Pubdate: Mon, 07 Jul 2014
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2014 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Josh Richman, San Jose Mercury News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

TEST CASE FOR LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

California Advocates See Colorado As Proof It Can Work

Long a leader in making marijuana mainstream, California is watching 
Colorado blaze a trail for legalized recreational pot with avid eyes.

The mood in Colorado is good. Six months in, few of the predicted 
problems have materialized, tax revenue and tourism are booming, and 
public support for legal pot appears to be growing.

Voters approved legalization in 2012 by a margin of 10 percent, but a 
March poll found Colorado voters now favor it by a 22-point margin. 
And 61 percent believe it has made the state better or not changed 
it. Another poll in April found that most people believe it's been 
good for the state, hasn't made driving less safe and will save 
taxpayers money and increase personal freedom.

Still, there have been problems.

Hospitals are seeing more kids made ill by edible marijuana products 
like candy and baked goods, and more adults are having psychotic 
episodes. Opponents and supporters are still debating whether crime 
is up or down. And marijuana businesses are still trying to build 
working relationships with banks that are leery of the federal marijuana ban.

California voters approved medical marijuana in 1996. And as the 
state prepares to take another stab at legalization after voters 
defeated a 2010 measure, it's looking at Colorado as a template in progress.

"There was this hushed anticipation of what might happen. but the sky 
didn't fall," said Amanda Reiman, California policy manager for the 
Drug Policy Alliance, which will help lead a 2016 ballot measure 
campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in the Golden State. "We 
didn't see people quitting their jobs and becoming lazy stoners. We 
didn't see kids dropping out of schools by the hundreds. We didn't 
see people peddling pot in schoolyards."

But, she said, "I'm glad we didn't go first."

Colorado and Washington state "are both laboratories right now, 
opportunities for us and other states to see what works and what doesn't."

As of Jan. 1, Coloradans 21 and older can buy and possess up to an 
ounce of marijuana at a time. They can also grow up to six plants for 
personal use, and nonresidents can buy up to a quarter ounce.

Buyers at licensed retail stores pay 12.9 percent in state sales 
taxes, plus a 15 percent excise tax. The levies brought in a total of 
almost $11 million by the end of April, with strong month-to-month 
growth. The excise tax's first $40 million is earmarked for school 
construction.

As the revenue rolls in, supporters of legal marijuana say jobs 
abound and tourism is up - 2013-14 was the state's best-ever ski season.

"There are so many positive indicators," said Michael Elliott, 
executive director of Colorado's Marijuana Industry Group trade 
association. "It's tough for us to take credit for all this, but I 
certainly think we're helping and not hurting."

Elliott estimated about 10,000 Coloradans now work in the marijuana 
industry, not counting construction workers, landlords, accountants, 
attorneys, labeling and packaging companies, testing labs and many 
others who are also benefiting from the boom.

Yet opponents say there isn't enough data yet, and there are too many 
troublesome anecdotes to call the law a success.

The increase in young children ingesting edible marijuana products 
began with the commercialization of Colorado's medical marijuana 
sector in 2009 but shot up again with this year's recreational 
legalization, said Dr. George Wang, an emergency physician and 
toxicologist at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora. Its emergency 
room saw eight cases in 2013 but 12 so far this year; seven children 
needed intensive care, and two needed breathing tubes.

Marijuana-related adult emergency-room visits are up too, said Dr. 
Andrew Monte, an emergency physician and toxicologist at the nearby 
University of Colorado Hospital. But, he said, this happens whenever 
any new medicinal or recreational drug hits the market.

"People don't quite know how to use it yet, dosing has not been 
established and people don't know what the side effects are," so 
people are showing up with short-term psychiatric problems, he said.

"We're going to have this peak, and then it will decline as the 
industry and the public become more educated regarding its use," said 
Monte, who, with Wang, sits on a legislative advisory panel reviewing 
state marijuana policies. "That's the type of learning curve I hope 
other states would get from Colorado."

New laws enacted in May require that marijuana edibles be sold in 
child-resistant, opaque, resealable packaging. The state is also now 
deciding how edibles can be shaped, stamped or colored to show they 
contain marijuana. And Elliott said the industry is moving away from 
high-potency edibles desirable as medicine toward lower doses that 
give recreational users the pleasant high they seek.

"The free market is at work," he said.

Statewide criminal justice data isn't available yet, but Elliott and 
other supporters note crime in Denver decreased the first five months 
of this year compared with the same period last year.

Indeed, the four kinds of violent offenses and five kinds of property 
offenses reported under the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports program were 
down 10.1 percent.

Elsewhere, the Colorado State Patrol issued 289 citations for driving 
under the influence of marijuana from January through May, although 
drivers had also used alcohol or other drugs in 129 of those cases. 
Marijuana was involved in 12.5 percent of all DUIs in those five 
months, a statistic the state only began tracking this year.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom