Candace doesn’t particularly like sleeping outside, whether in the heat of the summer or the frigid winter. But as one of Aurora’s estimated 500 individuals experiencing homelessness, she doesn’t have much of a choice. The city’s only homeless shelter requires that its guests leave early in the morning, and after a bad night’s sleep in the crowded space, Candace is forced to sleep wherever she can outside.
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The Colorado Court of Appeals set a new precedent on July 13, ruling that signals from a drug-sniffing dog were not enough evidence for officers to search a vehicle without permission – all thanks to cannabis.
Mason Tvert, a key figure in the passage of Amendment 64, the 2012 measure that legalized limited recreational marijuana sales, and the Denver pot-legalization regulation that preceded it, is leaving his post as communications director for the national Marijuana Policy Project in favor of a similar position at VS Strategies, a Denver-based consulting firm that’s become a national powerhouse.
A Colorado credit union that’s been stymied in its attempts to serve marijuana businesses was given a boost on June 27 when a federal appeals court vacated a previous ruling that had banned the credit union from obtaining an account with the Federal Reserve Bank.
The most prominent anti-marijuana group in the country is touting the absence of language in a key Congressional funding bill that has protected the medical marijuana industry in Colorado and beyond from federal prosecution in recent years. But a cannabis advocate dismisses the suggestion that this development could soon unleash a law-enforcement blitzkrieg against the MMJ biz.
This week, Boulder police found approximately 31 pounds of marijuana in an open space area, not far from where three people were camping in violation of local ordinances. But none of them were hit with charges related to the pot, because officers couldn’t figure out to whom it belonged.
Legalizing medical and recreational marijuana may have seemed like the end of a long journey for consumers, but it was just the beginning of a vigorous regulatory obstacle course for advocates, lobbyists and industry members. As state and local governments continue to “build a plane as we fly it,” to quote former Colorado marijuana czar Andrew Freedman, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division wants your input during its next round of stakeholder meetings – but only if you know your shit.
Members of the Justice Department’s Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety have been ordered to “undertake a review of existing policies” regarding federal marijuana law enforcement, among other things. Their report is due on or before July 27, and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws believes the document may use as its template a list by a fellow at the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation of eleven ways the administration of President Donald Trump can shut down legal cannabis.
Scott Pack has been indicted by an Arapahoe County grand jury for what attorney Matthew Buck has called “the largest fraud case in the history of Colorado’s marijuana industry.” Buck, who filed a lawsuit in the matter earlier this year, says the grand jury’s findings tie Pack to what prosecutors describe as a massive operation that grew marijuana for distribution outside Colorado and previously led to the indictment of sixteen people, including Pack associate Rudy Saenz. Among those reportedly indicted along with Pack is Renee Rayton, a former officer for the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division.
Days after a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions surfaced, asking congressional leaders to revoke federal protections for medical marijuana, senators have introduced a bill that would protect medical marijuana patients in states where it’s legal while also removing cannabidiol (CBD) from the Controlled Substances Act and expanding research on marijuana.
Senators Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Al Franken (D-Minnesota) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Arkansas) introduced the Compassionate Access Research and Respect the States (CARERS) Act on June 15. The bill would protect medical marijuana users from federal prosecution, allow Department of Veterans Affairs doctors to recommend medical marijuana to veterans, and loosen multiple restrictions on cannabis research and medical compounds.