Colorado's "Year of Green" (MJ): The Highs, the Lies and the Lows

One of the first retail MJ customers delivers high fives at a Denver Pot Outlet in January.

Now that nearly 365 days have elapsed it is possible to assess the past historical year whereby one state (Colorado) came to be the marijuana mecca of the world.  Enough data is now available to show how successful Amendment 64 has been, in legalizing the retail sale of marijuana. Despite that, too many are unaware of the level of success, as well as the level of failure - given the fact that one less-publicized aspect of 64 is  that local communities, even counties, could opt out. (This had been an important part of the amendment's wording, allowing choice in whether any given locale would take on MJ retail sales or exclude them.)

First, some of the facts compiled from the Denver Post ('Legalization Review', Dec. 28):


- Colorado's annual demand for MJ:  130. 3 metric tons

- Adults 21 and older using MJ at least once per month:   485,000

- Total medical MJ sales - January-October:  $326, 716, 273

- Proportion of MJ sales to out of state tourists in mountain communities - 90 percent

- The proportion of Colorado MJ users who consume it each day:  23 percent

- Amount brought in from taxes, licenses and fees - January-October: $60.1 million 


To read through the preceding, the unwary might conclude the state is awash in stoners, leaning against buildings and barely able to get themselves from point A to point B. They might also wrongly conclude retail pot stores are all over the state. In fact, the Post's stats show that more Colorado communities (165) have chosen to disallow retail pot sales than have accepted them (53).  Check that ratio again and it is more than three to one NO. Yet this is one of the aspects that has rarely been publicized.

According to industry spokesman Mike Elliot, of the Marijuana Industry Group:

"I think the local option is one of the best aspects of Amendment 64. If communities don't want this, it shouldn't be forced down their throats."

Well, that depends. What if, for an entire county, the Amendment passed, but its city council decided to ignore the voters' will?  The Post has noted two radically different approaches, one that respects the citizen and the other which basically spits on his vote.

For example, in Lakewood, CO in November, the City Council gave voters the chance to cast votes in a specific separate referendum that would have allowed the opening of pot retail stores. According to Mayor Bob Murphy, "the issue was important enough that city leaders felt the decision ought to go to a vote of the people, rather than be decided by the city council".

The referendum result was to scrap pot shops in Lakewood for now by a 53- 47 % majority.

Colorado Springs, conservative bastion of military interests that it is, chose to go in the opposite direction, making a city council decision that took it out of citizens' hands. They probably knew, given the fact the amendment passed by 5,000 votes in 2012, they might not win and they didn't wish to take that chance. In other words, they didn't trust we the citizens to make the right decision.

The fallout as many have noted, is that the $6-9 million a year the Springs might have gotten via taxes, fees - to fund its Pioneers Museum - will now go to neighboring Manitou Springs which has recently allowed retail pot, wisely noting COS' negative is Manitou's gain. Sadly, the City Council will have to continue to beg for $ for its daffy museum, but most of us will have no sympathy for them - given they already "made their bed".

The Lies and the Lows:

Yes, there were lies and lows that emerged over the year. First, some of the lows:

- The death of an African college student from Wyoming who - after eating an MJ cookie and not attending to the warning dose- jumped off a building

- A father of two, shooting and killing his wife after he ate several MJ candies and began hallucinating.

- Incidents of MJ edibles ingestion by children rushed to ERs

- NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd comes to Colo. and eats an MJ cookie without noting the dose, then writes a crap column about her "psychotic" experience.

Since these transpired, Colorado MJ regulators and the businesses have gone all out to more properly assay THC content in each product, including cannabis oil.  They have also packaged edibles more securely with  more prominent warning messages and the THC doses in edibles such as cookies, candies.   Of course, as many in the MJ business have pointed out, parents are also expected to do their part in minding what their kids are doing.

The lies:

- You can openly buy MJ on the street (only in the black market- not the regulated one!)

- If an adult purchases marijuana edibles only he or she can transport them across state lines. (Absolutely not!)

- People who purchase marijuana at a retail outlet can then smoke it  -like a cigarette- on the street. (No you may not, you are expected to take it back to your domicile to use it)

- Any kid can just grab an MJ edible off the shelf of a pot retail shop. (Fact: No kid is even allowed close to an MJ shop and no kid would be permitted entry!)

