Letter-writer Barbara St. John asks: "If marijuana is bad for people, how can it be good for Colorado?" There's a lot to be said for how ending cannabis prohibition is good for Colorado. However, one of the distinguished reasons is Coloradans can hold our heads high and show the nation and the world we've decided to end an act of government-subsidized discrimination in a country where the prevalence of discrimination is undeniable. And make no mistake - bigots orchestrated cannabis prohibition from the beginning as an act of racism. That makes Colorado great.

Stan White, Dillon

[end]

Officials behind the High Times Cannabis Cup have told Pueblo County they are no longer interested in obtaining a special event permit for the popular pot festival, scheduled for April.

In a statement released during the weekend, a representative for High Times didn't specify why the magazine chose to end its quest to locate the vast outdoor marijuana fair-the biggest of its kind in the world- in southern Colorado.

The magazine said it respected "the need for all parties involved to have confidence in all operational aspects of the event" and that it looked forward to "hosting a future High Times event in Colorado."

[continues 232 words]

Nebraska and Oklahoma Are Asking U. S. Justices to Overturn Legalization.

The U. S. Supreme Court may be nearing a decision on whether to hear a case brought against Colorado by two neighboring states over marijuana legalization.

Supreme Court justices were scheduled to meet privately Friday to discuss the case, which was filed in 2014 by the attorneys general in Nebraska and Oklahoma.

The justices won't have decided at the meeting whether to upend legalization in Colorado, as the lawsuit requests. Instead, the justices must decide first whether even to take up the case.

[continues 319 words]

Researcher Wants to Investigate Long- Term Use Among MS Patients.

A Colorado State University researcher is launching a crowdfunding campaign to study the effects of long-term marijuana use among multiple sclerosis patients in northern Colorado.

CSU is quick to point out that the research project will not involve providing cannabis or encouraging its use. The study will "simply examine existing users who have decided to treat their MS symptoms with medical marijuana and voluntarily agree to participate in the study," the university said.

[continues 536 words]

Dear Stoner: Where can I find cannabis-friendly events around Denver? I have a business in cannabis and would like to host a smoke-friendly event, but I'm not sure where to look.

Tarik

Dear Tarik: Hosting a cannabis-friendly event in Colorado is pretty easy, but hosting a pot-smoking-friendly event? Not so much. For starters, any event at which you hope to allow pot smoking would have to take place at a private venue that is either outside or doesn't have to comply with the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act (a law that bans smoking at indoor venues unless otherwise permitted) - and there are very few of those. Even after finding a venue that fits your criteria, however, you'd have to apply to the local governing body for an event permit. That's not always easy; High Times was just denied such a permit by Adams County for its Cannabis Cup because of law enforcement concerns over attendance and public pot consumption.

[continues 290 words]

Considered dangerous drugs by the federal government, marijuana and industrial hemp are still listed in the Controlled Substances Act as Schedule I drugs. While the federal government has issued legislative promises to not spend money in prosecution of cannabis activity in states in which it is legal, it has been firm in withholding any actions of endorsement by federal departments, leading many to assume that an organic certification from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is precluded by federal law.

But on Jan. 27, 2016, CBDRx, a Colorado-based hemp company, announced that it received two USDA organic certifications for its more than 130 acres of industrial hemp, giving it two of only seven in the country and the only two in Colorado.

[continues 741 words]

Clubs in jeopardy

About 20 people marched from Studio A64 on Colorado Avenue to City Hall on the evening of Feb. 23 to protest City Council's proposed ban on cannabis clubs. Far more - about 150 - packed the chamber for an extended public comment hearing.

Heather Witting, who has a background in medical marijuana and now works for a local club, elicited cheers when she calmly described the current situation in the Springs like the end of Prohibition. "These clubs are inevitable," she said. "I don't understand what you're afraid of."

[continues 692 words]

Denver marijuana activists who hope to persuade city voters to legalize private pot clubs took the first step Monday by filing notice with the City Council.

Before the November election, the activist group has indicated it will pursue a narrow scope. Its proposed ballot measure would allow for the opening of private, bring-your-own-cannabis clubs that could not serve alcohol or food and would allow entry to people 21 or older, as some smaller towns in Colorado have allowed.

[continues 281 words]

It seems to be overlooked that 45 percent of Colorado voters did not want legalized "recreational" marijuana in their midst when the vote on Amendment 64 was taken in 2012. That is a large percentage and is probably greater now, since we have seen the problems in the schools and the unexpected problems with edibles.

We have ubiquitous coverage of cannabis and the huge influx of the marijuana industry, and one could think it is a self-fulfilling prophecy from The Denver Post's articles.

Remember that nearly half of us did not want it. And we still have the black market.

If marijuana is bad for people, how can it be good for Colorado?

Barbara St. John,

Wheat Ridge

[end]

With Pot Legal in Colorado, High Times Might Give Pause to Visiting Families

From page 38 Chicago-based travel agent and mother of four Lynn Farrell represents a kind of worst-case scenario for Colorado's ski towns and resorts. JACK AFFLECK, VAIL RESORTS

"Who really wants to ski where everybody is stoned?" asks Farrell, president of Windy City Travel. "It is a concern."

It's the second full ski season since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana sales, and the cannabis culture - or at the very least, concerns about the cannabis culture - remains very much top of mind for many out-of-state visitors. Talk to East Coasters, particularly, and you hear worries about pot smokers lighting up in the lift lines or filling gondola cars with pungent smoke, an image at odds with Colorado's carefully crafted and otherwise well-deserved image as a clean-living destination for families.

