# Marijuana in Colorado



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

With the voters of Colorado voting to legalize recreational sales and use of marijuana, I thought I would start a thread about it. I just want to say that I am not for it, nor against it. Why? I find that it has some similarities to alcohol and seems to have some medical uses that are worth exploring, IMHO. BTW, I am not a consumer of marijuana. (Edit--Having read through my post, it really sounds like I am for it. Maybe not being opposed to it means I am for it.)

When Colorado approved medical marijuana a few years ago, the city of Denver alone had 175 marijuana shops. 

The voters approved recreational sales and use in November, 2012, and sales began January 1, 2014, for anyone who might have missed it.  I did not vote for it, nor against it. I had a busy, long day at work and never made it to the polls. 

Sales taxes in January were more than 3 million dollars. The first $40,000,000 of sales taxes will be used for building and maintaining schools. There were a couple hundred more shops approved before recreational sales began. I am talking about Denver. There are different statistics for all of Colorado. I do not have these in my head.

Today, in Denver, there was a marijuana job fair. People came from all over the country and stood in a long line that wrapped around a building. I know one person who went to apply, a young adult. Jobs that were available covered many aspects of running a business: retail sales, working in grow facilities, and more. They advertised 150 jobs to be filled.

Another affect of marijuana being legal is the impact on real estate. More than 3 million square feet of commercial and warehouse space has been taken for selling and growing marijuana. I know a business that has lost their lease for a couple reasons, and in looking for a new facility, they have found that warehouse space is not necessarily easy to find due to much of this type of space being used for growing marijuana.

There have been reports of shortages of product. Demand is far more than expected. People fly and drive in from all over to purchase marijuana. The limits for people coming from out of state are smaller than for residents.

There are families who have severely ill children who are moving here to have access to cannabis oil that does not have THC, that they are treating their children with. Reports are that there is progress with some of them.

I am not promoting marijuana. I am not opposed to it. I am curious that it has been illegal for so long and with the new approval, the impact it will have, legally, socially, economically, and medicinally. Time and research will surely tell the good, the bad, and the ugly.


----------



## gabbyj310 (Oct 22, 2012)

If marijuana helps one child or one adult not be ill lets at least be open minded... Wake up America this IS the 21st century and there are many many things that can and do help illness.Lets face it ,we use to put cocaine in Coke.Will there be people that abuse it,of course but look at beer,wine and whiskey.Whiskey use to be a "cure all"..Let's regulate it and I'm sure the good ole government will tax the hell out of it,but use it for the benifits .


----------



## helicopter5472 (Feb 25, 2013)

My kids live in Colorado, I'm sure they are Buzzed....


----------



## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

I have been following the Colorado Marijuana news. 

Here in Nebraska, the authorities are saying that all the local jails in western Nebraska are full of people trying to take the MJ home. Every day I read about major pot busts along Interstate 80 have increased in the last 6 months.

The Governor has commented that several companies in Colorado have been asking about moving their business here. The business owners have been complaining about their employees coming to work stoned.

Since all transactions are in cash, this makes the businesses very attractive to organized crime and to those that want to rob the Marijuana business owners.

Because of the increases in tax revenue, several other states are considering making it legal. One of the states is Texas.

My opinion is that Marijuana's use falls into the category personal decision and should not be illegal.

I told my wife that in the next 20 years all of the remaining states will legalize Marijuana.


----------



## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Sounds like the legalization in Colorado is doing a pretty good job of increasing revenues, creating jobs, filing vacant buildings and making folks happy. So what is wrong with that? People voted it in and who has suffered so far? Well, the prison industrial complex in Colorado is probably pretty pissed but that seems about it.

I will admit I am biased though. I last smoked pot...Ahhh... What time is it now? Just before 8:00 PM EST, so...... 1982 or 1984, somewhere in there. I smoked a lot of it and always remember having a pretty good time.

As far as companies finding employees 'stoned at work', shouldn't that be treated like drinking on the job? Problem solved! And exactly what 'jobs' are they finding these folks stoned? "You want fries with that?" seems like one I would need to be stoned for. The folks mowing my lawn are stoned? Yeah, so? How many folks have a beer or two while mowing their lawns??? Anyone with a 'career' would wait until they got home to light up. If they walked into an office situation wasted and went to a meeting, it would be pretty obvious. "How is that yearly financial report coming Woody?" "Dude! You're being a bummer and bringing me down. Yeah, OK, my career is going to last more than the next 5 minutes.

I think it is a good thing and about time we shot down some of these archaic laws and went with public opinion NOT political opinion.


----------



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*People to be released from prison*

Now that pot is legal, the people who have been sent off for possession can ask for their sentences to be vacated. They will not automatically be vacated.

Ultimately, isn't that a financial benefit to the state? I wonder, for the people who have been convicted of something that is now legal and are convicted felons, will their records get erased? I have not heard this discussed.

I agree about being stoned on the job. People do not usually drink before or while at work, so it is probably not a good idea to be stoned at work. But, there will always be silly people who will and think they can get away with it. Although, I taught with a young man who would drink during his lunch break. He didn't last in his job.

One of the problems that has occurred is that banks are not allowed to accept money from pot shops, but there has been discussion about getting that changed. There have been shops that have been broken into, more for product than money.


----------



## Coastal (Jun 27, 2013)

Nancy Grace disagrees with all of you. 

She's crazy and very ignorant to the facts lol
....


