Pubdate: Thu, 02 Jan 2014
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR)
Copyright: 2014 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/contact/voicesform/
Website: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25
Note: Accepts letters to the editor from Arkansas residents only

THRONG IN MILE-HIGH CITY TRUMPETS LEGAL 'POT' SALES

Price Soars As '14 Kicks Off Recreational Use

DENVER - Crowds were serenaded by live music as they waited for the 
nation's first legal recreational marijuana shops to open. They ate 
doughnuts and funnel cakes as a glass blower made smoking pipes. Some 
tourists even rode around in a limousine, eager to try the drug but 
not so eager to be seen buying it.

And when the sales began, those who bought the drug emerged from the 
stores, receipt held high and carrying sealed shopping bags, to cheers.

"I'm going to frame the receipt when I go home, to remind myself of 
what might be possible: Legal everywhere," said musician James Aaron 
Ramsey, 28, who had served time in jail for marijuana possession in 
Missouri. He played folk tunes with his guitar for those in line.

Activists hope he's right and that the experiment in Colorado will 
prove to be a better alternative to the costly American-led drug war, 
produce revenue for state schools and save the government the expense 
of locking up drug offenders.

Just on the first day, prices had already risen to more than $500 an 
ounce, boosted in part by taxes in excess of 25 percent.

In both Colorado and Washington, recreational marijuana has been 
legal for more than a year. Adults can smoke it in their living rooms 
and eat marijuana-laced cookies without fear of arrest. In Colorado, 
they are even allowed to grow up to six plants at home. But until 
Wednesday, dispensaries could sell only to customers with a doctor's 
recommendation and state-issued medical-marijuana card.

Now, any Colorado resident who is 21 can buy up to an ounce of 
marijuana at one of the 40 dispensaries that began selling to retail 
customers Wednesday. Out-of-state visitors can buy a quarter-ounce, 
but they must use it within the state. Washington state will open its 
marijuana industry later this year. Both states' programs will be 
watched closely not just by officials in other states, but by 
activists and governments in other countries, because the programs 
will be the first to regulate the production and sale of the drug.

Some countries have decriminalized marijuana, and the Netherlands 
lets people buy and sell it, but it's illegal to grow or process it.

Just as shops opened Wednesday, the Denver Police Department tweeted, 
"Do you know the law?" and linked to city websites on state and local 
laws that include bans on public consumption, driving under the 
influence, taking marijuana out of the state and giving it to anyone under 21.

Denver police said one person was issued a summons for public 
consumption. The Colorado State Patrol reported no marijuana-related 
incidents. No incidents were reported at Denver International 
Airport, where signs warned travelers that they can't take the drug home.

However, Oklahoma authorities said they were bracing for an influx of 
marijuana after Colorado's new law took effect Wednesday.

Cimarron County, which shares a border with Colorado, has seen a 
steady flow of marijuana coming from Colorado for several years, 
Sheriff Bob White said. The sheriff told that it doesn't take drivers 
long to cross through his county in the panhandle en route to Texas 
from Colorado.

"There's nothing here to attract anybody to stop," White said.

At least 24 dispensaries in eight towns opened in Colorado.

Nearly 350 retail marijuana licenses have been issued to Colorado 
businesses, according to the Marijuana Enforcement Division, the 
agency under Colorado's Department of Revenue that regulates the 
industry. The licenses included 136 dispensaries, 178 cultivation 
facilities and three testing sites.

In Denver, marijuana users welcomed the new year and the new industry 
by firing up bongs and cheering in a cloud of marijuana smoke at a 
1920s-themed Prohibition Is Over party.

Shopper Jacob Elliott said he wrote reports in college about the need 
to end "pot" prohibition, but he never thought it could happen in his lifetime.

"This breaks that barrier," said Elliott, who traveled to Colorado 
from Leesburg, Va., to be among the first to buy legal marijuana.

Preparation for the retail market started more than a year ago, soon 
after Colorado and Washington voters in 2012 approved legal marijuana 
industries. Uruguay passed a law in December to become the first 
nation to regulate marijuana, but the nation's regulatory system 
isn't in place yet.

Marijuana advocates, who had long pushed legalization as an 
alternative to the drug war, had argued that it would generate 
revenue for the state treasury - to support education in Colorado's 
case - and save money by not locking up low-level drug offenders.

"I feel good about it. The money's going to schools," said shopper 
Joseph Torres of Denver.

Others who were waiting in line shared, over coffee and funnel cakes, 
stories of incarceration for possessing marijuana.

"Trafficking conviction. Nineteen years old. For a plant, how 
stupid," said 24-year-old Brandon Harris, who drove 20 hours from 
Blanchester, Ohio.

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 marijuana.

The U.S. Department of Justice outlined an eight-point slate of 
priorities for marijuana regulation that require states to keep the 
drug away from minors, criminal cartels, federal property and other 
states to avoid a federal crackdown.

With the more police patrols, the airport warnings and various other 
measures, officials hoped they have enough safeguards in place to 
avoid predictions of public health and safety harm from the opening 
of the dispensaries. The governor of Colorado and the mayor of Denver 
both opposed legalization, and both stayed away from the smoky 
celebrations Wednesday.

A group of addiction counselors and physicians said they're seeing 
more marijuana addiction problems, especially in youths, and that 
wider "marijuana availability will exacerbate the problem.

"This is just throwing gas on the fire," said Ben Cort of the 
Colorado Center for Dependency, Addiction & Rehabilitation at the 
University of Colorado Hospital.

Some medical marijuana patients groups say they're worried about 
supply. That's because the retail inventory for recreational use is 
coming entirely from the pre-existing medical inventory. Many in the 
industry warned patients to stock up before the sales began.

While Colorado incorporates the existing medical marijuana system, 
Washington is starting from scratch, with all of the production and 
sale of recreational marijuana linked to the new system of licenses, 
which will not be issued until late February or early March.

For now, medical patients should have plenty of places to shop. Most 
of Colorado's 500 or so medical marijuana shops haven't applied to 
sell recreational marijuana, and many that have plan to serve both 
recreational and medical patients

The industry has not just given rise to shops, but a whole line of 
other businesses, including tours.

Addison Morris, owner of Rocky Mountain Mile High Tours, had 10 
clients waiting inside a limousine who paid $295 for three hours of 
chauffeuring by a "marijuana concierge" who would help them choose 
strains and edible products.

Morris said she's booked through the end of February with 
out-of-state clients, who get samples in designer bags. And for the 
tours, guests are asked to leave cameras at home. She said she's 
selling discretion.

"We're your grandmother's 'pot' connection," the 63-year old said.

Information for this article was contributed by Kristen Wyatt and Jim 
Anderson of The Associated Press; by Jack Healy and Kirk Johnson of 
The New York Times; and by Shan Li of The Los Angeles Times. COMPILED 
BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom