Drug War Chronicle, Issue #831 -- 4/24/14 Table of Contents with URLs and lead article

[Bobbie Sellers]

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #831 -- 4/24/14
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psm...@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/831

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director, bor...@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. COLORADO ENJOYS MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION [FEATURE]
Colorado is little more than three months into legal marijuana sales,
but things are looking good, and the 4/20 weekend was huge.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/apr/23/colorado_enjoying_marijuana_legalization


2. "HUNDREDS, PERHAPS THOUSANDS" COULD BE FREED UNDER NEW FEDERAL
CLEMENCY RULES
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of federal drug prisoners could be granted
clemency under new rules being drawn up by the Justice Department.
Attorney General announced the work in progress Monday.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/apr/22/hundreds_perhaps_thousands_could


3. US SUPREME COURT REJECTS FLORIDA DRUG TESTING APPEAL
Florida Gov. Rick Scott's plan to drug test state employees without
cause has been batted down after the US Supreme Court refused to hear
the state's appeal of a lower court decision finding it unconstitional.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/apr/21/supreme_court_rejects_fl_drug_test_appeal


4. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
Illinois patients can have guns, but New Hampshire patients can't grow
their own medicine. And California counties stay busy as the legislature
ponders actually regulating medical marijuana there.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/apr/23/medical_marijuana_update

5. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
An Alabama deputy gets stung, a Baltimore cop gets jail for beating on a
drug suspect, and a Texas jail guard gets to see the other side of the
bars after selling marijuana to prisoners.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/apr/23/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

6. CHRONICLE AM -- APRIL 17, 2014
Marijuana legalization inititives are in the news, the NCAA ponders
relaxing marijuana penalties, a vaporizer company wants to drug test its
workers, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/apr/17/chronicle_am_april_17_2014

7. CHRONICLE AM -- APRIL 23, 2014
There's news on the marijuana legalization initiative front, decrim dies
in New Hampshire, pot sentencing reform dies in Alabama, Illinois
patients can keep their guns, and drugged driving and reproductive
rights are also in the news. And more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/apr/23/chronicle_am_april_23_2014

(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up today!)

================

1. COLORADO ENJOYS MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION [FEATURE]
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/apr/23/colorado_enjoying_marijuana_legalization


Legal marijuana sales began in Colorado on January 1, and now, just a
few months in, Denver already appears to be well-placed to claim the
title of America's cannabis capital. This past weekend, tens of
thousands of people flooded into the city to celebrate the 4/20 holiday
and attend the latest High Times Cannabis Cup.

For blocks around the north side expo center where the Cannabis Cup took
place, thousands of eager pot aficionados clogged the streets, bringing
traffic to a crawl, while inside, hundreds of exhibitors peddled their
wares, demonstrating both the scope of cannabis-related commerce and the
grasp of American entrepreneurs. Pot smoking was supposed to be allowed
only in designated areas, which didn't include the lengthy lines of
people waiting to get in the event, but that didn't seem to stop anybody.

Meanwhile, downtown at the Civic Center plaza facing the state capitol,
the state's ban on public marijuana use was again ignored -- blatantly
and massively -- at the Official 4/20 Rally (http://www.420rally.org).
Despite Denver Police digital signs warning that public "Marijuana
consumption is illegal" and "Marijuana laws enforced," at precisely
4:20pm on 4/20, the most massive, intense, and long-lasting could of pot
smoke your reporter has ever seen wafted over the city. One hesitates to
estimate how many pounds of marijuana went up in smoke in a few moments
at the Civic Center.

Police made a few dozen arrests for public consumption over the course
of the two-day rally, but the event was otherwise peaceable, and police
generally kept a low profile.

And the city's marijuana retail outlets were doing brisk business, with
lines of eager buyers, many from out of state, waiting for their chance
to buy weed legally. In one pot store parking lot, middle-aged customers
in a pick-up truck with Texas plates shared their happiness with a
car-load of 20-somethings from Wisconsin, all of them drawn to Colorado
by the chance to experience legal marijuana.

"I didn't think I'd live to see the day," said one of the Texans,
smiling broadly, his brown paper bag filled with buds inside a blue
prescription bottle with a child-proof cap and a label identifying the
plant that grew the buds. "I don't know if I will live to see the day
this is legal in Texas, so that's why we came here. This is history."

