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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom