Wake-Up Call: Colorado Legislature goes to pot

The Colorado Legislature officially went to pot yesterday, when Senator Chris Romer finally introduced what remains of his medical-marijuana proposal: Senate Bill 109, which would put a strict lid on the relationship between a doctor and a would-be medical marijuana patient.

The Colorado health department was at the Capitol, too, asking the legislature’s budget committee for another $186,000 to handle the backlog of patients who’ve gotten a doctor’s approval but have been waiting months to get their cards from the state. The department has already asked for an additional $140,000 — but really, that’s chump change. In fact, it’s less than what the department collected in a single day, November 12, when a record 1,650 applications came in, at $90 a piece.