Almost exactly twelve months ago, more than a hundred of Colorado's most committed marijuana activists got together for a "Colorado Marijuana Reform Seminar and Activist Boot Camp" at Regis University. They were there to plan an ambitious new political strategy for the state, or, as Brian Vicente, executive director of the drug-policy reform organization Sensible Colorado, put it during the day-long meeting, to ensure that "Colorado will be seen as the place that ended the government's ninety-year prohibition of marijuana."
That might have seemed like an impossible goal back then -- but as Vicente and his colleagues prepare to host a public marijuana-reform "Thanksgiving celebration" at the Gilmore Art Center @ Mile High Framing, 2119 Curtis Street, beginning at 6 p.m., his words have begun to have the ring of truth.
In the past year, the state's medical-marijuana scene has exploded faster than anyone at the activist boot camp could have expected, propelling Colorado into the national spotlight as the country grapples with what exactly to do about pot. As the dispensary scene blooms into one of the few lucrative businesses around these days -- and legalization activists score election victories at places like Breckenridge -- an increasing number of people seem to be reconsidering whether marijuana should be federally prohibited narcotic.
The free party tonight, sponsored by Sensible Colorado and the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, will commemorate how far marijuana reform has come -- and cover where the movement is headed. So why not stop by. You might just see the future of marijuana.