- MJ businesses can openly advertise their wares in newspapers, magazines and on billboards. (Absolutely not - any marketing has to be via word of mouth!)

- MJ edible candies look exactly like name brand candies such as Tootsie Rolls, M & Ms, Snickers bars.

- More people have been busted for driving under MJ influence than for alcohol.

Meanwhile, the Denver Post in its editorial yesterday, did correctly note that with the implementation of the new law, marijuana use by Colorado citizens has increased. But this would be expected if any new business had opened up, in any state, and it sought growth. After all, to survive a business must grow which means building a customer base. And many of these will be people who are curious about the product, and have never tried it before.

As the owner of the Pot retail chain Euflora observed on MSNBC's series 'The Pot Barons of Colorado', many of her customers are trying it for the first time, largely in the form of the edibles. As word spreads on how good the edibles are, and their mellow effects - taken in the proper dose - then many more new customers sign on. Basically, their numbers are only limited by the types, amounts of product they desire.

But as the earlier stat cited from the Post showed, that still means only 485,000 people using even once per month. That is barely 9 percent of Colorado's population, so it's not as if the whole state is under the influence of pot or even a tenth of the state's populace.  This is important so that outsiders keep it in perspective.

There is still much to be done, and the next year may well show if the pot business is here to stay or if it turns out to be merely a temporary craze. My bet is that - having seen the MSNBC series and the Post's review - it is likely to stay and become a credible model for responsible MJ businesses for other states.

There will always be naysayers, of course, and this is to be expected with the end of any era of prohibition, look at the 1930s with alcohol. But in the end, the fewer laws on the books which can put people away - take away their freedom for an individual choice - the better. And the more the states can regulate and tax the more likely they are to be able to fund such things as education and pensions - when other sources are collapsing.  It is certainly to be preferred over casinos!

Colorado - The 'Promised Land' For Marijuana Cures?

The Denver Post's four part series on Ana Watson and her son Preston was heartbreaking, as it documented the pair's move from North Carolina (referring to themselves as "refugees") in an effort to find some kind of relief  or treatment for Preston's seizures. (Preston is among a rare group of kids across the U.S. suffering from Dravet syndrome - a rare form of epilepsy which completely disables a child's language and social skills - as each seizure destroys more brain tissue).

The search for a cure, according to the Post (Dec. 9, p. 7A) has led to "hundreds of families moving to Colorado to treat their children with medical marijuana"

This, despite the fact there is no guarantee of a cure or even successful long term treatment that can allow symptoms to abate.  A large part of the problem too, is the dearth of research into MJ's medical benefits (assuming they exist) when the feds themselves remain against it.  This is despite the fact that one form of MJ oil, called "CBD"  (cannabidiol) has been researched independently on animals for years - and found effective. ( Cannabidiol is that compound in cannabis that confers medical benefits but has no psycho-active effects, indeed it counteracts the effects of THC.)

"CBD" is the MJ-derived substance referred to  as 'Charlotte's Web'. The Post in a side story ('Medical Marijuana Credited With Progress for Charlotte Figi', ibid.)  described how five year old Charlotte Figi's Dravet syndrome seizures were ultimately controlled by its administration. Since infancy, little Charlotte suffered from debilitating seizures and practically lived at the hospital. Then in February, 2012, when she was five - her parents gave her CBD and everything "changed literally overnight".

To be specific, according to the Post account, "she slept soundly for the first time in years. She went seven days without a seizure. Over time the seizures dropped fro thousands  a month to just a few. And after not speaking for six months, she started talking again."

Miracle cure? NO!  CBD.

While CBD has been described as a "strain of marijuana" the fact is, it is not. According to MJ researcher Joel Stanley ('What Exactly is Charlotte's Web?', op. cit., p. 9A):

"Charlotte's Web is the brand name of the oil that Stanley makes from marijuana plants."

He's identified two strains, CW1a and CW2a,  which go into making 'Charlotte's Web'. Apart from the two named strains, there are 14 others - all with identifiers beginning with 'CW'.  According to the Post account:

"Stanley and his brothers now engineer the Charlotte's Web oil to try to ensure a consistent 30:1 ratio of CBD to THC (the active component in marijuana) in every dose."

This fixed ratio info has been of immense benefit to Ana Watson who has been able to vary the CBD to THC proportions for son Preston to elicit the optimal results. While Preston still struggles, he is finally able to say some words, and also ride a bike (at least his own way). Watson, like the other Dravet parents, knows that successes may only come slowly if at all, but they're not prepared to give up.

