Author Michael Roberts

In late August, the Denver Responsible Use Initiative, a proposal intended to create venues for the social consumption of cannabis in the Mile High City, fell short of qualifying for the November ballot. Afterward, attorney Judd Golden of Denver NORML, which backed the measure, told us the organization had not yet decided whether it would support a rival initiative, the Neighborhood Supported Cannabis Consumption Pilot Program, should its ballot petition pass muster.

Shortly thereafter, the pilot program achieved ballot qualification — and the campaign for what is now known as Initiative 300 is in full swing on the eve of election day. But Denver NORML isn’t part of the Yes on 300 campaign’s final push.

In an interview with Westword published yesterday, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, who wrote a letter of support for an anti-marijuana legalization measure up for vote in California next week, said he believes legal pot has contributed to a crime increase in Colorado, including more homicides. But he acknowledged that data to prove it is hard to come by.

He’s right about that. However, an analysis of homicides in Denver circa 2016 provides more information. Our look at the 44 homicides that have taken place in the city so far this year (including a shocking twelve last month) shows four with a marijuana connection — one death fewer than the number of people killed by Denver police officers this year to date.

Update: Last month, we highlighted complaints about an Arizona campaign commercial opposing Proposition 205, a measure that would legalize limited recreational marijuana sales in that state; see our coverage below. The spot features two prominent former Colorado officials, ex-governor Bill Owens and onetime Denver mayor Wellington Webb, delivering claims that vacillate between misleading and completely untrue according to Colorado-based cannabis reformer and Proposition 205 advocate Mason Tvert.

Now, three Colorado officials currently in office — Senator Pat Steadman and representatives Jonathan Singer and Millie Hamner — are echoing Tvert’s complaints in a letter that calls on Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, the organization behind the commercial, to stop airing the falsehoods immediately.

It’s the sort of story that inspires locals to use the phrase “Only in Boulder:” Tyler Mason has been fired as a deputy and is facing multiple charges for allegedly trying to smuggle marijuana edibles and chewing tobacco into Boulder County Jail, where he worked.

On September 23, according to a Boulder County Sheriff’s Office release, an inmate at the facility told another staffer that a fellow jailee had arranged with a deputy to obtain the edibles and chaw.

The booking photo for Keith Hammock.

Update: Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey has now formally filed charges against Keith Hammock, the man accused of shooting two teens on October 9. The teens were allegedly trying to steal marijuana plants from Hammock’s back yard on High Street.

One of the teens died, while the other was severely wounded.

Hammock is facing two counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder, and one count each of manufacture and cultivation of marijuana. The filing also alleges that Hammock wounded a seventeen-year-old in September 2015 in a similar shooting incident.