| The inaugural My 420 Tours bus tour. |
In light of the Denver’s unexpected crackdown on what was to be one of the largest cannabis gatherings in the city, organizers of Wednesday’s cancelled event, along with vaporizer company O.pen VAPE, funneled their resources into the launch of My 420 Tours.
Basically, it consisted of loading reporters and smokers onto a party bus, handing out free, loaded vaporizers and riding around town to see a dispensary and a growhouse — replete with tour guides offering education on marijuana history, laws and, naturally, all you could ever want to know about O.pen VAPE. Josiah Hesse at the Denver Westword has the rest of his strange, wild ride.
Nathan Fete hopes to sell a lot of marijuana in 2014. Since Wednesday, January 1, people in Colorado have been able to legally buy marijuana for recreational use. And that means Fete, a St. Louisan who has been working in Colorado’s medical-marijuana business since 2009 and is now a co-owner of Beacon Wellness Group, a medical marijuana dispensary in Cortez, Colorado, is really busy.
The Riverfront Times has the full story.
Colorado’s legal pot sales may be the hot topic of pot news these days, but lawmakers in two neighboring states say they’ve got plants to legalize sales to adults 21 and up soon themselves.
An Arizona state representative and a New Mexico state Senator both say they are working on plans similar to the Colorado model that would legalize limited cannabis sales and possession for adults 21 and up.
California Governor Jerry Brown, apparently feeling the holiday spirit, spent a good part of Christmas Eve this year flexing an Executive power reserved only for state Governors, and the President of the United States himself – the power to pardon individuals of past crimes. While a pardon does not completely erase a crime from a person’s record, it does re-grant them certain rights, such as voting, serving on a jury, or in some cases even owning a firearm.
Governor Brown handed out a respectable 127 pardons this year, 93 of which pertained to drug-related crimes, many of those weed-related. The most notable from that array of individuals was 65 year old Robert Akers, convicted in 1968 of selling pot.
| Hash oil. |
Colon cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Out of you and twenty of your friends, it’s likely that one of you will develop colon cancer in your lifetime. Thankfully, there may be a truly beneficial therapy found in our favorite plant: cannabis.
A report filed last month in the International Journal of Phototherapy and Psychopharmacology shows that high-CBD cannabis extract can help prevent cancerous growth from spreading.
Florida state Reps. Katie Edwards and Matt Gaetz have taken the initial steps for a bill that would legalize limited-potency medical cannabis in Florida, namely strains high in cannabidiol (CBD) that can help with pain and seizures.
The pair say that their proposal stems from the now well-known, high-CBD, Colorado-bred strain dubbed “Charlotte’s Web” that has helped dozen of children suffering from severe seizures and shows promise for many other therapies as well.
| Sean Azzariti purchasing some Bubba Kush. |
Despite the snow, the holiday and the long lines, 3D Cannabis Center was abuzz with excitement yesterday morning with the start of recreational marijuana sales. Attempting to navigate both the media’s hungry demand for more information on this historic event and the public’s hungry demand for their first purchase of state government-approved marijuana, 3D hosted a press conference at 7:30 a.m. with those behind the A-64 campaign, followed by a strobe-light frenzy of camera flashes for what was presented as “the first sale in Colorado.”
Josiah Hesse from the Denver Westword has the local angle.
| Legal weed. |
Denver’s Westword newspaper was on the ground in Colorado yesterday for “Green Wednesday”, scouting out several recreational cannabis shops and purchasing some legal green to enjoy recreationally. Below, check out one account of buying herb at The Clinic early on in the day.
As of 4:45 New Years Eve, The Clinic wasn’t going to open for recreational sales today. But some last-minute scrambling, pleading and begging got them through the process enough to legally open their doors this morning at 8 a.m. The crowd was minimal at that point, with a lone would-be customer who drove all night from Montana outnumbered by a few reporters sensible enough to avoid the media circus at other dispensaries (we got reports that cameramen were openly cursing each other well before 8 a.m. at Denver’s 3-D).
| “Led Zeppelin!” |
The LAPD’s increased DUI patrols tonight will also include a beefed-up effort to find stoned drivers, authorities say. The department will expand its use of an instant drug test to include those pulled over in traffic. Previously it was used only at DUI checkpoints and at three LAPD jails, the City Attorney’s office says.
City Attorney Mike Feuer indicated the tests will come in handy when cops encounter those suspected of being under the influence of marijuana. There is good news, however, The test is purely optional. You don’t have to take it. LA Weekly has the full story.
Along with Colorado’s new marijuana laws legalizing limited amounts of herb for adults 21 and up came liberalization in the conversation around the state. People aren’t afraid to talk about marijuana in public anymore, largely because it’s not illegal to do so. It’s not uncommon now to hear people talking about strains or growing in any number of settings, including at ski areas.
Those pot conversations apparently bothered Christine Arakelian of New York on her recent trip to Vail so much that she wrote to Vail Resorts and cc’d the Vail Daily newspaper with her petty complaints about things that are now completely legal in Colorado.