Jim Parco grew up in Pueblo. He remembers when the county had a thriving steel industry, and he witnessed the devastation of losing it. Pueblo never really recovered, and it remained one of the most economically depressed counties in the state for decades.
When Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, in November 2012, Jim saw an opportunity. The Air Force lieutenant colonel moved home and started a dispensary with his wife, Pam. Since then, Pueblo County has seen an economic boom — all thanks to marijuana.
It’s looking like the start of a beautiful friendship between the next Harris County sheriff and district attorney — or however else you want to put that in criminal-justice speak.
DA-elect Kim Ogg has pushed decriminalizing misdemeanor amounts of marijuana for the past two years and will finally have the chance to implement it come January 1 — but the proposal likely will come to hold more weight given Ogg is far from the lone reformer trying to change the criminal-justice landscape in Harris County. Sheriff-elect Ed Gonzalez has publicly pushed for the end to arresting people for possessing small amounts of marijuana, too. And with the two foremost law enforcement officers in the third-largest county in the nation gunning for what is bound to be a sweeping reform, Houston NORML Communications Director Jason Miller says the message this will send across the state and even the country will no doubt be significant.
Update: The Yes on 300 campaign is claiming victory for Denver’s social marijuana ordinance, even though all the votes still haven’t been counted a full week after the November 8 election.
Monday evening, the campaign received what it describes as a “near-final tally” on the measure, which will create a pilot program to allow adults to consume cannabis in permitted private establishments such as bars and restaurants. Denver Elections currently shows 53.01 percent, or 151,049 votes, in favor of Initiated Ordinance 300, with 46.99 percent, or 133,876, against.
Dear Stoner: Now that other states have legalized marijuana, what does that mean for Colorado? Will the roads be less crowded?
Kip
Dear Kip: Probably not. I’m not even going to get into the whole “legal weed is why this state is so crowded and more expensive” discussion, but maybe that will be settled over the next year, when Coloradans see yet more transplants coming into the state — even though several other states just legalized marijuana. Since 2012, Denver has regularly been in the top three metro areas experiencing employment, population and rental growth, and while that growth has slowed since 2015, this city is still growing. California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada all voted to legalize recreational marijuana on November 8, and although some California cities are popular with millennials, Boston and Las Vegas aren’t projected to experience anywhere near the growth in employment and residents that booming Western cities such as Denver, Portland and Seattle have.
Tommy Chong compared Donald Trump to weed four different times.
The comedian, pot advocate and cannabis-line celebrity was visiting Denver for the launch party of his cannabis line, Chong’s Choice, and the addition of edibles and pre-rolls to the menu.
Chong sat at a round table with his son, grandson and some associates. Forty minutes later, Chong was on the ground, roaring like a lion at Gus, the five-year-old for whom he built a tree house in his son’s back yard in Boulder. That tree house sits next to one for grandpa that will be a fully functional grow house in the next year.
On November 10, the International Association of Political Consultants, which is holding its annual gathering in Denver, offered a panel on The Politics of Marijuana. Four experts from various areas of the cannabis industry addressed an audience of about forty, describing how consultants can help the eight states that just legalized marijuana — four medical and four recreational — cope with the inevitable changing landscape.
“This last election was a true political tipping point. That is, we’re going to have such a large market with so many states involved, it’s going to be difficult for the government to try and do something against it,” said Ted Trimpa, principal and CEO of Trimpa Group.
The election of Donald Trump has raised concerns on a seemingly endless number of fronts. Note that the day after he defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, immigrant children were in tears at schools across Denver out of fear that their undocumented parents would be deported before the final bell of the day.
Also anxious are members of the marijuana industry, who worry that Trump’s personal antipathy toward cannabis could inspire him to try to shut down recreational marijuana businesses in Colorado and other states where they’re legal — a roster that grew substantially on election day.
The “No on 200” team in Pueblo County has proposed that Colorado become home to the National Marijuana Museum, and what better county to host it than the one that fought against repealing Amendment 64 at the ballot box this election. The organizers hope to have the museum open by the summer of 2018. In the meantime, here are ten suggestions for what they should include in the collection:
Marijuana supporters, industry reps and advocates gathered at two election-night watch parties in Denver on November 8.
Employees of five cannabis companies and their guests met up at the WeWork building on 17th and Platte streets, where tracking data for all nine states with marijuana measures on the ballot was displayed on a large screen at the front of the room; meanwhile, election results in the presidential race were playing on a television next to the projector screen.
A margin of 7,600 votes determined whether the retail marijuana market in Pueblo County would survive this election.
Question 200 appeared on the county ballot after opposition groups campaigned against the legal marijuana industry. If passed, 200 would have eliminated the cultivation of recreational marijuana, ended retail sales, closed existing cannabis businesses and left the 1,300 people working in the industry unemployed.