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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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Lawmakers often give lip service to protecting minors from exposure to alcohol and drugs, but if they're sincere in this concern they will soon be able to show it. They can support a Colorado Senate bill that would apply the same standard to marijuana grown in a residence for medical use as exists for non-medical use.

It's a simple concept, really. Amendment 64, which legalized personal possession and retail sale of marijuana in 2012, mandated that growing the plant had to take place "in an enclosed, locked space." And the legislature put that language into statute two years ago, saying that such a space could be the residence itself so long as no one under 21 lived at the address.

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Denver City Council members want to replace a moratorium restricting the growth of the state's largest legal marijuana market with caps that they argue would protect saturated neighborhoods.

In some ways, the upshot of setting location caps on dispensaries and grow houses-both citywide and within smaller geographic areas - would be similar to the recently expanded moratorium, which bars new players from entering the market.

But supporters who are hammering out details, including how to set the limits, point to key differences: The caps would allow some new business owners to dive in without increasing the number of locations. They also would offer more protection to low-income neighborhoods with industrial areas that complain about cultivation odors.

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DENVER - Nestled between a 7-Eleven and a store selling Broncos jerseys, the door to the generic-looking retail establishment is easy to miss. But once inside, the smell is unmistakable.

At Euflora, tables are filled with glass containers of marijuana next to interactive tablets describing each strain ("sweet floral aroma," "intoxicatingly potent"). An array of marijuana-infused products beckon behind locked cases: from energy shots to sour gummies, brownies to bacon brittle. And if you're 21 or older, it's all legal to buy.

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"Congress must act on pot banking," Jan. 16 editorial.

Last month, U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson dismissed a lawsuit seeking federal approval for the first credit union for marijuana in Colorado, saying that allowing it "would facilitate criminal activity."

It's time The Fourth Corner Credit Union (TFCCU) publicly responds to Judge Jackson's ruling in favor of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

TFCCU's request was for equal access to the payment system - a master account - which any other financial institution enjoys. It was never TFCCU's intent to deal with marijuana-related businesses exclusively. Our charter includes appropriate (legal) marijuana businesses as well as ancillary businesses and individuals that have a common interest in hemp and cannabis.

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Editor's note: Because The Denver Post and its Cannabist website are the subject of "Rolling Papers," we hired an independent film writer to review the documentary.

"Are you high right now?" That's a question some out-of-state colleagues were probably asking Gregory L. Moore, editor of The Denver Post, when he created the position of marijuana editor in late 2013.

It certainly sparked the interest of Colorado filmmaker Mitch Dickman ( director of Hanna Ranch). His new documentary "Rolling Papers" captures the first year of Colorado's bold experiment in legalization, as seen through the work of Ricardo Baca, the editor assigned to the paper's pot post.

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DENVER (AP) - Marijuana has attracted many labels in its time. On Friday, Colorado lawmakers debate whether the state should give the drug one more often associated with purple carrots than purple haze - certified organic.

Colorado starts work Friday on becoming the first state to regulate organic labels in its pot industry, with other legal weed states watching to see whether they too should step in to help consumers wondering what's on their weed. Organic standards are regulated federally, and pot remains illegal at the federal level, meaning there's nothing stopping commercial pot growers from calling their wares organic.

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