Browsing: Cannabis Time Capsule

Does Michael Bloomberg think marijuana users are stupid?

Well, that’s really not a question. He’s already made his opinion known…and in Colorado.

“I couldn’t feel more strongly about it,” Bloomberg told a crowd at the Aspen Institute in 2015, after he was asked his thoughts on this state’s legalization of recreational marijuana. “It is different than alcohol. This is one of the stupider things that’s happening across our country.”

Colorado has somehow managed to survive six years of recreational cannabis sales without burning down. But even so, there were plenty of hot, skunky issues to cover in 2019.

This year, the Colorado Legislature further established this state as an epicenter of cannabis, passing laws that expanded medical marijuana access and legalized social use businesses, such as pot cafes and smoking lounges. The state also continued in its role as a guinea pig of regulation and cannabis culture, dealing with challenges ranging from moldy pot to equitable industry participation.

After trimming our way through the year’s stories, we landed on these as the ten biggest in 2019:

Colorado State University-Pueblo professor Tim McGettigan recently published The Politics of Marijuana, a book about the past, present and future of cannabis in the political and social sphere. Specifically, he focused on the anti-cannabis crusade of the 1930s and how it influenced the way cannabis is still taboo for many today, despite more nationwide support for the plant than ever before.

We caught up with McGettigan to learn more about his book and where he thinks cannabis legalization will take the country in the future.

Did you know that pot brownies became popular by mistake? Or that one of the world’s earliest edible recipes was used by a band of assassins? The history of cooking with cannabis starts over a thousand years ago, comes to a screeching halt in the twentieth century, then moves at light speed after 2012.

Already riding high off the success of her first foray into cannabis literature, The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook, author and journalist Robyn Griggs Lawrence — a self-described “digital nomad” who lived in Boulder for many years — now dives into humanity’s long relationship with eating cannabis in Pot in Pans: A History of Eating Cannabis. In this new book, Lawrence describes the ancient eating habits of Chinese and Persian cultures while teaching us about our own country’s past with the plant. We caught up with Lawrence to learn more about the history of eating cannabis and some of her favorite infused snacks.

Using cannabis legalization as a platform to popularity is all the rage for this latest round of Democratic presidential candidates. Nearly every candidate in the blue party has endorsed some form of cannabis-policy reform, ranging from full-scale legalization at the federal level to letting states decide on their own.

Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, who announced his run for the White House on March 4, arguably has more experience with the issue than any other candidate in this primary race: He presided over the state’s implementation of recreational cannabis from the vote for Amendment 64 in November 2012 through early 2019, when he was term-limited out of the governor’s slot. Under Hickenlooper, Colorado has earned more tax revenue from legal pot than any other state so far and boasts one of the most advanced medical marijuana programs in the nation.

Last August, when veteran reporter Peter Marcus announced that he was leaving the ambitious ColoradoPolitics.com project he’d helped launch the previous year in favor of a communications-director position with the rapidly growing marijuana dispensary chain Terrapin Care Station, he stressed that he wasn’t leaving journalism behind, and that he planned to start a website that would mix original stories with posts intended to counter misinformation being spewed by pot enemies.

That site, TheNewsStation.com, is now live, and included among offerings that Marcus says “promote the positive business and economic impact of the cannabis industry” is a section in which he tears apart what he sees as marijuana “fake news.”

Shortly after Amendment 64 passed on November 6, 2012, the flood of questions began. How much pot can I buy from a dispensary at one time? How many plants can I grow in my house? Why do I want to eat half my body weight in fried chicken after I smoke? To answer all of these inquiries effectively, Westword created a new position: the Stoner.

Though he doesn’t look like the sharpest tool in the shed, our Stoner has been here for all of your cannabis questions since it was legalized recreationally. Questions have ranged far and wide in the five years since voters spoke up (and toked up); keep reading for links to the the ten most interesting, relevant and ridiculous we’ve received:

On July 1, Nevada became the fourth state with open recreational marijuana dispensaries, following in the footsteps of Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. As newly liberated cannabis consumers flock to dispensaries for some of Nevada’s first legal herb, media reports are already showing the state is experiencing growing pains that Colorado’s cannabis industry can relate to.

This year marks a decade since the still-unsolved murder of Denver 420 Rally founder and groundbreaking Colorado marijuana activist Ken Gorman. But he hasn’t been forgotten. Indeed, current rally organizers meeting to talk about appealing the City of Denver’s three-year ban of the event brought along Gorman’s ashes, treating them like the equivalent of holy relics. And the mere mention of Gorman triggered both deep emotion over his loss and anger that his killer or killers have yet to be held responsible for their actions.

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