[continues 786 words]

For the fifth time in less than a week, state cannabis regulators have issued a health advisory and recall of marijuana over concerns it is contaminated with potentially dangerous pesticides not approved for use on the crop.

Thursday's order by the Marijuana Enforcement Division involves 446 batches of recreational and medical marijuana grown at a Denver cannabis cultivation facility servicing two pot shops owned by Michelle Tucker: High Street Growers at 330 Federal Blvd. and Back to the Garden at 1755 S. Broadway.

[continues 229 words]

DENVER (AP) - Colorado's tourists aren't just buying weed now that it's legal - they're ending up in emergency rooms at rates far higher than residents, a study said.

Doctors reviewed marijuana-related emergency-room admissions at a hospital near Denver International Airport during 2014, when the sale of recreational pot became legal. The results were published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The physicians found that the rate of emergency-room visits possibly related to marijuana doubled among out-of-state residents in the first year of recreational pot sales. The rate went from 85 per 10,000 visits in 2013 to 168 per 10,000 visits in 2014.

[continues 242 words]

With Pot Legal in Colorado, the High Times Might Give Visiting Families Pause

BRECKENRIDGE, COLO. - Chicago-based travel agent and mother of four Lynn Farrell represents a kind of worst-case scenario for Colorado's ski towns and resorts.

"Who really wants to ski where everybody is stoned?" asks Farrell, president of Windy City Travel. "It is a concern."

It's the second full ski season since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana sales, and the cannabis culture - or at the very least, concerns about the cannabis culture - remains very much top of mind for many out-of-state visitors. Talk to East Coasters, particularly, and you hear worries about pot smokers lighting up in the lift lines or filling gondola cars with pungent smoke, an image at odds with Colorado's carefully crafted and otherwise well-deserved image as a clean-living destination for families.

[continues 782 words]

Dear Stoner: What is Thai stick? Is it just an old strain of chronic from the '70s?

The Berg

Dear Berg: Be ready to take notes if an old-timer ever tells you about the time he smoked a Thai stick, because it was probably crazier than any blunt you've ever had. Not to be confused with Thai or other mind-bending sativa strains that come from Southeast Asia, Thai sticks were like an early version of the caviar joints you find in dispensaries today. By taking some premium, seedless buds (which were virtually unheard of in North America in the '60s and '70s), skewering them on stems and tightly wrapping the natural doob with fibers from the marijuana plant - and then apparently dipping the sticks in opium - the Thai people created one trippy invention.

[continues 321 words]

Colorado's tourists aren't just buying weed now that it's legal - they're ending up in emergency rooms at rates far higher than residents, according to a new study.

Doctors reviewed marijuana-related emergency-room admissions at a hospital near Denver International Airport in 2014, when the sale of recreational pot became legal. The results were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The physicians found that the rate of emergency-room visits possibly related to marijuana doubled among out-of-state residents in the first year of recreational pot sales. The rate went from 85 per 10,000 visits in 2013 to 168 per 10,000 visits in 2014.

[continues 86 words]

DENVER - Colorado's tourists aren't just buying weed now that it's legal - they're ending up in emergency rooms at rates far higher than residents, according to a new study.

Doctors reviewed marijuana-related emergency-room admissions at a hospital near Denver International Airport during 2014, when the sale of recreational pot became legal. The results were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The physicians found that the rate of emergency-room visits possibly related to marijuana doubled among out-ofstate residents in the first year of recreational pot sales. The rate went from 85 per 10,000 visits in 2013 to 168 per 10,000 visits in 2014.

[continues 196 words]

You're in Colorado, where recreational marijuana is legal.

You decide to indulge and eat a weed brownie. (First one since college!)

Nothing seems to happen. You can still reel off the state capitals, hold a coherent conversation, and an entire bag of salt-and-vinegar potato chips doesn't sound particularly tasty.

So you eat another brownie. And, waiting for something to happen, perhaps one more.

And then - blam! Anxiety. Sweats. Panic. Heart palpations. And your Colorado vacation takes an unwelcome turn to the emergency room.

[continues 771 words]

A Study Says the Rate Doubled From 2013 to 2014 but Locals' Visits Remained Steady.

Visitors to Colorado are turning up at emergency rooms with marijuana-related issues in higher rates than people who live here, according to a study by the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

The study, in the current New England Journal of Medicine, found the number of marijuana-related emergency room visits to the University of Colorado Hospital doubled among those from out of-state from 2013 to 2014, while remaining steady for residents.

[continues 346 words]

NU Doctor Leads Research; Hospitals See More Tourists

Marijuana-related emergency room visits in Colorado have increased at a higher rate for out-of-state guests than for residents since cannabis was legalized, according to a new study.

The study, from Northwestern Medicine and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, looked at ER visits at more than 100 hospitals in Colorado in which there was a diagnosis of patients having used cannabis. Researchers compared the records from 2012, when the Colorado ballot measure passed to legalize marijuana, with 2014, when it was legally sold for recreational use.

[continues 844 words]

Green cross-out

Say goodbye to those green crosses hung outside medical marijuana centers in unincorporated El Paso County. According to the Board of County Commissioners, the ubiquitous signage was simply too confusing for clueless tourists. So early this month, they voted to ban them altogether.

The fear, apparently, was that out-of-state tourists would confuse dispensaries for pharmacies, given that's what the signage means in Europe.

Darryl Glenn proposed the resolution in January. "[They're] there but you don't even think about it," he said back then. "I believe it is important enough to potentially take action."

[continues 485 words]