Colorado readies for 'Green Wednesday' pot sales

[OZ Stoners]

Police were adding extra patrols around pot shops in eight Colorado towns that plan to allow recreational sales to anyone over 21 on Jan. 1. Officials at Denver International Airport installed new signs ...

 

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[bufo marinus]

DENVER (AP) -- Police were adding extra patrols around pot shops in eight Colorado towns that plan to allow recreational sales to anyone over 21 on Jan. 1. Officials at Denver International Airport installed new signs warning visitors their weed can't legally go home with them.

And at a handful of shops, owners were scrambling to plan celebrations, set up coffee stations, arrange food giveaways and hire extra security to prepare for potential crowds and overnight campers ready to buy up to an ounce of legal weed.

While smoking pot has been legal in Colorado for the past year, so-called Green Wednesday represents another historic milestone for the decades-old legalization movement: the unveiling of the nation's first legal pot industry.

"It could be crazy. Or it could be crickets out there. Who knows? No one's ever done this before," said Robin Hackett, manager of BotanaCare in Northglenn, a suburb of Denver, who planned to have a DJ to greet shoppers.

Preparation for the retail market started more than a year ago, soon after Colorado voters in 2012 approved the legal pot industry. Washington state has its own version, which is scheduled to open in mid-2014.

Pot advocates, who had long pushed legalization as an alternative to the lengthy and costly global drug war, had argued it would generate revenue for state coffers and save money in locking up drug offenders.

Still, setting up regulations, taxation and oversight for a drug that's never been regulated before took some time.

Colorado set up an elaborate plant-tracking system to try to keep the drug away from the black market, and regulators set up packaging, labeling and testing requirements, along with potency limits for edible pot.

The U.S. Justice Department outlined an eight-point slate of priorities for pot regulation, requiring states to keep the drug away from minors, criminal cartels, federal property and other states in order to avoid a federal crackdown. Pot is still illegal under federal law.

With the additional police patrols, the airport warnings and various other measures, officials are hoping they had enough safeguards in place to avoid predictions of public health and safety harm from the opening of the pot shops.

But they confessed anxiety about the opening of retail sales.

"We understand that Colorado is under a microscope," Jack Finlaw, lawyer to Gov. John Hickenlooper and overseer of a major task force to chart news pot laws, recently told reporters about the first day.

Would pot-shop parking lots be full of overnight campers and crowds lined up to buy pot? Would sellers run out of marijuana? Would shoppers abide by state law and refrain from using pot publicly, or would clouds of pot smoke drift through neighborhoods?

Interviews with dozens of marijuana critics, legalization advocates and industry workers showed many share Finlaw's opinion.

Colorado's on a big green stage as dozens of state and foreign countries mull changing marijuana laws.

Since Colorado and Washington state's votes, Uruguay became the first nation to regulate pot. Across the U.S., several municipalities, including Portland, Maine, have ratcheted back criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of pot.

Critics fear the changing global marijuana approach is setting up Colorado and other places for serious public health problems.

"This movement in public policy basically conflicts with the essence of bringing greater mental health and public health," said Patrick Kennedy, a former Rhode Island congressman and chairman of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes legalization.

Marijuana supporters, meanwhile, were hoping that they'll make the best use of their chance to show that legalization can work.

Maura Foss, compliance manager at Breckenridge Cannabis Club in the ski resort town, is upping inventory from a normal 5 or 6 pounds to 50 pounds of weed for Green Wednesday.

Foss said she wasn't sure how long the pot would last given a steady stream of tourists calling and coming in seeking to buy it.

"We've been scrambling to get the basics ready, and we're as ready as we can be," Foss said.

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Kristen Wyatt can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt

 

 

I think I accessed the internet and joined Overgrow around 1998-1999? with my brand new(second hand ) Pentium 90 running windows 95... There was discussion and real optimism back then that the law WOULD change and was going to change,... Canada was probably going to be the first country that people were expecting to see the law regarding cannabis use thrown out with a pot friendly prime minister..... however September 11 fucked the whole show... overnight... Bush brought in the infamous 'Patriot Act' and the insane security the world has endured ever since began... the Canadian government was told if they legalized pot the US would shut their borders and bring Canada to it's knees financially so fast it'd make their heads spin, and they meant it. John Howard followed Bushes lead in stepping up security and any hopes for further medical trials in NSW fizzled out along with what was probably the second most casual state in Oz regarding cannabis use becoming now one of the worst with dog patrols starting, anti hydro laws etc.

So to see this day finally coming in a few hours time is really quite a landmark day. To me it's a significant win for responsible, peaceful cannabis uses in the long struggle against being branded criminals, low lifes, idiots, pieces of shit druggos, you name it we've had to endure the branding, the police action, job losses, families being torn apart.... for what?..... grrrrrr

Like most things in life the answer to the cannabis use issue isn't black and white and the sooner the arrogant smart arses maintaining the crumbling hard line realise it, the better for everyone.

We need to see people standing up to the law in Australia, this struggle can be won, but we need court action, again and again and again so we can pick up and maintain momentum. There is a clear scope for cannabis use to be allowed under the law.

 

Under the Qld Drugs Misuse Act the definition of unlawful is without authorisation, justification or excuse ....... if people took the time to consider and absorb that, understand and believe it, and then took that conviction to court, then the tide of court action throughout Australia would be overwhelming... it would be unstoppable.

I urge every person who has to endure the criminal prosecution for personal use cannabis charges to take a deep breath and apply themselves to making a stand in court. You will make a difference too.

Happy New Year OzStoners

[MongyMan]

Like most things in life the answer to the cannabis use issue isn't black and white and the sooner the arrogant smart arses maintaining the crumbling hard line realise it, the better for everyone.

We need to see people standing up to the law in Australia, this struggle can be won, but we need court action, again and again and again so we can pick up and maintain momentum. There is a clear scope for cannabis use to be allowed under the law.

 

Under the Qld Drugs Misuse Act the definition of unlawful is without authorisation, justification or excuse ....... if people took the time to consider and absorb that, understand and believe it, and then took that conviction to court, then the tide of court action throughout Australia would be overwhelming... it would be unstoppable.

I urge every person who has to endure the criminal prosecution for personal use cannabis charges to take a deep breath and apply themselves to making a stand in court. You will make a difference too.

Happy New Year OzStoners

 

Exactly bufo

 

Australians need to stop fearing the law and hiding from it and instead USE it to stand up and be counted.

 

There is no point people sitting back and thinking wait till its legal in other countries first and hope Australia follows them. All that will achive in Australia is what is happening atm. Pharmacutical cannabis ONLY bought to you buy government bodies like the TGA the NCPIC etc supplied by companies like GW Pharmacuticals or Mullaways Medical Cannabis and others who support a monopolised regulated cannabis industry in Australia over legal cannabis for all.

 

The first place to fight back if you have been busted is to ask for ALL the evidence they have BEFORE you enter a plea in court. It is your legal right to do this under disclosure of evidence. Alot of times the police are either lazy or incompetent and make mistakes and as a result they dont have the evidence they need to present to a court if you ask for it and challenge them on it where you can. If you plead guilty first the police do not need to present ANY evidence at all to the judge.

 

And the medical cannabis companies to back are the ones that are also fighting for legal cannabis for all imo....not just a monopoly for themselves.

 

MongyMan