full year.

"I hear what you're saying, 'It's not an extension; it's a whole new ordinance.' I got you," Speakeasy Vape Lounge owner and City Council hopeful Jaymen Johnson said to Council at its April 26 meeting. "It seems you guys have figured out the loophole thing just as well as the clubs did, so congratulations. Glad we could show you how it's done."

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We are presenting this information in regard to the recent article that stated "Pueblo relies on our industry."

Toward the end of the article, Dr. Richard Rivera stated, "Nothing shows that cannabis is a gateway drug." Most importantly, Dr. Rivera stated the following, "I believe from a health point of view, there are no health issues connected to cannabis use whatsoever."

As health professionals concerned about the people of Pueblo, it is our responsibility to fully educate on risks associated with all drugs and in this case, marijuana. Is marijuana a gateway drug? A national study conducted by Robert Secades-Villa and his colleagues and published in the International Journal of Drug Policy revealed 44.7 percent of individuals with lifetime cannabis use progressed to other illicit drug use.

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I find it interesting that Posada and some other nonprofits continue to try and connect homelessness with the cannabis industry.

It's not far-fetched to see that Posada and these other nonprofits are the enablers of homelessness. You can go to Posada on any given day and Ann Stateleman will give you a handout.

If that doesn't work go see Rose Mertz at the Salvation Army for a handout, but if your still unsuccessful, then try Care and Share, the Soup Kitchen, Wayside Mission, commodities,social services and the list goes on.

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Ten people control nearly 20 percent of the 1,046 marijuana business licenses in Denver, and those owners have built their empires largely through acquisitions of smaller operations. With new industry caps on grow-facility and store locations in Denver, consolidation by the big players is likely to intensify. Some independent owners say tax and regulatory burdens make it difficult for smaller pot businesses to survive.

Vail's largest commercial developer. An owner of a car-detail shop. A former nonprofit event planner. A businessman who made a fortune in child car seats. A one-time Subway franchisee bankrupted by real estate losses.

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I am, unfortunately, glad to see all the coverage of the heroin epidemic in The Pueblo Chieftain and on Channels 5 and 13. We do need to keep this front and center. I do have a few minor corrections to the story in Sunday's (May 1's) paper.

I am a retired ER doctor, not an addiction specialist. And, I think Access Point Pueblo is serving well under half of the people who inject drugs in Pueblo. I base this on conversations I have every week with people who are accessing the exchange and who tell me they know a lot of people who still cannot bring themselves to take a chance on us and who tell us they are obtaining syringes for a lot of others who are afraid to come. And those are just the needle users.

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I read with some dismay that the Legislature and a list of honorable patrons are going to spend $900,000 of taxpayer dollars for cannabis research at Colorado State University-Pueblo. And The Pueblo Chieftain is so pleased.

How about that money going to the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office to offset the costs of all the pot busts that are going on in Pueblo West and the county. Why doesn't the Chieftain go to CSU-Pueblo on a Saturday night and do its own study (free)?

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Dear Stoner: Why doesn't Colorado have Amsterdam-style cafes? I remember reading about pot clubs trying to come to Denver.

Cole

Dear Cole: Colorado doesn't have cafes like the cannabis coffee shops in Amsterdam because of this state's stance on public consumption. Although it's legal to smoke pot in private areas in Colorado, public spots and businesses are still off limits. And while technically it's also illegal to consume marijuana in public in Amsterdam, Dutch law enforcement looks the other way when it comes to designated coffee shops. Sadly, our local cops aren't as cool: There are a few pot clubs in the Denver metro area that operate as private establishments and only allow members in to consume, but they still face regular harassment by law enforcement and other officials. Rigs 4 Us, a Denver smoke shop located in a private residence, was shut down on 4/20 when it tried to give out free dabs, and multiple pot clubs in Denver were shut down in 2015.

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Sued in Pueblo

A Pueblo resident is suing to roll back a ballot initiative that's trying to roll back retail pot in the county. That initiative, pushed by a group called Citizens for a Healthy Pueblo, is unconstitutional according to the complaint filed this week in district court asking for injunctive relief.

Local attorney Dan Oldenburg and tree-services company owner Kenny Gierhart filed for a petition on April 8. Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert "Bo" Ortiz certified it a few days later, saying they'd need signatures from 5 percent of registered county voters to make it onto the ballot. The question asks voters if they want to ban retail marijuana facilities, including cultivation, infused-product manufacturing, testing and stores.

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The Industry Is Intensifying Its Battle Against Pesticide Rules.

The Colorado marijuana industry is stepping up its fight against the state's efforts to regulate the application of pesticides on cannabis.

After passing in the state House, a bill that would have codified Gov. John Hickenlooper's November executive order - telling state agencies that any marijuana grown with unapproved pesticides is a threat to public safety and should be removed from commerce and destroyed-died in a state Senate committee last week.

