The City of Denver has received its first official application for a cannabis consumption area inside a business. The Coffee Joint, a planned coffee shop and pot lounge at 1130 Yuma Court, just off Interstate 25 and West Eleventh Avenue, submitted its application on Friday, December 8, according to Daniel Rowland, director of public affairs for the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses.
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In an effort to learn how cannabis use affects driving, Colorado’s two major universities are studying the change in a driver’s balance, movement ability and reaction time after consuming pot – but to better mirror consumption trends, the study uses subjects who just smoked something much more potent than the schwag our parents grew up with.
Given the lack of impairment research, marijuana’s effects on drivers aren’t as documented as the effects of alcohol, but according to a new poll, Americans already know what to worry about: our addiction to cell phones.
United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to make remarks that alarm state-legalized pot industries and consumers across the country. During a press conference on Wednesday, November 29, announcing new grants and Drug Enforcement Administration projects to combat the national opioid crisis, Sessions told reporters that the Department of Justice is looking at ways to increase federal enforcement against cannabis use, something he called “detrimental” to the country.
United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified in front of a House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, November 14, for more than four hours, answering questions about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, Planned Parenthood and his department’s investigation of black extremist groups. Sessions’s comments in response to those queries all created headlines, but there was one more hot-button issue he couldn’t avoid: pot.
As the clock hit 6 p.m. on Monday, November 6, at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Denver, some of Colorado’s most prominent advocates of recreational cannabis legalization celebrated the fifth anniversary of Amendment 64’s passage. Members of the Marijuana Policy Project, one of the country’s biggest proponents for legalizing cannabis, enjoyed the night as they spoke about their past victories and the challenges to come both in Colorado and elsewhere.
To help combat the risk of driving while under the influence of cannabis, three organizations have again partnered on a program offering ride-sharing discounts. Lyft, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Marijuana Industry Group have revved up their collaborative 320 Movement program, offering monthly ride discounts through April 2018.
The headline of a post published in this space last year posed the question, “Is Pueblo the Drug Bust Capital of Colorado?” And in recent months, law enforcement in the community has answered this question with a resounding “Yes,” particularly when it comes to marijuana crimes with an international flavor. In a series of raids over the past four months, the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office, working in conjunction with other agencies, has seized more than 8,000 cannabis plants at allegedly illegal grows associated with foreign nationals. Among those arrested as part of the operations were eight men from Mexico and four from Cuba.
One of the country’s most well-known think tanks is calling out United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his repressive attitude toward cannabis, particularly medical marijuana. On October 25, the Brookings Institution published an essay criticizing Sessions for his “biases on the issue, a division of opinion between him and the president he serves, and a federal government effort to stand in the way of the free conduct of research” with regard to growing medical marijuana for research purposes.
Public opinion of cannabis has shifted rapidly over the past five years; since Coloradans voted to legalize recreational marijuana in November 2012, seven other states and Washington, D.C., have also voted to legalize cannabis for adult use. And the rest of the country apparently approves, according to a new Gallup poll that shows Americans favor legalization at a higher rate than ever before.