Today at 2 p.m., the public will be able to comment as House Bill 1284 reaches a senate committee. It’s sure to be a contentious session, since even pro-regulation advocates like Matt Brown see the latest version of the measure as regressive, and Senator Chris Romer is eager to add…
As noted in a just-published blog, House Bill 1284, which aims to regulate the medical marijuana industry, will be the focus of a senate committee hearing at 2 p.m. tomorrow. During the get-together, the public will have a chance to comment on numerous alternations in the measure that some MMJ…
During an interview last week, Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation front man Matt Brown wasn’t certain that new language inserted into House Bill 1284, a measure designed to regulate the medical marijuana industry, gave city councils the right to ban dispensaries. After all, there’d been so much fiddling done over…
Yesterday, Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a marijuana grow located in a warehouse at 1441 West 46th Avenue. The site’s unusual for a cultivation operation for a couple of reasons. It’s adjacent to the Denver Police Department District 1 station and about a block away from Remington Elementary School. Beyond…
Our latest “Mile Highs and Lows” dispensary review has just entered cyberspace: William Breathes critiques The Giving Tree, whose products are consistently moist — maybe a bit too much so. And there’s a lot more information where that came from. The Westword crew has spent the week updating our dispensary…
As Colorado’s medical-marijuana industry grows, marijuana dispensaries of all types and sizes are proliferating around the state. Some resemble swanky bars or sterile dentist offices; others feel like a dope dealer’s college dorm room. To help keep them all straight, Westword is offering a no-holds-barred look at what goes on…
As noted in a just-published blog, the Cannabis Therapy Institute has called on Boulder DA Stan Garnett to forgo prosecuting anyone ticketed for smoking weed at CU’s annual orgasm of cannabis consumption. If Garnett decides to go ahead anyway, despite the prospect of alienating pro-weed voters otherwise likely to support…
Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett recently announced his intention to challenge John Suthers for the Colorado Attorney General gig — and his comparatively progressive views on marijuana presumably meant he could count on support from pro-weed voters. Maybe not. Yesterday, Laura Kriho of the Cannabis Therapy Institute, a strong supporter…
In a blog published earlier today about changes in a major MMJ bill, Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation’s Matt Brown called Senator Chris Romer “the last big bogey factor we have to plan for and work with” due to recent comments that “seem designed to get us worked up.” They…
As Denver’s annual 4/20 pot bacchanal was taking place at Civic Center Park yesterday, members of the Colorado House were once again amending House Bill 1284, a measure designed to regulate the state’s medical marijuana industry. Matt Brown, frontman for Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation, isn’t sure if one event…
Efforts to establish post-traumatic stress disorder as a condition treatable by medical marijuana fell short in the Colorado legislature last month. That was fine by the state’s health department, which circulated a fact sheet among legislators prior to vote on a PTSD amendment arguing that there’s no medical evidence MMJ…
Westword marijuana critic William Breathes is filing dispatches from the 4/20 celebration at Civic Center Park. Read from the bottom up to follow them in chronological order. 4:56 p.m.: Found my ride… Fun rally. As is always the case with the 4/20 rally, the actual event of smoking pot in…
If there’s one thing Denver’s marijuana movement has embraced, it’s a wanton disregard for federal laws. And no day illustrates this sentiment more than 4/20, when marijuana patients and exuberant scofflaws alike ascend on the Capitol to protest pot prohibition — and to offer reefer-eshing variations on commercial branding. Page…
As the number of people applying for Colorado medical marijuana licenses has multiplied, so has the amount of time required for the state to process all that paperwork. What started as a month delay stretched to three, then four months last fall. Now it’s seven or eight months — way…
The 4/20 event taking place at the University of Colorado at Boulder at 4:20 p.m. has been aptly described as “an orgasm of cannabis consumption.” But even as the smoke from that bash is inspiring a lot more flights than have taken off in Europe over the past week, a…
The International Cannabis Day festivities that kick off at 9 a.m. this morning at Civic Center Park have a major political component, as stressed in a recent interview with NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre, who’ll deliver the event’s “invocation.” As such, the Cannabis Therapy Institute is hoping to capitalize…
Back in January, when attorney and medical marijuana advocate Rob Corry called on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to reveal how much money it had collected from MMJ patient fees, he complained about a waiting period for permits in the four-month range. Since then, Corry believes the…
In an interview last week, NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre confirmed that he’ll be attending the politically oriented 4/20 rally at Denver’s Civic Center Park this year. It’ll be his second straight 4/20 in Colorado. Last year, he was at the bash at the University of Colorado at Boulder,…
Latecomers to the marijuana-legalization movement may never have heard of Jack Herer, who died yesterday at age seventy. But veterans of the cause cite his 1985 book The Emperor Wears No Clothes as the manifesto that launched a campaign that continues to gather steam. Herer died from complications related to…
Yet another unexpected twist in the case of Highlands Ranch’s Chris Bartkowicz, whose home-grown marijuana crop was seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration immediately after he showed it off to Channel 9. Bartkowicz was expected to reverse his original not guilty plea at a hearing today — one that his…
After an attempt to decriminalize statewide the adult possession of an ounce or less of marijuana failed at the polls in 2006, Mason Tvert, executive director of the drug policy reform organization Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and his colleagues hit upon a new strategy: Focus energy on local…
The case of Chris Bartkowicz, whose Highlands Ranch marijuana crop was seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration after he showed it off to 9News, instantly fired up the medical marijuana industry, with advocate Rob Corry going toe to toe with the DEA’s Jeffrey Sweetin — and even Congressman Jared Polis…
