Dear Stoner: I bought what I thought was cannabis oil from a doctor, but I was sent hemp oil. I told him I needed it for depression and anxiety. Did he scam me, or am I the ignorant one?
Marietta
Author Toke of the Town
A few years ago, a bill like HB 1011 would have seemed tantamount to Colorado flirting with greedy corporations hell-bent on squeezing out mom-and-pop cannabis shops while raking in mega-profits from the booming industry. But times have changed, says Representative Dan Pabon. He’s the primary House sponsor of HB 1011, which would ease restrictions on the cannabis industry’s growth potential by making the state more attractive to deep-pocketed domestic and international investors.
Colorado can now claim production of the first certified hemp seed in the United States after the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies officially validated one of its varieties. Fort Collins-based New West Genetics submitted its trademarked ELITE hemp genetics for AOSCA certification and received approval in 2017, according to an announcement from the Colorado Department of Agriculture.
I’ve never regretted my move from Arizona to Colorado a few years ago, even though I’m sure a lot of “natives” regret it for me. But while the scenery here is hard to beat, and seeing the Rocky Mountains on the way to work is a daily reminder of this state’s beauty, I’ll always miss the desert. And as I was longing for sherbet skies and shorts last week, cannabis provided a breath of home. Cactus Breath, to be exact.
A bill introduced in the Colorado Senate would require that a tracking agent be applied to medical and recreational marijuana and industrial hemp plants — even though the technology hasn’t been invented yet. SB 029 calls for “an agent that is applied to a marijuana plant, marijuana product, industrial hemp, or industrial hemp product and then scanned by a device,” in an attempt to improve marijuana tracking and help law enforcement officials distinguish where marijuana products originated. But some activists and businesses think the proposal goes too far.
Dear Stoner: I’ve noticed some random strains becoming popular, but why is that? I understand why Gorilla Glue or Sour Diesel are big, but why Blue Dream, Red Headed Stranger or something else uninspired?
KP
As we move into our fifth year of retail marijuana sales, it’s virtually impossible to ignore the boom in dispensaries around Colorado. Although certain “dry” areas don’t allow marijuana sales — Amendment 64 gave municipalities the right to choose which types of pot businesses to allow, or whether to ban them altogether within their jurisdictions — much of the state signed on for the green rush and hasn’t looked back.
The list of licensed recreational pot shops in Colorado was less than four pages long when sales began on January 1, 2014, according to the Marijuana Enforcement Division; today it runs nearly thirteen pages. Recreational cultivations have seen even larger growth, with that list of licensees going from five pages to nineteen.
Upon learning that Denver Broncos receiver Carlos Henderson was arrested yesterday, January 14, on a marijuana charge, most NFL fans are likely to assume that such busts are common for members of the team, given Colorado’s reputation as a cannabis mecca. But, no: According to a comprehensive database of NFL players in trouble, Henderson is the first Bronco in more than seventeen years to be taken into custody for an alleged weed violation.
Colorado cannabis sales saw a small but noticeable drop in November 2017, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. It was the third straight month of decreasing cannabis revenue.
Comedians had a great year in 2017. Anyone concerned with the political health of America? Not so much. No matter what part of the liberal-conservative spectrum you fall into nowadays, the argumentative state of bipartisan politics is both entrenched and insufferable. If Democratic Senator X does something despicable, his supporters will quickly counter by bringing up something equally or more despicable that Republican Senator Y did three months before.
All of this bitch-ass-ness had been stressing me out before Ol’ Jeffy stuck his nose in our legal cannabis. After he announced the end of several federal cannabis protections dating back to 2009, anyone supporting Colorado’s pot sector became paranoid — and it wasn’t from smoking too much Haze. But alas, I’m a stoner, not a political analyst. So instead of giving you hot takes on how to fix this country (you have Facebook and your dad for that), here are ten strains that will help you deal with the mockery all of these fuck boys in Washington, D.C., have been making of our country.