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Pueblo Hospitals Have Joined a Petition Drive to Stop Recreational Marijuana Sales.

Dr. Steven Simerville worries about the number of babies being born in Pueblo with marijuana in their bodies.

The medical director of the newborn intensive care unit at St. Mary- Corwin Medical Center finds that mothers who abhor smoking cigarettes during pregnancy see no harm in smoking a joint.

"What I'm seeing in our nursery is a dramatic increase in babies who test positive for marijuana," he said. "The interesting thing for me is the number of mothers who use marijuana and want to breast feed. They don't believe marijuana is harmful."

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County Ran into City Pushback on Authority to Levy on a Single Product

Adams County's voter-sanctioned special tax on recreational marijuana sales, which went into effect last summer, was no easy thing.

Three cities - Northglenn, Aurora and Commerce City - sued the county, claiming that it didn't have the authority under state law to levy a tax on a single product. Coupled with their own municipal taxes on pot, they argued that an additional county levy would put retail pot stores in their jurisdictions at a competitive disadvantage to others.

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Fourth Corner Forges on in Bid to Be State's First Credit Union for Pot

The Fourth Corner Credit Union on Friday appealed a lower court's ruling that denied its bid to become the first Colorado credit union for the marijuana industry.

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson in January dismissed Fourth Corner's suit seeking a master account with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Jackson said granting access to the Federal Reserve's network would "facilitate criminal activity" because marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

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Congress and President Obama are under pressure to reschedule marijuana. While rescheduling makes sense, it wouldn't fix the broken scheduling system. Ideally, marijuana reform should be part of a broader bill rewriting the Controlled Substances Act.

The Controlled Substances Act created a five-category scheduling system for most legal and illegal drugs (although alcohol and tobacco were notably omitted). Depending on what category a drug is in, the drug is either subject to varying degrees of regulation and control (Schedules II through V) - or completely prohibited (Schedule I). The scheduling of various drugs was decided largely by Congress and absent a scientific process - with some strange results.

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The Legislation Lets Visitors to the State Buy As Much As Residents.

Colorado's tourists would be able to buy as much marijuana as residents if a bill moving through the legislature passes.

The measure repeals Colorado's unique-in-the-nation tiered purchasing system for marijuana. All adults over 21 are allowed to possess an ounce of marijuana - but retail pot shops can't sell more than a quarter-ounce in one day to people without Colorado identification.

The purchasing limits were established in 2013 to prevent marijuana diversion out of state.

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Job Could Be One of Highest-Paid in State Government

State health officials want to hire someone to keep an eye on marijuana legalization - at potentially one of the highest salaries in state government.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is advertising a position for a "marijuana health effects and research manager." The job will involve monitoring the health consequences of legalization; gathering data from hospitals, emergency rooms and poison control centers; and helping to lead an advisory committee that produces a report on legalization's outcomes.

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Dear Stoner: Why did the annual 4/20 rally (the one with Lil Wayne and Wiz, canceled on April 16) have to jump through so many obstacles for a permit, but the stoner fest at Civic Center on April 20 was just fine?

Scott

Dear Scott: The Official 4/20 Rally isn't just a group of potheads coming together; it comes with vendor booths, food carts and musical performances, and it requires tickets to get in, with some of the VIP tickets costing significant amounts of money. Because of all those commercial factors, the City of Denver considers it a "special event," so the event's organizers must register with the city for permits to hold the rally at Civic Center Park every year. And it's not just one or two permits that are needed: After notifying the surrounding neighborhood of the event, organizers must obtain permits from the Denver Fire Department, the Denver Police Department, Excise and Licenses and the Department of Environmental Health - and that's just the first four, with more to go after that. Unfortunately for everyone on April 16, Mother Nature doesn't issue permits.

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From page 2A In March, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 15, which reforms how pesticides can be used on marijuana. The original rules simply included a list of which pesticides could be legally used to grow marijuana. This new legislation instead provides a list of criteria that all pesticides must pass in order to be legally used to grow marijuana. The interesting thing about this legislation is not exactly what it entails, but how quickly it traveled through the legal process to become law. It was introduced in the Colorado Senate on Jan. 13 and by March 9 the bill was signed and made law. This shows that when legislation is very bipartisan, it can quickly travel through the bill process.

Colorado is lucky that we have both parties' support to be a model state on how the legalization of marijuana should be done.

Charles Bryce DeHaven, Littleton

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In addition to all the consumption-oriented festivities that went down on April 20, a march on City Hall brought a small but mighty crowd of medical marijuana supporters out to vent some frustrations. Their message? Leave our plants alone.

Amendment 20 may have legalized medical marijuana back in 2000, but patients now feel their rights are under attack. That attack comes in the form of a proposed ordinance to limit all residences in the Springs to 12 marijuana plants total, period, no matter how many adults, patients or caregivers live there.

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