DrugSense

Pueblo Chieftain, 16 Jun 2013 – LET’S WORK WITH NEW LAWS OK’D BY VOTERS Gov. John Hickenlooper recently signed into law a number of bills creating a comprehensive regulatory framework for adult marijuana sales in Colorado. As a psychologist and mother, I applaud the governor for moving us closer to a well-regulated system that gets marijuana off the streets and away from our youth.

Denver Post, 16 Jun 2013 – Re: "Do stoned salmon suffer memory loss?" June 9 Rich Tosches column. What on Earthwas the point of publishing Rich Tosches’ June 9 column? Is this really the best commentary you can get on the important issue of legalizing and regulating marijuana? Unlike Tosches, I recognize that this issue is not a joke-if this is done properly, Colorado has the chance to be a national and world leader in moving to a better model of dealing with drug use and abuse. If done without proper foresight, we will be a laughingstock. To suggest that it is just stoners who want a sane drug policy is insulting. Tosches’ rehashing of jokes that were tired in the 1970s offers nothing productive to the discussion, and I am shocked you would waste the column space to publish it.

Pueblo Chieftain, 16 Jun 2013 – Dr. Chris Nevin-Woods’ article on marijuana in the (Pueblo Chieftain, June 2) is inaccurate. Marijuana has little if any physical withdrawal symptoms associated with addictive drugs such as alcohol, narcotics, sedative-hypnotics drugs and amphetamines. A few studies have shown that some people smoking marijuana daily for 70 months or more had some mild symptoms (anxiety and insomnia).

DrugSense

Vail Daily, 13 Jun 2013 – EAGLE COUNTY – While two dozen police officers were downstairs in an Avon hotel learning drug recognition techniques, a doctor was upstairs performing medical marijuana exams and selling cards. The irony was lost on no one, especially the 24 officers from around state working through Drug Recognition Expert training.

Wet Mountain Tribune, 13 Jun 2013 – Westcliffe fame may be on its way. The warehouse next to Ace Hardware south of Westcliffe has been scoped out by people who are looking at opening a marijuana cultivating facility. Amendment 64 was passed into Colorado law November 5, 2012, providing that recreational marijuana may be used by anyone over 21. Now Westcliffe is faced with the decision to either allow the cultivating facility in or keep it out.

Boulder Weekly, 13 Jun 2013 – (Re: "Heading into uncharted territory," Weed Between the Lines, May 16.) The people of Colorado are way ahead of the politicians in Washington, D.C. The days when our federal government can get away with confusing the drug war’s collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end.

Boulder Weekly, 13 Jun 2013 – Probably the strangest paragraph in Colorado’s first attempt to regulate marijuana was the one that stipulated that "magazines whose primary focus is marijuana or marijuana businesses are only sold in retail marijuana stores or behind the counter in establishments where persons under 21 years of age are present." Yes, you read that correctly. Magazines about pot like High Times would have to be hidden behind the counter alongside Gallery or Gent, with the astounding caveat that anyone under 21 could purchase the magazines in question – but he or she couldn’t look at it in the store. And I say "was" because it was rendered moot rather quickly and efficiently.

Seattle Times, 11 Jun 2013 – ALLOWING cannabis businesses to use the banking system is an urgent matter for 20 medical-marijuana states and a special concern to Washington and Colorado, whose voters have endorsed legalization for general adult use. U.S. Reps. Denny Heck, D-Wash., and Ed Perlmutter, DColo., of the House Financial Services Committee are preparing a bill that would allow marijuana producers and retailers to use the banking system.