Pubdate: Wed, 01 Jan 2014
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2014 Associated Press
Contact: http://www.reviewjournal.com/about/print/press/letterstoeditor.html
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233
Author: Kristen Wyatt, the Associated Press

GREEN WEDNESDAY, POT STORE OPENINGS SPOTLIGHT COLORADO

Other States, Countries Are Watching Closely

DENVER (AP) - Police were adding extra patrols around pot shops in 
eight Colorado towns that plan to allow recreational sales to anyone 
over 21 starting today. Officials at Denver International Airport 
installed new signs warning visitors their weed can't legally go home 
with them.

And at a few shops, owners were scrambling to plan celebrations, set 
up coffee stations, arrange food giveaways and hire extra security to 
prepare for potential crowds and overnight campers ready to buy up to 
an ounce of legal weed.

Although smoking pot has been legal in Colorado for the past year, 
so-called Green Wednesday represents another milestone for the 
decades-old legalization movement: the unveiling of the nation's 
first legal pot industry.

"It could be crazy. Or it could be crickets out there. Who knows? No 
one's ever done this before," said Robin Hackett, manager of 
BotanaCare in Northglenn, a suburb of Denver, who planned to have a 
DJ to greet shoppers.

Preparation for the retail market started more than a year ago, soon 
after Colorado voters in 2012 approved the legal pot industry. 
Washington state has its own version, which is scheduled to open in mid-2014.

Pot advocates, who had long pushed legalization as an alternative to 
the lengthy and costly global drug war, had argued it would generate 
revenue for state coffers and save money in locking up drug offenders.

Still, setting up regulations, taxation and oversight for a drug 
that's never been regulated before took time.

Colorado set up an elaborate plant-tracking system to try to keep the 
drug away from the black market, and regulators set up packaging, 
labeling and testing requirements, along with potency limits for edible pot.

The U.S. Justice Department outlined an eight-point slate of 
priorities for pot regulation, requiring states to keep the drug away 
from minors, criminal cartels, federal property and other states to 
avoid a federal crackdown. Pot is still illegal under federal law. 
With the additional police patrols, the airport warnings and various 
other measures, officials hoped they had enough safeguards in place 
to avoid predictions of public health and safety harm from the 
opening of the pot shops.

But they confessed anxiety about the opening of retail sales.

"We understand that Colorado is under a microscope," Jack Finlaw, 
lawyer to Gov. John Hickenlooper and overseer of a major task force 
to chart news pot laws, said recently.

Would pot-shop parking lots be full of overnight campers and crowds 
lined up to buy pot? Would sellers run out of marijuana? Would 
shoppers abide by state law and refrain from using pot publicly, or 
would clouds of pot smoke drift through neighborhoods?

Interviews with dozens of marijuana critics, legalization advocates 
and industry workers showed many share Finlaw's opinion.

Colorado's on a big green stage as dozens of state and countries mull 
changing marijuana laws.

Since Colorado and Washington state's votes, Uruguay became the first 
nation to regulate pot. Across the United States., several 
municipalities, including Portland, Maine, have ratcheted back 
criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of pot.

Critics fear the changing global marijuana approach is setting up 
Colorado and other places for serious public health problems.

"This movement in public policy basically conflicts with the essence 
of bringing greater mental health and public health," said Patrick 
Kennedy, a former Rhode Island congressman and chairman of Smart 
Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes legalization.

Marijuana supporters, meanwhile, were hoping that they'll make the 
best use of their chance to show that legalization can work.

Maura Foss, compliance manager at Breckenridge Cannabis Club in the 
ski resort town, increased its inventory from a normal 5 or 6 pounds 
to 50 pounds of weed for Green Wednesday.

Foss said she wasn't sure how long the pot would last given a steady 
stream of tourists calling and coming in seeking to buy it.

"We've been scrambling to get the basics ready, and we're as ready as 
we can be," Foss said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom