Search Results: governor (548)

Marijuana cafes, lounges, dispensary tasting rooms and other social-use businesses will soon be legal in Colorado, now that Governor Jared Polis has signed a bill that regulates social pot consumption.

“Colorado has many tourists and residents who choose to participate [in legal cannabis use]. Up until this bill, there’s been no way to have safe public consumption,” Polis said before signing the bill on May 29. “I’ve smelled it walking my dog. For many of us with kids, we want to make sure we don’t have that in our neighborhoods.”

Autism spectrum disorder could be added to Colorado’s list of conditions treatable with medical marijuana if Governor John Hickenlooper approves a bill that passed the General Assembly on May 4. HB 1263, introduced by state Representative Edie Hooton, went through the legislature with relative ease after it was introduced in March, but not without changes.

As originally drafted by Hooton, the bill was designed to add acute pain to the state’s list of medical marijuana conditions in hopes of combating opioid addiction. Before its introduction, however, she was approached by mothers and advocates of children suffering from ASD. Persuaded by their stories and studies taking place in Israel and Chile on marijuana benefits for ASD, Hooton added the condition to her bill…and it soon proved the most winning component.

Colorado’s cannabis industry has been holding its collective breath ever since President Donald Trump nominated Jeff Sessions for attorney general. And since he was sworn in, Sessions, a proponent of the war on drugs, hasn’t been shy about saying that marijuana should remain illegal federally.

In a proactive move, on April 3 the governors of four states with recreational cannabis businesses up and running at the time — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — sent a letter to Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, urging that federal officials “engage with us before embarking on any changes to regulatory and enforcement systems.”

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper can’t seem to give a national interview without legal cannabis grenades being hurled at him. As a result, he’s become a seasoned veteran on the topic.

During a Facebook Live interview with Politico’s Playbook Exchange in Denver on August 1, Hickenlooper talked about his efforts to connect with Denver suburbs and rural Colorado, health-care coverage, his brief brushes with President Donald Trump and, inevitability, pot.

After the passage of Amendment 64 in November 2012, Governor John Hickenlooper, who had not endorsed the measure, reminded supporters of the proposal to legalize recreational marijuana in Colorado that “federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or [Goldfish] too quickly.

Today, governors of the four states that were first to legalize recreational marijuana —  Hickenlooper in Colorado, Jay Inslee in Washington, Kate Brown in Oregon and Bill Walker in Alaska— sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, urging them to respect the rights of the states to pass such measures, and to consult with the states that have been operating under 2013’s Cole Memorandum before making any enforcement changes. Here’s the letter:

In an effort to curb the illegal marijuana market in Colorado, the Colorado Senate approved HB 1220 on March 29 by a unanimous vote; the measure would set a new, lower limit for the number of plants a medical patient or caregiver may raise in a residential area. Senator Bob Gardner sponsored the bill to change the statewide cap in an attempt to cut down on outsized grows that could become tools of cartels.

Amendment 64 permitted Coloradans to have six plants for recreational purposes, but medical patients and registered caregivers were allowed up to 99 plants unless local rules called for lower limits. New Mexico has the next highest limit: twelve immature and four mature plants.

After White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that we should expect “greater enforcement” of marijuana laws, particularly regarding recreational sales, Colorado politicians responded.

Governor John Hickenlooper appeared on MSNBC on February 24 and then on Meet the Press on February 26 when he was in Washington, D.C., for a governors’ conference. During both appearances, he noted that he did not approve of marijuana legalization when it passed in Colorado, adding that he continues to be wary despite the fact that legal marijuana raked in over $1.3 billion in sales last year in this state alone.

Governor Doug Ducey’s work to defeat marijuana legalization in Arizona has included a lot of behind-the-scenes fundraising, including a pricey propaganda talk this week at a posh hotel.

Ducey’s the headlining special guest for the “roundtable discussion” and reception that begins at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Sanctuary on Camelback, 5700 East McDonald Drive, in Paradise Valley. He’ll be joined by two heavyweight Colorado prohibitionists: John Suthers, mayor of Colorado Springs and former Colorado attorney general; and Sergeant Jim Gerhardt, member of the openly prohibitionist Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force.

Rick Scott can’t stop thinking about pee.

A federal judge told him to drop the plan. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals told him it was illegal. Then the U.S. Supreme Court refused to listen to his arguments. Even the facts are against him (the program wastes more money than it would ever “save”).
But despite losing over and over in every court around, Gov. Rick Scott is still fighting for the right to force state employees to pee in a cup. And the legal bills for his quixotic quest are now inching toward a cool million bucks — funded, of course, by taxpayers.

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