It was the summer of 2009 when City Council started getting questions and calls about just when Pueblo was going to start allowing medical marijuana stores.

It was unknown territory for that council, who were just starting to come to grips with the idea that marijuana could be a legal business, let alone one that city officials would license and tax, like taverns.

"Once voters legalized it, Colorado had the opportunity to lead on the issue," recalled Randy Thurston, who was on council at the time. "I really thought we would move faster than we did."

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The anti-marijuana-legalization movement has made the claim that legalization will lead to an eruption in teenage marijuana use a central part of its narrative.

But it turns out that the kids didn'€™t get the memo.

The University of Michigan'€™s Institute for Social Research is out with its latest national survey of teenage drug use, including marijuana use, and what it found was that since 2012, the year that Colorado and Washington state legalized pot, teenage drug use is down, not up.

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The legalization of retail marijuana stores two years ago has had profound impacts on the city and county of Pueblo. Some good. Some bad.

Now, the time has come for Pueblo voters to decide whether the benefits outweigh the negatives.

For months, The Pueblo Chieftain has been intensely studying this issue, both with special and ongoing news reporting, and also with private editorial board discussions with those for and against retail marijuana stores and grow operations.

It is an understatement to say the issue is complicated. So bear with us as we try today to discuss the essential concerns.

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Colorado has led the charge for legalization of marijuana and many states are following suit and are entertaining the legalization of marijuana in this year's elections.

What most people do not know is that Colorado has a public health problem directly related to marijuana and that 70 percent of Colorado municipalities have voted no to having legalized marijuana in their community.

Since de facto legalization in 2009 and by vote in 2014, Colorado has taken over the nation in youth use in 12- to 17-year-olds. The industry has evolved over the past several years and adolescents have evolved as well. They are receiving the message that marijuana is safe and natural, that it's an herb, and that its a medication.

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Controversial hillside subdivision plan dropped

The Dolores Town Board has continued the ban on retail marijuana shops by a vote of 5-2.

The pot-sales prohibition ordinance, enacted in 2014, was extended two years, until Dec. 31, 2018, to allow for more time to consider the matter.

Before the motion to continue the ban, town trustee Robert Dobry presented a motion that would have allowed the ban to be overturned by resolution of the board, which is less cumbersome than passing an ordinance.

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Re: "Colorado Amendment 71 tries to cut down on constitutional red tape," Oct. 4.

I disagree with (County Commissioner) Dan Gibb's claim that Summit County voters "don't have a say" regarding the initiative process. Further, stating Amendment 71 has bipartisan support neglects the fact that opposition to Amendment 71 also enjoys bipartisan support, but more importantly includes the private sector, which is the vast majority of voters, rather than a list of inconvenienced politicians.

One of the clearest examples of potential harm Amendment 71 may cause comes from realizing it could have prevented Colorado voters from ending cannabis prohibition. Summit County and other rural mountain communities played an important part in that successful initiative process and we should continue having access to it, left unchanged, for when politicians fail citizens. Nationally, politicians either ignore this important issue or fight against it, frustrating the majority of citizens who want to end cannabis prohibition.

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If college athletes want to smoke marijuana, the NCAA probably won't catch them.

Treyous Jarrells is proof.

The running back signed with CSU because of Colorado's legalization of marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes, and he was high in all but one game he played in across two seasons.

Jarrells, 23, left the Colorado State University football team early in the 2015 season due to concerns he'd fail a drug test and risk losing his financial aid.

Medical marijuana is legal in 25 states, and Jarrells has one of 102,620 medical licenses to legally grow the drug in Colorado.

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PUEBLO WEST, Colo. - Out here, in this unincorporated community of 30,000, there are miles of barren scrub-brush dotted with wild sunflowers. Low-slung houses sit on East Gun Powder Lane and North Cougar Drive. There's a Walmart Supercenter, a Little Caesars, a Safeway with a small Starbucks tucked inside.

And, throughout the area, a revolt against retail marijuana sales smolders in a state awash in $1 billion of legal pot.

Four years ago, Coloradans voted to legalize marijuana for adults, and gave individual localities the opportunity to decide if they would allow retail marijuana shops.

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Denver Voters Will Determine Social Use at Some Businesses.

Days after rejecting a competing measure for the November ballot, the Denver Elections Division on Thursday approved a proposed initiative that would allow social use of marijuana in some businesses.

City voters will decide whether regular businesses, such as bars or cafes or even yoga studios, should be able to create indoor or outdoor consumption areas for bring-your-own marijuana products, under certain conditions. The most significant condition would require that an application for an annual or temporary permit receive backing from a neighborhood group, such as a city-registered neighborhood organization or business improvement district.

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Last week, Colorado Springs City Council passed another new ordinance that will affect home growers of all stripes.

"I didn't say the word..." Fire Marshal Brett Lacey joked while presenting it, straightening up to clarify that "this came out of our dealings with marijuana home grows."

Specifically, the new ordinance, which passed unanimously, targets intensive indoor grow operations in residential single-family dwellings and townhomes. Any home grow "utilizing grow lighting shall be limited to areas of the residence other than kitchens, bathrooms and/or bedrooms/sleeping rooms" - with an exception for bedrooms as long as there's another code-compliant one elsewhere in the unit - and that "a room or an enclosure with grow lighting used for flora grow, propagation, consumption, or selling shall be limited to 150 square feet aggregate in size per premises."

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Dear Stoner: I'm in the midst of a devastating family situation and am so blindsided by grief and stress that I need something to calm me down and help me fall asleep. I don't wish to smoke, but am open to other suggestions.

Elizabeth

Dear Elizabeth: If this situation is temporary, using cannabis to help you calm down and sleep is a great idea - but don't form a dependency. Marijuana isn't an addictive substance like cocaine or opiates, but the more you can avoid using it regularly for stress relief, the better. That said, sometimes exercise, hobbies and self-reflection aren't enough, and when you're wide awake at night trying to hold back tears, something as simple as a pot cookie can help you fall asleep, regroup and move forward.

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In November, voters in as many as 12 states will see a marijuana legalization initiative on their ballots.

Marijuana is already legal for recreational use in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Washington, D.C. Another 25 states have legalized medical marijuana, including Hawaii. The era of marijuana prohibition is rapidly coming to a close.

Unfortunately, lawmakers lack easy answers to tough questions facing the marijuana industry. Legalization presents challenges on a number of fronts, including distribution, taxation, consumption, security and public health.

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On Nov. 6, 2012 the people of Colorado decisively voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Amendment 64 passed with 55.3 percent of the vote.

In Boulder County Amendment 64 received 66.4 percent of the vote. The margin in the City of Boulder was even higher.

But you would never know it by the cavalier way County and City elected leaders have chosen to "regulate" marijuana growers in the ensuing four years.

Start with Boulder County. Shortly after the passage of Amendment 64 the Boulder County Commissioners voted to ban commercial marijuana production in the agricultural areas of Boulder County. The ban applied to both outdoor and indoor production.

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Dear Stoner: I've tried sativas and indicas, and they're all fine and dandy, but I'm looking for something more in the middle. What are some good hybrids that are actually hybrids?

Happy Jack

Dear Jack: All hybrids are actually hybrids. In fact, nearly all of the strains you'll find nowadays are hybrids, but it's easier for people to label something that's 80 to 90 percent indica as "indica" instead of "indica-dominant hybrid" and then have to explain what that means. But I'm guessing you mean something like a 50/50 hybrid, many of which you've probably seen or tried around town.

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The City Officials Voted 5-4 to Allow a Maximum of Four Retail Shops to Open.

Thornton - The state's largest city with an all-out ban on marijuana sales decided Tuesday to allow the nascent industry, but not before hearing an earful from members of the community.

The Thornton City Council voted 5-4 to allow retail marijuana shops - capped at four citywide - to open in this northern suburb of 135,000. The city, the sixth largest in Colorado, will start accepting applications from would-be dispensary owners Sept. 1.

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Colorado legalised marijuana sales two years ago. Ben Hoyle reports on the highs and lows of the decision.

The "bud tender" had shoulder-length black hair, a deep well of patience and a connoisseur's pride in his wares as he spread tray after tray of marijuana-based products on the glass counter top. There were fruit gums, chocolate caramels, granola packets, medicated sugar to drop in your coffee or tea in the morning, Rosemary Cheddar Crackers for a savoury taste, a bath soak and even sensual oil for the bedroom, Charles Watson explained.

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The 'Green Rush' Has Proven to Be a Mixed Blessing for Colorado and Its State Capital.

At Bruce Randolph School in a tough inner-city part of Denver, the staff and pupils used to breathe fumes from a nearby dog food factory. Now they get a regular whiff of something much more controversial.

"I smell weed, oh, all day long," says Darlicia Campbell, the school campus safety officer.

At first, teachers who kept smelling marijuana in their classrooms summoned her to sniff out the pupil who had brought it. "I was going crazy for a couple of weeks," she recalls. Eventually, the children explained to her that fumes from a nearby marijuana growing centre had entered the school ventilation system.

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A new Gallup poll released earlier this week finds that self-reported cannabis consumption nearly doubled in the last two years. Thirty-three million people, or 13 percent of U.S. adults, report currently using marijuana, up from 7 percent in 2013.

The number of adults that report having used marijuana at some point in their lives also rose slightly from 38 percent in 2013 to 43 percent in 2016.

Considering that cannabis is still federally illegal, this is remarkable growth, but it is hard to determine if it is a function of state level decriminalization and legalization efforts or of a decrease in stigma surrounding cannabis consumption.

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It's possible the result still could be a happy ending.

When the "first half of 2016" came and went without a marijuana rescheduling announcement, it became clear the Drug Enforcement Agency didn't feel overly obligated to meet its own self-imposed timeline.

But now the DEA has rejected two petitions - one from the governors of Rhode Island and Washington, one from a New Mexico resident - for the removal of cannabis from Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act. The federal government will continue to consider cannabis as dangerous as heroin, though it will end the monopoly on research-grade cannabis production.

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"What do you mean the state has budget troubles? What about all the tax money from marijuana? Wasn't that supposed to solve everything?"

As a nonprofit devoted to educating Coloradans on the state's unique fiscal challenges, we get that question almost every time now. It doesn't matter what group we're talking to about the state budget or which community in Colorado we're visiting.

Ever since recreational marijuana became legal, there has been a seemingly unstoppable urban myth going around that the state is positively swimming in tax revenue from pot sales.

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