At the Walking Raven retail store on South Broadway last Saturday,
proprietor Luke Ramirez oversaw a handful of employees tending to an
unending line of customers. A favorite of customers and staff alike was
Hong Kong Diesel, a 30% THC variety with a powerful aroma, going for
more than $400 an ounce.

Like all of the first generation retail marijuana stores in the state,
Walking Raven began as a medical marijuana dispensary, but transitioned
into the adult retail business. That required time and money, Ramirez said.

"It was about $100,000 to start up, and it took about 100 days," he
said, quickly adding that it was worth it.

"This is absolutely a profitable business model," Ramirez exclaimed
between greetings to customers and issuing orders to his bud sellers.
"We're paying a lot in taxes, but we have a large client base -- three
million adults in Colorado, plus tourism."

Making the transition from a dispensary to an adult retail outlet also
helped, Ramirez said.

"We've gone from about $3,000 a day in sales to $10,000," he explained.

The state of Colorado is making bank off Ramirez and his colleagues in
the marijuana business. According to the state Department of Revenue
(http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/Revenue-Main/XRM/1251633259746),
adult marijuana taxes and fees totaled $2 million in January and $2.5
million in February, the last month for which data is available.
Observers expect that monthly figure to only increase as more stores
open up.

It's not all roses for Colorado's nascent pot industry, though. Ramirez
ticked off the issues.

"The biggest obstacles are the government and its regulatory bodies," he
said. "Will they increase or decrease taxes, what about zoning, how do
we get out supply? Heavy regulation is an issue. And the seed-to-sale
tracking program is very expensive; I have a full-time employee just for
that."

And then there is that pesky federal marijuana prohibition. Although the
Justice Department has made soothing noises about not picking on
financial institutions that do business with the state's legal pot
shops, most banks still have not gotten on board -- and there are other,
related, issues, too.

"The federal law inhibits us from doing normal business," Ramirez said.
"We can't get bank loans and we don't get the 280E federal tax break.
We're classified as drug traffickers, so we can't write off our business
expenses."

That's not to mention the security issues around dealing with large
amounts of cash because the banks don't want to risk touching it.

"We have to have multiple safes and carry cash around," he said.

Still, Ramirez is open for business, and business is good. And not only
is business good, Colorado's experiment with marijuana legalization
seems to be advancing with few hiccups.

"Things are generally going quite smoothly," said Mason Tvert, an
Amendment 64 proponent who is now a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy
Project (http://www.mpp.org). "Regulations are still being developed in
certain areas, such as concentrates and edibles, but the system is up
and running and working more or less as intended."

While it remains to be seen if the estimated $100 million in pot tax
revenues this year
(http://www.businessinsider.com/r-colorado-legalized-marijuana-tax-revs-ahead-of-expectations-moodys-2014-11)actually
happens, Tvert was confident the income would be substantial.

"We're now seeing a couple of million a month in tax revenues, and money
from fees, as well," he said. "We will still see a lot more businesses
opening in the future, so we anticipate revenues will increase. Also,
all of the current stores were existing medical marijuana businesses
that were able to make a tax-free transfer from medical to retail, but
now they will have to start paying a 15% excise tax, which will bring in
more than is currently being raised."

The state has, however, recently seen two deaths attributed to legal
marijuana use, a college student from the Congo who fell from a balcony
(http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/02/us-usa-colorado-marijuana-idUSBREA3127N20140402)after
eating a cannabis cookie, and a man who shot and killed his wife
(http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/18/woman-shot-911-pot/7859749/),
also apparently under the influence of edibles (and perhaps pain pills).
While the exact role of marijuana in those deaths is unclear, media and
opponents have leaped on those tragedies.

The movement needs to address such incidents, said Tvert.

"We've known for some time that some people who have preexisting mental
health conditions could find them exacerbated by marijuana," Tvert said.
"People need to be educated about that. If marijuana were a major factor
in these incidents, that is a rare thing, but it is something we should
be looking and determining what we can do to better educate consumers
and reduce the likelihood of any problems."

But such incidents notwithstanding, legalization is not about to get
rolled back in Colorado. Instead, it's just getting started, and it's
off to a pretty good start.

"This is the first quarter in the first year of a system just getting
started," Tvert said. "Things are going pretty well."
================ ...


___________________

It's time to correct the mistake:
Truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out
why:
<http://www.leap.cc>

Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

bliss -- Cacao Powered... (-SF4ever at DSLExtreme dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cacao that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.