Pubdate: Wed, 18 Feb 2015
Source: Colorado Springs Independent (CO)
Column: CannaBiz
Copyright: 2015 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact:  http://www.csindy.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Pubdate: 18 feb 15
Authors: Brian Tryon and Griffin Swartzell

MARIJUANA MURAL DRAWS HEAT, VERMONTERS SEEK POT LEGALIZATION, AND MORE

Monstrous cookies

It's been about two weeks since a commissioned artist started a mural 
on the side of Wellstone Medical Marijuana, located at 1602 W. 
Colorado Ave. However, this past week the dispensary was already 
whitewashing the work due to a neighbor's complaint about its appeal 
to children.

The formerly offensive sight? Images of Cookie Monster (pictured), 
ice cream, peaches and Girl Scout Cookies. More were on their way, 
but that's all dead for now, says manager Johnny Van Galder.

"Our intention is to make the building look good and beautify the 
neighborhood," says Van Galder. "We weren't intending to offend 
anybody, or anything of the sort. Now we know that we need to plan it 
differently."

Delegates and doobies

Colorado has been the cannabis capital of the country since passing 
Amendment 64, and last week, a nine-person delegation from Vermont 
visited Denver to get the facts while Vermonters consider legalization.

"We met with a lot of people," says Mary Alice McKenzie, co-founder 
of the Vermont branch of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an 
anti-marijuana-legalization group, and executive director of the Boys 
& Girls Club of Burlington. "And right across the board, everyone was 
very transparent and very open with us." The delegates also toured 
the Sweet Leaf cultivation facility and the Denver Relief 
recreational/medical store.

David Mickenberg of the Marijuana Policy Project came away from the 
visit seeing Colorado as proof that marijuana can responsibly be 
legalized. "I'm sure things are going to come up that could not be 
anticipated," he says. "I was impressed by everyone's willingness to 
address those issues."

Litigious neighbors

The Denver Post reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has given the 
state of Colorado additional time to respond to the marijuana 
lawsuits filed by the governments of Oklahoma and Nebraska. Recently 
elected Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman was due to file her 
response on Monday; the new due date is March 27.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom