Re: "Father of dead inmate angered by inaction," Oct. 18 news story. Addiction is a chronic disease and is similar to other chronic diseases such as type II diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Adams County jail officials acknowledged that Tyler Tabor needed medical treatment for his disease by moving him to a medical unit and placing him on an opiate withdrawal protocol. That is where his treatment apparently ended. He was allowed to languish without appropriate hydration and was not sufficiently monitored. Suspiciously, the surveillance tapes have gaps and lack time stamps. Adams County jail and medical staff need to be held accountable for his pain, suffering and death. [continues 80 words]
The Pot Industry Is Driving the Metro Area's Real Estate Recovery. Your nose isn't lying: One in 11 industrial buildings in central Denver is full of marijuana. The state's cannabis industry occupies at least 3.7 million square feet of industrial space in Denver, clustered in areas of older warehouse stock, including the Interstate 25-Interstate 70 junction, Montbello, central Denver and along the Santa Fe Drive corridor in southwest Denver, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE. [continues 915 words]
Marijuana's Economic Importance Will Come Through Loud and Clear in Race for President. As Republican presidential candidates prepare to debate economic issues in Boulder, the sweet smell of success for the state's legally sold marijuana industry seems impossible to overlook. Nationally the legal industry brought in about $3 billion in 2014 but is projected to grow to more than $8 billion by 2018, if current politics stay the course, according to the Marijuana Industry Factbook. Colorado racked up $70 million in sales of recreational and medical pot last year - nearly $700,000 in tax revenue, plus $13 million in licenses and fees. The industry is expected top $1 billion this year. [continues 729 words]
As a pediatrician who has dedicated my entire professional life caring for children, including an emphasis on substance abuse prevention, treatment, and child mistreatment, I believe it is critical to pass Proposition BB. Without raising taxes, Proposition BB simply asks voters to retain the $66 million in retail marijuana taxes collected by the state in the first year of marijuana sales. If BB passes, $40 million will fund school capital construction. Remaining funds will be invested in education campaigns about the risks of substance use during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, improving law enforcement capacity, and supporting youth mentoring services - all important programs that respond to community needs related to marijuana legalization. If BB fails, most funds will go back to the marijuana industry. Kathryn Wells, M.D., [end]
In 2013, politicians duped many voters into supporting Proposition AA, a measure which imposed historically high taxes on retail marijuana. The pro-AA campaign vilified cannabis consumers and misled voters. Conversely, anti-AA consumer advocates predicted AA's unjust taxes would spawn a gray market in cannabis, and warned that the government was collecting illegally excessive tax revenue. In 2015, we see AA's opponents were right. Colorado's unregulated cannabis market is bigger than ever. And as Proposition BB authors concede, AA collected unlawfully exorbitant taxes. [continues 79 words]
Cultivators Pull Back Products Voluntarily Over Possible Residue. Two Denver marijuana cultivation facilities voluntarily recalled a wide-ranging group of products Wednesday over concerns they contained residues of pesticides that have not been approved for use on marijuana. The recall by TruCannabis and Colorado Care Facility, a subsidiary, was the third announced by the Denver Department of Environmental Health since it began cracking down on pesticides last spring, quarantining 100,000 plants. Company officials said they were conducting tests at the city's request related to an earlier recall of infused products produced by Mahatma when they found their own products had three disallowed pesticides. [continues 517 words]
Thornton) School officials and educators packed a conference room Wednesday, taking detailed notes and heaving collective sighs as they learned about what authorities are calling the No. 1 issue Colorado schools face: marijuana. "We got sold that marijuana legalization was going to positively impact our schools," said Christine Harms, director of the Colorado School Safety Resource Center. "And there is the school infrastructure aspect; but we're not seeing tremendous changes with marijuana prevention programs, and our students are paying the price." [continues 264 words]
Proposition BB, the only statewide issue in Colorado's elections this November, asks voters to "allow the state to retain and spend $66.1 million, which has already been collected, rather than refund it to taxpayers." Supporters of limited and cost-effective government understand the importance of reminding politicians and bureaucrats whose money they're spending. Refunds of tax revenue are perhaps the single most-effective way of doing so. However, Proposition BB relates specifically to the refund of excise and sales taxes on marijuana, taxes approved by Colorado voters in 2013 through Proposition AA as required by the 2012 passage of Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado. [continues 526 words]
Colorado and federal agents have raided illegal marijuana operations across the state the past six weeks in a concerted effort to take out syndicates marketing marijuana to different parts of the country. U.S. Attorney John Walsh's staff has filed numerous criminal charges in recent weeks against illegal operations. "This wave of marijuana grow operation sites is greater than we've seen the last couple of years," Walsh said. "They seem to have the view that 'if I come to Colorado and set up a marijuana grow operation, I won't be noticed.' " [continues 395 words]
The Inmate Release Is Part of a Big Change in Federal Drug Policy. washington) The Justice Department is set to release about 6,000 inmates early from prison - the largest ever release of federal prisoners-to reduce crowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences in the past three decades. The inmates from federal prisons nationwide will be set free by the department's Bureau of Prisons between Oct. 30 andNov. 2. Most of them will go to halfway houses and home confinement before being put on supervised release. [continues 930 words]
