Did Henry Ford really make a car out of hemp? Was the Declaration of Independence written on hemp paper? Did Abraham Lincoln use hemp oil in his lamps? The hemp plant, a variety of Cannabis sativa that’s the subject of this week’s cover story “Green Acres,” is steeped in lore…
The 4/20 weekend this year is shaping up to be a massive, city-wide event. Not only is the traditional 4/20 political rally again taking at Denver’s Civic Center Park, but the crew from High Times has claimed the Mile High as their city of choice for the first-ever Cannabis Cup…
LivWell is one of the larger Colorado dispensary chains, with seven affiliated dispensaries scattered from Colorado Springs all the way up to Boulder, including PostModern Health and Denver Patients Group here in Denver. The Broadway shop I visited is combined with the old Broadway Wellness that moved from its location…
Hey, kid! What are you doing reading this blog post? Don’t you know that Westword is adult-oriented? Frankly, that was news to us, too, despite our willingness to publish profanities when people say them to us (and other times, as well). But now we know, thanks to the just-released final…
Dear Stoner: What is up with 4/20? Why is that like the St. Paddy’s Day for potheads? Nada Mota Dear Nada: The most plausible explanation comes from Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim. A story he wrote in 2009 describes how five kids at San Rafael High School in the early…
Colorado legislators have formed a body to help craft legislation based on recommendations of the governor-appointed Amendment 64 task force, which wrapped up February 28 and released its findings this week. The Joint Select Committee on the Implementation of the Amendment 64 Task Force Recommendations (no, not that kind of…
This week’s cover story, “Green Acres,” is all about hemp: its past (outlawed by the feds), its present (resurrected thanks to Amendment 64) and what advocates say is a promising agricultural future. That past includes a push by the federal government during World War II to encourage farmers to grow…
Earlier this month, eight former DEA administrators wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder encouraging him to crack down on new marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington, in part because they see the measures as violating international treaties regarding drugs. Officials in at least one foreign locale –…
After the passage of Amendment 64, which allows Colorado adults age 21 and over to use and possess small amounts of marijuana, opponents of the measure lamented about all manner of potential societal harm, including possible negative impact on employment and job productivity. Now, such critics have new ammunition with…
We’ve been hearing more about marijuana profiling — law enforcers in other states targeting cars with Colorado license plates due to the pot laws here. One of our writers was stopped and searched twice in one trip. Anecdotal evidence (including a report about a so-called Colorado drug pipeline) suggests that…
I was doing some cleanup and recycling dozens of green and blue plastic medicine jars containers laying around my house when it hit me: I’ve been through a lot of different herb in the last three years. Though we didn’t run bud pictures in the first few months of our…
Kindman has rebranded as the Grass Station. Kindman is down the street from the Regency dorms, which for some reason I will always remember as the crack-palace hotel it was before it was converted to student housing a few years ago. With the hotel’s 180-degree turnaround, the area doesn’t seem…
In our continued coverage of alleged profiling of cars with Colorado license plates in other states due to our marijuana laws, we shared the experiences of Westword writer Britt Chester, who was pulled over not once, but twice last week during a cross-country trip. One of the places he was…
Dear Stoner: My wife was telling me that she heard on TV that smoking pot can cause strokes in older folks. I’m 63 and just a little concerned. Any truth to this rumor? Roberto Reefer Roller Dear RRR: Back in February, a New Zealand scientist said he had found a…
As we reported earlier today, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder didn’t choose his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee to share the Justice Department response to marijuana laws in Colorado that contradict federal policy. The measures contradict international treaties, too, as a new report from an agency affiliated with the…
Yesterday, eight former DEA administrators sent a letter to ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee (see it below), encouraging them to quiz U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder about why the Justice Department hasn’t cracked down on Colorado and Washington state over their recently passed marijuana laws. But if the…
In writing about the marijuana-possession arrest of a Brighton man last month, we explored claims that cars with Colorado plates are being profiled in other states because of our marijuana laws.
Tomorrow, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee — and eight ex-heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration suggest that members ask him why the hell he hasn’t brought the hammer down on Colorado and Washington state for their respective pot laws. That’s the message of…
The implementation of Amendment 64 continues to unfold throughout the state. Lafayette placed a temporary ban on retail and cultivation-based marijuana businesses, but Nederland is trying to do the exact opposite. Last week, the town’s Board of Trustees met to begin discussions about regulating marijuana prior to the completion of…
The authors of Amendment 64 understood that the measure, which allows adults 21 and over to use and possess small amounts of marijuana, would have far-reaching effects at every level of Colorado society. But did they consider whether the law would allow marijuana-related bake-offs at county fairs? Hard to say…
After returning from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq ten years ago, Navy veteran Jeremy Usher experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder according to the Greeley Tribune. He subsequently tried treating his condition with alcohol, resulting in multiple DUIs and a probationary sentence. But switching to medical marijuana to address his…
In coverage of last week’s final Amendment 64 task force meeting, our Charles Trowbridge noted that in addition to a recommendation about a 15 percent excise tax at the wholesale level, an idea about a 25 percent point-of-sale tax was also floated. Task force member Christian Sederberg stresses that the…