Two organizations currently serve the parents, Realm of Caring based in Colorado Springs and Flowering Hope Foundation in Boulder County. Currently the Realm serves 350 in Colorado, and 10,000 names are on the waiting list. Flowering Hope has more than 120 patients.

Currently, the parents from the two groups, when  not at their child's side or attending meetings with providers and medical experts, are out campaigning via a political movement (led by both organizations) to push for pro- CBD laws in state legislatures across the nation. They reason, correctly, that all families struggling with Dravet syndrome should not have to move here to Colorado to obtain hope or treatment.

Already, in states such as Alabama and Utah, some of the parents' stories have broken through paving the way for discussions to liberalize cannabis laws.

Until that is done, and prohibitions taken off the books, families will continue to flock to Colorado as the only "Promised land". In the meantime, Colorado is prepared to fight off lawsuits filed by Nebraska and Oklahoma which claim that Colorado's MJ is "spilling over into their states" and corrupting their upstanding people.(Who drive to CO to get the retail, psychoactive products.)

Maybe these yahoos need to do more research on CBD so families don't have to flee like refugees to get to Colorado for relief of  their kids' Dravet syndrome.

Denver MJ ''Smokeout' Is Mellow - No Riots or Mass Murders!

As most of us expected, the 4/20 annual marijuana smokeout occurred uneventfully yesterday with thousands gathered peacefully in a sun-drenched Denver Park, to the rhythms of trip-hop music played through booming speakers. Perhaps a third or more were tourist MJ users, who made the pilgrimage to Denver to partake of legalized weed (though, technically, it isn't supposed to be used out in the open - only in your little domicile.).  

As of 5 p.m. Sunday, Denver police had written only  47 marijuana-consumption citations. On Saturday, they issued 22 pot tickets. Though signs warned against smoking out in the open and organizers instructed people not to puff up, the predictable cloud of marijuana smoke arose like clockwork at 4:20 p.m Sunday.  Clearly, the laws that specifically forbid pot smoking in the park were not being enforced, and even the normally staid Denver Post proclaimed: "And that is how it should be at a pot rally with tens of thousands of people."  Indeed!

Despite the rising MJ mushroom puff cloud, the world didn't stop, the crowd didn't suddenly become a riotous mass of stoners, nor did they mutate into mass murdering zombies - as some hysterical voices predicted. (This, after a father of three shot and killed his wife in a tony Denver suburb three days ago, after consuming marijuana candy. More on this below). Nor did masses of the stoned climb up to the top of  buildings and dive off. (This was forecast after an African college student consumed a whole MJ cookie a few weeks ago and jumped off a four story landing.)

 Short of mayhem and suicide, the Nervous Nellies  fretted that the  nation's press would flock to the rally and photos from the big smoke-out would become the iconic image of Denver as they circulated around the web and the 24/7 cable world.. But lo and behold, Denver did not become a laughingstock and police didn't barge into the crowd to write $150 citations to anyone and everyone they could nab.

By all accounts this first major smoke out since Amendment 64 passed went even better than the most optimistic could forecast. The event, originally heralded as a rally for marijuana rights,   was really a celebration. Activists numbered among the crowd and they still believe there are matters to protest surrounding pot, even with legalization (such as whether Colo. employers can fire workers who smoke MJ on their own time, and whether landlords can prohibit it). But few who came to the park on Saturday and Sunday seemed to have activism in mind. This was a victory dance and one that will be taken note of in other U.S. cities.

"Give us this one day," said Lily Berryman, 18, of Fort Collins, who sported marijuana leaf sunglasses.

"Weed smokers aren't the type to get up all in your face," she said. "We do it at home or behind closed doors. So we just want this one day to smoke and have fun."

 This may well be so but issues still need to be dealt with in terms of MJ  content standardization, especially of edibles like cookies and candies. Also, more high profile warnings need to be made about mixing pot edibles with prescription drugs.  This came to light after a 44 year old mother of three was shot in the head several days ago even while she was on the phone to 911 reporting her husband's aberrant behavior.

