After years of gaining little ground in Colorado, social cannabis consumption is finally making progress. On the same day a bill was introduced in the Colorado Legislature that would allow dispensary tasting rooms, and less than a week after a members-only pot lounge successfully opened in RiNo, the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses approved the Coffee Joint’s Cannabis Consumption Establishment license — making it the first establishment to ever hold a pot consumption license in Denver.
Last year, then-eleven-year-old Colorado resident and medical marijuana patient Alexis Bortell joined other plaintiffs in a lawsuit against pot-hating Attorney General Jeff Sessions over federal scheduling of cannabis. Yesterday, February 26, a judge with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the suit, but Bortell, now twelve, wasn’t distressed. Shortly after the news went public, a post appeared on her Facebook page reading, “We were ready. Smile. We know #SCOTUS [Supreme Court of the United States] is where we are probably going.”
The note ended with the hashtags #IStandWithAlexis and #AlexisBortell.
Windy Borman grew up during the height of the DARE era in the ’80s and ‘90s. She never smoked cannabis, which she knew as a gateway drug, because addiction ran in her family.
But Borman, 37, moved to Colorado for a job in 2014, the same year recreational pot was legalized. She had produced and directed films on topics such as elephants that stepped on landmines and learning disabilities, but she found a new subject in her new home: women in the cannabis industry.
After Denver Environmental Health prohibited sales of kratom for human consumption in the wake of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration alert late last year, advocates for the plant-based pain reliever spoke out, with many saying the product had helped them kick addictions to powerful opioids, including heroin. These testimonials are echoed by Roxanne Gullikson, facility director for Portland, Maine’s Greener Pastures Holisticare, a residential treatment center opening next month that will use kratom in combination with marijuana as part of a formal and comprehensive addiction treatment regimen. To her, Denver’s ban is both unjustified and potentially damaging.
Commercial cannabis is legal within Colorado state lines, but things are different outside of our pot bubble. And now two conservative organizations are joining forces to burst that bubble, while warning other states of what they believe has been a big mistake.
Dear Stoner: My friend got me some fine chocolate edibles for my birthday. Can I microwave them and mix them with milk, or would it take all of the THC away?
Madison
Welcome to 2018, when distinguished political reporters are jumping ship to report on pot. Run by longtime political reporter Peter Marcus, just-launched website TheNewsStation.com is striving to be the intersection between pot and politics while also shedding light on daily developments in the cannabis industry as a whole.
Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen announced with fanfare in August that he could squeeze $1.5 million in taxes from medical cannabis firms in 2017 by enforcing the law.
So far, the amount collected from dispensaries, cultivation facilities, and certification clinics has fallen short of estimate, and it’s still unclear just how much the county will take in. Phoenix New Times has the story.
Today, February 21, as we’ve reported, Denver’s National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws branch is taking part in a lobbying day at the Colorado State Capitol during which lawmakers will get the chance to learn about a major element in the group’s attempt to fix drug-testing laws that put cannabis users at risk of being fired for lawful use. Specifically, they’ll be able to try out Alert Meter, which tests for impairment rather than relying on blood or fluid draws that Denver NORML sees as undependable and unfair.
Combatting the stoner stereotype is the rage these days, and I’m all for it. Having moms and working professionals come out of the closet, hitting vape pens and microdosing edibles to kick ass and relax without the Cheetos, is great for diversifying the consumer image. But sometimes I just want to get giggly-baked, eat chicken nuggets and laugh at poop jokes, and I’m not afraid to admit it.