While a lot of the stories we’ve dug up for our Colorado Cannabis Time Capsule feature deal with the political side of pot and how it was used to single out ethnic groups, some just plain poked fun at cannabis and people perceived as lower-class. This 1904 gem about a…
Amendments to Denver’s marijuana ordinance have been decried by critics, including the ACLU, as a “sniff test” that would recriminalize behavior made legal by Amendment 64, which lets adults 21 and over use and possess small amounts of cannabis. Denver City Councilwoman Susan Shepherd also has grave doubts about the…
Earlier this month, Melanie Asmar reported about the first legal U.S. hemp harvest in more than fifty years getting underway in southeastern Colorado — one that wrapped up a week or so later. Photographer Ben Droz was on hand to capture the scene, and he’s kindly allowing us to share…
There’s a correlation between my increasing age and the decreasing amount of time I spend in downtown Denver. As I creep toward my mid-thirties, traffic becomes increasingly less tolerable, restaurants become more pretentious and overpriced, and parking becomes something I dread more than in-law visits. In short: Aside from the…
Earlier this month, we reported about a campaign-finance complaint filed by Colorado Ethics Watch against the group opposing Proposition AA, the marijuana taxation measure. Among the issues: The No on Prop AA folks had put a value of one cent on free joints given away to hundreds of people at…
Dear Stoner: I really love live reggae, but lately I’m afraid that I’ll get high from all the smoke in the air. I work for the federal government and am subject to random drug screening at work. I’ll get fired if THC is found in my system. Is it possible…
Rebecca Maez, the woman accused of killing cannabis advocate Jenny “Kush” Friede and seriously injuring her boyfriend, Jeremy DePinto, in a Labor Day drunk-driving incident will stand trial next month. Denver judge James B. Race made that decision yesterday at an emotionally raw and moving 45-minute preliminary hearing to determine…
The first retail sale of recreational marijuana in Colorado has yet to be rung up, but the state is already reaping some convention business as a result of its groundbreaking reforms of drug laws. Next week more than a thousand elected officials, health care professionals, students, drug war veterans and…
Yesterday, the Denver City Council’s Amendment 64 committee considered proposed marijuana ordinance amendments that include what critics have branded a “sniff test.” The city makes its case via several new documents shared below — including one that includes a photo of Moe from The Simpsons showing off his signature drink,…
Yesterday, Melanie Asmar wrote about the first legal hemp crop in Colorado (and the U.S.) in more than fifty years. It’s a big step forward for advocates, who would like to see hemp return to the legal, useful status it once enjoyed. Like, for example, as a way to rid…
Today at 2 p.m., marijuana activists Mason Tvert and Brian Vicente will hold a press conference decrying a new proposal that would potentially criminalize marijuana smoking in one’s own home if its odor can be smelled outside it. In a press release announcing the event (see it below), Tvert and…
I could probably hit the Mile High Green Cross sign from the front door of Westword’s 10th and Broadway offices using a slingshot. I point that out because, despite being the closest medical marijuana dispensary to my desk, I’ve only been there a handful of times. But a fellow Westword…
Update: Earlier today, we posted about a letter sent to U.S. Attorney John Walsh by attorney Rob Corry on behalf of No on Proposition AA, the campaign opposed to a marijuana tax measure on next month’s ballot; see our previous coverage below. In the missive, Corry asked Walsh to state…
Last week, we told you about the beginning of America’s first hemp harvest in more than fifty years, which started in late September in southeastern Colorado. This past weekend, that harvest continued with 45 volunteers from six different states, who converged on grower Ryan Loflin’s 55-acre hemp plot to finish…
The number of people signing up for their state medical marijuana cards just barely outpaced the thousands of people dropping off the list from July to August. While the total number of new applications for the medical marijuana registry increased by 3,640 from June through August, to 230,847, the total…
Update: Rob Corry has responded to our interview request about the Colorado Ethics Watch complaint against the No on Proposition AA campaign. His comments follow our original post. Over the past month or so, the organization opposed to the marijuana taxation measure Proposition AA has staged rallies in Denver and…
Venerable pot magazine High Times has been focusing on Colorado quite a bit over the last few years, including naming Colorado strains as the most potent staffers have seen and bringing their annual Cannabis Cup events to the Mile High City. This month’s High Times feature keeps up that trend,…
Amendment 64 allowed communities to opt out of retail pot industry, and plenty of them have done so. As we’ve reported, weed sales have been prohibited in far more places than they’re allowed. But Pueblo isn’t balking at this new industry. Far from it: The city called on an A64…
Dear Stoner: My grower said his greenhouse in Weld County got flooded, and he offered to let me take some plants home if I help him clean up. He said the place smells like manure from the floodwaters. My question: Is the stuff safe to smoke? Because I sure don’t…
In her coverage of Colorado’s early steps toward launching a hemp industry (including last week’s post about the first U.S. hemp harvest in more than fifty years), Melanie Asmar has referred to the plant as “marijuana’s sober stepsister” because it has almost none of the psychoactive ingredient that makes users…
We’ve run a few articles about pot and soldiers so far in Colorado Cannabis Time Capsule, and most have the same theme: Marijuana makes you crazy and unfit for duty. But this 1914 article from the Akron Weekly Pioneer Press brings the anti-Hispanic, racial undertones of the early anti-marijuana movement…
John Hickenlooper was one of the most visible opponents of Amendment 64, a measure to allow adults 21 and over to use and possess small amounts of marijuana. But since A64’s passage, he’s done a major turnaround, agreeing to appear at a fundraiser for Proposition AA, which would set tax…
