| Big photos below. |
The other week, I was dropping off my pop at the Oxford Hotel downtown around 2 p.m. when I noticed that the clock was wrong at Union Station.
Or, better, the clock was right on at Union Station.
Yup. 4:20. At 2 p.m. in the afternoon. I’m not downtown much these days (I’m stuck changing diapers), so I’m not sure how long it’s been like that. But I did go back the next day and snap another picture around 6 in the evening, and the clock was still at 4:20. Denver Westword has it all.
In an epically misguided Sunday sermon for the op-ed page of the Christian Post, Professor Michael Brown puts his dynamic range of ignorance about cannabis on display, summed up simply in the title of his piece, “What are they smoking in Colorado?”
More specifically, Brown targets Colorado Governor, John Hickenlooper, by asking…again…”What in the world is he smoking?” Completely ignoring the will of the voters in Colorado, who overwhelmingly supported Amendment 64, Brown goes right after the governor, attacking him for taking the estimated multimillion dollar revenues that legal weed is expected to deliver, and putting it back into the community.
The days when you had to actually smoke marijuana to get dosed with THC ended long ago with the discovery that the chemical can be melted into butter and baked into brownies. Ganjapreneurs in Colorado are taking things to a completely different level. In Denver, you can get high via balms, massage oil, under-the-tongue tinctures, and, yes, soft drinks and candy.
This was news to police in Corinth, Texas, who were surprised to discover that, in addition to a half pound of marijuana, Marisol Noriega, 20, was arrested with THC-infused gummies and sodas. An alleged accomplice, 23-year-old David Ramos, was arrested on Wednesday.
Read more at the Dallas Observer.
| Salted Caramel. |
Megan Auclair is not some tie-dye-wearing college kid whipping up potent pot brownies in the communal dorm kitchen. In fact, Auclair wants to wipe that stereotype from everyone’s subconscious.
Auclair is a medical professional, an entrepreneur, and as soon as the bill for medical marijuana passes, Auclair plans to heal the state with her yum-tasting THC-containing edibles. Assuming, of course, all her customers have prescriptions.
Broward-Palm Beach New Times has the full story.
| Miami New Times. |
Is Florida ready for medical marijuana? Well, yeah actually. The latest polls show that seven in ten statewide support legalized weed for various ailments, and supporters have gathered enough signatures to put the question on November’s ballot. One way or another, loosened mary jane restrictions seem coming to the Sunshine State.
But everyone knows Miami rocks to its own beat on just about every statewide issue. How’s the average Magic City resident feel about medical marijuana? Miami New Times‘ Kathryn Sotolongo took a camera to Bayfront Park to find out.
| Doug Gansler. |
Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler this week told the Baltimore Sun that he feels the legalization of cannabis is going to happen, and that as governor he would ensure laws are implemented “the right way” if such a change were to happen while he is in office.
Gansler joins the two other Democrat forerunners for the state Governor’s office with a pro-pot stance, state Del. Heather Mizeur and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown. Mizeur has campaigned openly on a legalization platform and Brown says that he would work towards decriminalizing up to an ounce of pot.
It’s been nearly five years since New Jersey passed medical marijuana laws in their state, but so far few dispensaries have opened and others have dragged their heels to the point where patients have had enough.
Yesterday, the state Assembly Regulatory Oversight Committee took an hour to listen to testimony from patients and dispensary owners fed up with the current system. Among their gripes: dispensaries have taken more than three years to open, patients in parts of the state have little access to legal meds and doctors should be able to write pot recommendations without having to sign up themselves up with a onerous physician registration system.
The hearing came after more than 16,000 emails and calls were made to the state health department from frustrated cannabis patients.
A medical marijuana dispensary in the Denver area doesn’t have any more impact on its neighborhood than does a coffee shop or a drugstore, according to a recent study released by the University of Colorado Denver. Not only that, but residents don’t perceive a dispensary as an undesirable use of a storefront.
These findings counter the constant negative messages coming from law enforcement and anti-cannabis crusaders. And apparently, even the researchers were shocked by the results.
Doubts about whether demand for recreational marijuana would cover the cost of the program put in place to regulate its sale appear to have been unfounded, at least during its early stages.
Evidence comes via Governor John Hickenlooper, who’s come up with a plan to spend recreational-pot tax revenues: $4.5 million this fiscal year and a heaping $99 million the next. But proponents of the amendment that made such sales possible are aghast at his proposal, which they call anti-pot and pro-booze.
The South Carolina legislature has cannabis on their minds and seem to be okay with industrial hemp, but don’t think they are coming close to actually legalizing pot anytime soon.
A bill allowing South Carolina farmers to grow industrial hemp moved through a state Senate agriculture panel Thursday with little opposition and a lot of support. Meanwhile, state Sen. Tom Davis filed a bill that would allow doctors to recommend CBD-rich oil to patients with seizure disorders.