Marijuana aka...

[ysi]

So I stayed up to watch the election returns and wait for the midnight concession speech, and in my stupor I thought I heard that Colorado passed something allowing recreational use of marijuana, in addition to medical use.

I. Is this true and did it take effect immediately after the election?
2. Was there an immediate court injunction and it is on hold?
3. Do you walk into the local beer/cigarettes store and buy it?
4. Will it be for sale at farmer's markets and roadside stands?
5. Walmart?
6. Was an age limitation included?
7. Do they only sell to those with Colorado drivers licenses?
8. Will the weed runners out of Mexico now drive past Colorado?
9. How much?
10. How high is Rocky Mountain High?

It sort of reminds me of driving across a state line to buy fireworks.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I am reasonably sure that if you Google some of your questions, you will get answers.

[Formerly SK]

WA passed it too.

[Angel!]

Yes, it passed. 21 & up & the state won't prosecute you for having up to an ounce. Don't expect to see it in Walmart, liquor stores, or at roadside stands. The risk of feds will keep chain stores out of the business.

There are already medical shops everywhere, so I expect they will merely apply to expand their license to general sales.

I have no clue as to price. Occasionally I see signs advertising the price for 1/8, but not being a smoker I don't pay much attention.

As far as when, I imagine they have stopped prosecuting carrying immediately, but I expect it will take 6 months or so to work out licensing for shops & growing.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Colorado has one of the best legislative frameworks of any state that passed medical marijuana. The regulations, while being quite intrusive, are clear and make sense. I'd expect the regulations on recreational growing and sales to look pretty similar to the medical rules.

Part of the reason the feds keep raiding dispensaries in California is that we passed medical marijuana but barely regulated it at all. A lot of the raids are based on the DEA and ATF believing the places are fronts for illegal growers, Mexican drug cartels, etc. The California laws are like the wild west, just about anyone can open a dispensary anywhere. The rules, what little we have anyway, are really vague so it's hard to tell if the dispensaries are actually in compliance with California law.

Colorado, and some of the other states with medical marijuana laws, learned from our mistakes and put in much tighter and clearer regulations. They require strict background checks, all the plants are highly controlled and accounted for, they require cameras on every inch of your grow house and dispensary that the state can tap into remotely at any time, and all this stuff is paid for by the dispensaries so it takes a lot of money to get started there. It kept the gang bangers, drug dealers, and old hippies that have smoked and snorted half their brain away out of the business.

[nllsq]

There is federal law, criminalizing it. This it will be illegal at federal level regardless of what states do. Federal prosecutors could still go after everyone despite what a state has enacted.

Ron Paul wanted to see the federal government withdraw from persecuting recreational drug use and to leave that decision to the states. Some folks, for whom language comprehension was not among their strongest skills, interpreted that as if he wanted to legalize hard drugs.

[DVM gone riding]

Nov 15, 2012 20:30:30 GMT -5 Formerly SK said:

WA passed it too.

Yep couldn't believe it when that started rolling across local. It gives the state a year to "set" it up and is suppose to be regulated like "alcohol" is so kids don't have access--yeah we all know how well that works. So I guess that gives the feds a year to shut it down. Its also suppose to be taxed.

[mmhmm]

Moving this to YM Off Topic. It's about a plant, not money. ;D

[Phoenix84]

I live in Colorado. Haven't seen any major changes since the election. Chain stores aren't carrying it. And I don't think they will unless the feds also legalize it. The provision said the minimum age was 21.

That's all I know. Though to be fair, I'm not a smoker so I'm not really "in" with what's new in the MJ world. Lots of stoners up in Boulder though, they would know more.

[Sum Dum Gai]

It gives the state a year to "set" it up and is suppose to be regulated like "alcohol" is so kids don't have access--yeah we all know how well that works.

Pretty well actually. Just about every survey or study of teenagers I've seen says they have an easier time getting illegal drugs, like marijuana or meth, than they do alcohol. One is sold by people who are breaking the law anyway, so they don't care about selling to kids. One is sold by licensed law abiding vendors who do very much care about losing said license and facing fines for selling to kids.

That said, there's no way the federal or state government could ever keep every single drop of alcohol and every single gram of illicit drugs out of the hands of its citizens, sadly including children. Or, more accurately, the amount of freedom we'd have to give up to make that even remotely possible would turn this country into a crazy police state, that most of us probably wouldn't want to live in.

[hoops902]

I agree with Dark.

Look at how kids get their hands on things today.

Alcohol: Fake ID (rare), steal it from parents (common), pay/convince an older person to buy it from them (common)
Drugs: Buy it from the seller just like everyone else.

ETA: And a big reason they can steal alcohol from parents is that it ends up in the fridge.

[ysi]

I don't smoke, or drink for that matter.

Everything is about money. What could be more Your Money-related than the words buy, sale, sell, store, and price?

Censorship is alive and well in the U.S. Now if you could just censor what my fellow citizens watch on TV :-)

[Sum Dum Gai]

Moving this to YM Off Topic. It's about a plant, not money. ;D

What the deuce?? Do you know how many people and businesses are already planning and putting things in motion to meet the demand these new laws may or may not create? There are going to be new millionaires created in both those states in pretty short order. Depending on how the federal government reacts, or doesn't, you might have huge industry players move into those new markets too. Tobacco executives haven't exactly kept secret the fact that they have plans in place if marijuana were to be legalized on a large scale.

It's about a plant... Is a thread about fuel economy standards changing, and how those new standards might affect the big automakers, about law or money? Millions of dollars are going to start changing hands over this plant, due to these new laws. Sounds pretty damn money related to me.