For all the work Colorado has done in creating the world's first regulatory structure for legal marijuana sales, the effort is not finished. Gaping holes remain, such as regulating pesticide use and providing guidance to doctors who recommend medical marijuana for patients. The state is late to the game on both counts. A report by The Denver Post's David Migoya and Ricardo Baca shows state regulators bowed to pressure from the marijuana industry last year and allowed potentially dangerous pesticides to be used on the crops. [continues 229 words]
Regulators Want to Limit Use to Chemicals With Low Toxicity. State regulators have proposed rules that would further restrict which pesticides can be used to grow marijuana to those that are least harmful and already are allowed on crops intended for human consumption and tobacco. The draft rules mark the state's latest effort in a process that began about two years ago but has dragged on amid industry pressure and lack of guidance from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. [continues 671 words]
Industry Pressure and Feds' Lack of Guidance Had Regulators Be Less Strict on Pesticides State regulators have known since 2012 that marijuana was grown with potentially dangerous pesticides, but pressure from the industry and lack of guidance from federal authorities delayed their efforts to enact regulations, and they ultimately landed on a less restrictive approach than originally envisioned. Three years of e-mails and records obtained by The Denver Post and dozens of interviews show state regulators struggled with the issue while the cannabis industry protested that proposed limits on pesticides would leave their valuable crops vulnerable to devastating disease. [continues 2351 words]
Advocates Of medical Marijuana Fear Such a Policy Would Threaten the Industry. Medical marijuana advocates fear a proposed policy from the Colorado Medical Board will send their industry up in smoke. Among other things, the policy suggests that doctors who recommend marijuana become competent in the area of pain treatment, keep extensive records on their patients and advise them of the risks, including death. It also suggests that "pregnancy testing during the initial evaluation should be considered for all women of child-bearing age." [continues 334 words]
Group Sees Link Between Legalization and Accidents on Highways Drunken drivers have long been the scourge of the roadways, but now drivers on drugs are becoming a menace that rivals them, according to a new federal report. A quadrupling use of prescription drugs since 1999 and legalization of marijuana use in some states are cited among the reasons drug use has become an increasing threat to roadway safety, according to a report released Wednesday by the Governors Highway Safety Association, an organization of state highway safety officers. [continues 315 words]
The Santee Sioux bring in a Denver pot consulting company to help grow "an adult playground." Flandreau, S.D. (AP) - The Santee Sioux tribe has proven its business acumen, running a casino, a 120-room hotel and a 240-head buffalo ranch on the plains of South Dakota. Now the small tribe of 400 is undertaking a new venture - opening the nation's first marijuana resort on its reservation. The experiment could offer a moneymaking model for other tribes seeking economic opportunities beyond casinos. [continues 488 words]
It's difficult to be fired by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Very difficult. So difficult, in fact, that even when the agency's board of professional conduct recommends that someone be fired - a rare conclusion - it usually doesn't happen. These are among the revelations in a USA Today report that reinforces a long line of stories over the years indicating the DEA generally responds to atrocious, even criminal, behavior by its employees with a wristslap. Miscreants were allowed to keep their jobs even when they'd "distributed drugs, lied to authorities or commited other serious misconduct," the report said. At a time when police agencies around the country are making an effort to expel bad apples, the DEA still hasn't caught on. [end]
Court Reports Preview the Defense's Assertion That THC Altered Richard Kirk's Mental State on the Night He's Accused of Murdering His Wife For the first time since marijuana was legalized in Colorado, defense attorneys are poised to argue that cannabis intoxication played a key role in a homicide. A recent set of filings by Richard Kirk's attorneys - and his change of plea to not guilty by reason of insanity - provide a possible preview of the connection attorneys may try to make between Kirk's mental state the night he killed his wife and the nibbles of a marijuana candy he ate hours before he pulled the trigger. [continues 946 words]
We're not surprised the Denver Board of Ethics concluded that city inspectors for marijuana licensing can't work as paid consultants to the cannabis industry elsewhere. Of course they shouldn't. That's a no-brainer. What's shocking is that inspectors wouldn't assume such moonlighting is out of bounds. It's such an obvious conflict of interest and, had it been approved, would have called into question their ability to enforce the city's rules. After all, enforcement might have ruffled the feathers of elements of the very industry from which they hoped to take a paycheck in another capacity. [continues 54 words]
Candidates Can No Longer Dodge or Dismiss the Issue. The 2016 campaign is spawning a new axiom in presidential politics: You can't spell POTUS without pot. For the first time, marijuana is becoming a significant policy issue for Republican and Democratic candidates - thanks in part to softening public attitudes toward the drug and Colorado's prominent place on the political map. "(Marijuana) is a topic that 2016 presidential candidates will not be able to avoid or dismiss with a pithy talking point," said John Hudak, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank whose research has focused on the legalization push. "It is one that candidates will have to think about and engage." [continues 874 words]
