Weed Between the Lines

Trying to grok Congress and cannabis

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It’s impossible to understand the labyrinthine rhyme or reason behind any part of the Goliath spending bill passed by Congress to keep the government running another year. A bill that includes a rider that, for instance, would give Wall Street the same opportunities ...

Is it really this hard to come up with retail cannabis...

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The city is now close to passing rules and regulations that will govern the sale of retail cannabis in Boulder. A revised set of staff recommendations returns to City Council this Tuesday, Nov. 12, for a “second” third reading. That follows an often tense “first” ...

We need to change the cannabis dialogue

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There were a lot of national news stories about the long lines of people standing outside the world´s first adult retail cannabis shops in Colorado. It wasn´t really that difficult to decipher — there were only a small number of shops open on a historic day whipped ...

You can’t hide from the turning of the tide

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When Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that there were too many people in federal prison, outlined Justice Department plans to stop charging low-level and nonviolent drug offenders (ie. cannabis users) with crimes that carry mandatory minimums and ...

The state can’t protect us from ourselves

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While the Colorado legislature struggles with ways to make marijuana look different from other food products, another tragic death has been blamed on edibles by the family of an Oklahoma man who shot himself March 21 while on a skiing vacation in Keystone...

Heading for a showdown on cannabis and banking?

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Almost within minutes of the official announcement, headlines last Friday proclaimed that the Department of Justice and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in separate issuances, had finally given banks a green ...

The Obama drug war budget and the definition of insanity

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The words were encouraging, especially coming from the surgeon general of the United States. “We have some preliminary data showing that for certain medical conditions and symptoms that marijuana can be helpful. So I think we have to use that data to drive policy ...

After a year, it appears that legalization might just work

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been one full year since retail cannabis shops opened, and two full years that cannabis has been legal in Colorado. So much has happened, but the best news of all is that, all things considered, the experiment seems to be working...

Cannabis is all the style and now on the floor of...

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Among the most surprising things I’ve witnessed in writing Weed Between the Lines for two years now is how quickly the cannabis debate is evolving in Congress. Back then, a small group of representatives, including Colorado’s Jared Polis, were trying, with little ...

It’s time to let Boulder cannabis businesses succeed

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Having lived here nearly half my life, I frequent local businesses and want them to succeed and thrive. I’m proud to support companies that call Boulder home, too, — shops and stores that are part of the fabric of the community and who call me by my first name. Chain...

New schools or a cup of coffee?

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In 2013, Colorado voters passed proposition AA, permitting the state to charge a retail marijuana tax as a follow-up to 2012’s Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana in Colorado. The passing of Amendment 64 and the subsequent passing of Proposition AA were enticing ...

Coats decision leaves it up to the legislature

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The Colorado Supreme Court Monday dealt the final legal blow to a Colorado man’s plea to keep his job after failing a random drug test administered by his employer in 2010...