Colorado has been a pioneer in cannabis legalization, and now the country’s other pioneer is turning to Colorado officials for guidance in implementing a regulated system.
California was the first state to legalize medical cannabis in 1996 (Colorado followed in 2000), but voters in the Golden State didn’t vote to legalize recreational use until last November. And in following Colorado’s lead, it’s looking to Colorado for help.
Veritas is feeling the love this Valentine’s Day — and it wants you to, too. Veritas Fine Cannabis has a few strains that it suggests will help make your evening a memorable one. “Cannabis is something that, in an intimate environment, is going to make it better,” says Jon Spadafora, a sales and marketing representative for Veritas.
Although strains can affect people in different ways, sativas are generally going to provide increased energy and focus, while indicas will calm the mood like a nice merlot.
Programs like D.A.R.E. and the Just Say No campaign might not have kept the nation’s youth from smoking pot, but it’s possible that legalization could.
According to two recent studies, states that have legalized the recreational use of marijuana are seeing a decrease in illegal use by young people. Officials in both Colorado and Washington have reported a decrease in the use of marijuana by underage consumers, and credit increased education about the real effects of the drug, cutting back on the black market, and tight restrictions to enter a regulated dispensary.
The Colorado Department of Revenue just released its final statistics for 2016, the state’s third year of recreational marijuana sales — and MMJ and recreational marijuana sales combined totaled $1.3 billion in sales. In 2015, total sales came close to a billion but didn’t top that number.
What’s better than getting your honey a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day? Getting cannabis chocolates for your honey on Valentine’s Day. Here’s our rundown of some of the best chocolates in town, via Instagram:
Coloradans are known for our commitment to sustainable practices and organic products, but California’s OJAI Energetics is the first company in the hemp space to get certification as a B Corporation — a designation for businesses that are leaders of global movements and use their work as a force for good.
This week, the Colorado Department of Human Services, in conjunction with Governor John Hickenlooper’s office, formally requested that the General Assembly allocate more than $6 million annually from the state’s marijuana-tax cash fund for a new program that would offer help to chronic drug users as opposed to criminalizing them. Art Way, senior director for criminal-justice reform and Colorado director with the national Drug Policy Alliance, which worked closely with state agencies in crafting the proposal (it’s on view below), sees the impact of this approach as potentially revolutionary for those struggling with addictions to heroin and other heavy narcotics.
If approved, Way says, “marijuana tax revenue and marijuana legalization will fund broader drug-policy purposes and drug-policy concerns that have long had more of an impact on society, both from a human perspective and a fiscal perspective. We’re talking about other substances on which users become truly dependent, and people who are on the chaotic end of the use spectrum. So for marijuana legalization to fund this is a game-changer.”
The final numbers for 2016 will soon be released by the Colorado Department of Revenue; in the meantime, we did a deep dive into stats from the Marijuana Enforcement Division for the first six months of last year, and they reflect what we already knew: Cannabis cultivation and sales are on the rise.
Between January and June of 2016, Colorado issued 9,098 more medical licenses and 6,935 more retail licenses. In all, 16,033 licenses were added; that total covers retail and medical stores, cultivation facilities, product-manufacturing facilities and testing facilities. Retail manufacturing facilities alone rose by 15 percent from 2015.
Update below: The confirmation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general in the administration of President Donald Trump was touted by Senator Cory Gardner, who voted to confirm the former Alabama senator shortly after doing likewise for new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — a donor, along with her family, of nearly $50,000 to the Colorado Republican. But the news isn’t being cheered by Colorado’s other senator, Democrat Michael Bennet, or marijuana-industry representatives fearful that Sessions, a vocal pot hater, will soon order a crackdown on cannabis sales in Colorado and beyond.
After Sessions was confirmed by a 52-47 margin, Gardner released the following statement: “Mr. Sessions has an impressive legal career and a profound commitment to upholding the rule of law. I’ve had the opportunity to work with him in the Senate and witness firsthand his strong record of bipartisanship. I’m confident in his ability to serve as the chief law enforcement officer in the country.”
It took over a week for the city to count the votes, but on November 15, Denver officials finally announced that voters had approved Initiative 300, which allows the social consumption of marijuana in the city. Three days later, however, Colorado’s Liquor Enforcement Division (LED) adopted a new rule that prohibits any business with a liquor license from also applying for a social-consumption license.
On February 3, five plaintiffs — including Emmett Reistroffer and Kayvan Khalatbari — filed suit against the state over that rule.