Her husband had not long before purchased a bag of MJ candies and gobbled them down, despite having taken a powerful pain killer earlier.  Suddenly he went into hallucination mode - thought he saw "demons", and begged his wife to take the gun from his hand and shoot him. We don't know exactly what he saw but it's a good bet the mixture of drugs, THC and his weapon didn't add up to anything pleasant. Suddenly, as his wife reported to 911 he was pointing the gun at her, and he fired it. Since that incident, shrill warnings have erupted about MJ's dangers ....and maybe legalization wasn't such a great idea after all.

Which, of course, is nonsense, since the same thing could have occurred had the guy downed a fifth of Bourbon and mixed it with the same drugs. But when these alcohol-related incidents occur you barely hear about them,

The other aspect that needs to be addressed is the matter of standardizing potency of all edibles, in terms of the active MJ component, THC.  For example, the African college student had come to Colorado to partake of an edible MJ cookie, with his mates. He (and they) were warned by the store proprietor that each cookie contained 6 1/2 servings - based on the active component, THC. Hence, they were advised to break each cookie into six pieces and consume only one piece at a time. The college student instead took the whole cookie back to his room and gobbled it. (He had claimed he felt no effects, so kept on eating  -not waiting for the effects to surface).  He was unable to sleep properly and then at some point, awakened and jumped out his fourth floor hotel window.

Both these incidents are sad, and never should have happened. But they don't prove that Amendment 64 was a bad law, or that MJ stores ought to now be shuttered and banned. What they do show is that people need to show more discretion in their consumption of these products, and those who make them need to take more care to ensure the same amount of THC in an MJ cookie, is also disclosed in an MJ candy, and that proper lab tests have been conducted to ensure the quality is the same. Something is amiss if a person is left hallucinating after taking a half an MJ candy with 10 mg THC, but his bud has nothing happen to him having consumed the same. (In some recent press reports proprietors have admitted that the potency can and does vary wildly.)

New users, especially, have been advised to take it easy, especially with edibles.

Meanwhile, both wifey and I have agreed we've no intention to try anything "out of curiosity" or "to see what it's like".  We have our own 'drugs' of choice, namely ice cream and biscotti nibbles - with our coffee each morning.

That is about as radical as we plan to get, though we do wish the state's MJ experiment the best in proving to the nation it can work.

Coloradans Had Better Be Unemployed If They Want to Partake of MJ Retail Stores

A retail store in the Denver area gets ready to open for business January 1st.

Well, the news is out that the first licenses in the United States that permit retailers to sell marijuana for recreational use from 1 January were issued in Colorado yesterday. Owners of marijuana (MJ)  dispensaries lined up to collect the permits in Denver and an initial batch of 42 licenses were issued, most to growers but around a dozen to shops.

Colorado already licenses more than 500 medical marijuana dispensaries, and only those outlets may apply to sell it for recreational use. State authorities have already approved 348 recreational sale licenses but businesses also require a local license, the first of which were those issued in Denver on Friday. Meanwhile, a festive atmosphere imbued the normally staid city licensing office in Denver on Friday. Justin Jones of Dank Colorado in Denver picked up his  grower’s and retailer’s licenses for recreational pot on Friday to add to his newly-acquired state license in readiness for expanding his medical business for recreational purchases on January 1st.

The good thing about the new law - approved under Amendment 64 last year- is that Colo. residents can smoke weed in their own domiciles even if their particular county (like mine, El Paso County) has prohibited the selling in retail stores. One can also drive provided that one's blood doesn't exceed a limit of 5 nanograms of the active ingredient in cannabis, THC, while operating the vehicle.

At the same time, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division spokeswoman Julie Postlethwait explained that the laws do not permit consumption of marijuana in public in any form nor on the premises of dispensaries in California-style pot cafes. As she related to the media:

“You buy it and take it to your private property to consume.”

NOW  - the bad news is that the law hasn't changed a thing in regard to how state employers deal with workers who smoke MJ. If they therefore catch you with even a smidgeon of THC in a random drug test  - you can be fired on the spot. Also, this means that they are in control of your MJ smoking habits whether on the job or OFF.

In other words, let's get it clear - if you are gainfully employed you still don't have the freedom to puff weed during off work hours, because any given positive drug test (say the next day)  can allow your employer to fire you.

The conclusion, harsh as it is:  The only citizens possessing the genuine freedom to partake of the new law will be those who are unemployed. The downside is that they won't be able to afford the product, at $200 an ounce.

Yeppers, life is indeed a bitch!