----------



## Gians (Nov 8, 2012)

Weed is so much stronger now then back in the 60s...HUGE difference. I'd say a concern is people under 18 wasting some of the best years of their lives being loaded, except that some already do and not sure if legalizing would make much of a difference. Wonder what Nancy Grace thinks about prohibition, since her taxi driver or pilot could be drunk too.


----------



## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

Coastal said:


> Nancy Grace disagrees with all of you.
> 
> She's crazy and very ignorant to the facts lol
> ....


She is a model of idiocracy!

It's not that I want people to spend time refuting her position, I just abhor that we have elected officials that willfully seize and neglect rights to the people! STOP worrying about what it is she is denying, and START questioning why she has ANY opinion at all, and where that came from??


----------



## millertimedoneright (May 13, 2013)

I'm 100% in favor of it being legal


Sent from my iPhone using Survival Forum


----------



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Gians said:


> Weed is so much stronger now then back in the 60s...HUGE difference. I'd say a concern is people under 18 wasting some of the best years of their lives being loaded, except that some already do and not sure if legalizing would make much of a difference. Wonder what Nancy Grace thinks about prohibition, since her taxi driver or pilot could be drunk too.


I happen to know a few people who have medical marijuana cards. Each of them does have a genuine condition that easily qualified them for it. The conditions include epilepsy, glaucoma, a condition similar to ALS which has existed for a couple decades without progressing.

Yes, it is not the ditch weed we smoked when we were young. The potency is supposedly much higher. Not only is it much more potent, but you can go to the shops and buy many varieties which have some different affects. Or so I have been told. I gave it up years ago. I never liked how it made me feel.


----------



## FatTire (Mar 20, 2012)

Yep, its more potent and yep, different varieties give slightly differing effects. Ever look up the LD50 for canabis? How about the LD50 for jack damiels, or a nice earhty merlot? It is painfully absurd that marijuana is illegal.


----------



## BillS (May 30, 2011)

gabbyj310 said:


> *If marijuana helps one child or one adult not be ill lets at least be open minded...* Wake up America this IS the 21st century and there are many many things that can and do help illness.Lets face it ,we use to put cocaine in Coke.Will there be people that abuse it,of course but look at beer,wine and whiskey.Whiskey use to be a "cure all"..Let's regulate it and I'm sure the good ole government will tax the hell out of it,but use it for the benifits .


That's ridiculous. Marijuana won't cure _anything_. Not only that, it has more toxins than tobacco. Long term potheads age faster even than tobacco smokers do. Want to look 55 when you're 40? Start smoking it as early as you can.

The whole medical marijuana concept is a scam. No doctor prescribes marijuana. You need a doctor to write a recommendation that you have a medical condition that marijuana will help with.

Check this out:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/10/california-medical-marijuana-pot-card

*It didn't take me long to find a pot-friendly MD.* When I Googled "medical marijuana card," the top hit was Marijuana Medicine Evaluation Centers, a chain with 10 California locations.* According to its website, marijuana can treat 198 different maladies, including four types of arthritis, cancer, and AIDS, not to mention herpes, tobacco addiction, stuttering, and color blindness. Pot can even treat disparate conditions such as anorexia and obesity, fatigue and insomnia, diarrhea and constipation.* And if your affliction isn't on the list, never fear: While most states' medical marijuana laws restrict its use to a narrow list of ailments, *California's gives doctors sole discretion over the decision whether their patients ought to smoke up.*

I needn't have worried. Soon enough, I found Price-Less Evaluations, "the most trusted medical marijuana evaluation center in San Francisco," whose site features a photo of a model in a lab coat and a coupon for a "420 special" (good for a $20 discount on April 20, 2011).

The receptionist led me back into a hallway, where I saw a stooped, white-haired man in a rumpled pullover-the doctor. "Come on in," he mumbled. I stepped into an office and sat down at the edge of his desk. "So, can cannabis help you in some ways?" he asked, pen poised over a recommendation form. "I think so, yeah," I replied, trying to sound confident.

"So how does it help you?" he asked as the ink dried. "Well," I offered, "I have periodic pain from typing a lot, and in my lower back, and it could help me with that." He smiled.* "Good. It's signed right there." The entire conversation had taken less than 90 seconds.*

You have to look at the costs and benefits of marijuana. If you're a terminal cancer patient I don't see any problems with smoking it. Marijuana use lowers IQ. Temporarily in minors and permanently in adults. I'm convinced that it freezes emotional development at the age you started smoking it. Which is why I believe my wife's ex has the literal maturity level of a 14 year old. He was once smart enough to join MENSA but never made more than $20,000 a year his whole life. Usually much less.

I'm also convinced that it allows people to become sociopaths. My sister-in-law's pothead husband was a wife beater who neglected his children but pot smoking allowed him to still feel good despite doing that. And he's just like my wife's friend's husbands. Both of them.

Pot smoking adversely affects the brain. You can have a glass of wine everyday without any problems but you can't do that with marijuana. I see potheads as being lazy apathetic losers who don't care about anything except getting high. Most of them either don't work or they have crappy jobs.

I'm sure Colorado will see high societal costs to go with the meager tax revenues it will generate.


----------



## dirtgrrl (Jun 5, 2011)

I just wanna grow hemp. When I wanna kill brain cells I use tequila.


----------



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

This article is not about children smoking marijuana. It is about children who are treated with cannabis oil that does not contain THC.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-sty...charlotte-web-pot-treatment-article-1.1619066



> Moving for marijuana: Families with seizure-stricken kids relocating to Colorado for strain of pot
> 
> The strain, which is now called Charlotte's Web, has been cited as a 'miracle' cure for children with seizure disorders. Even though doctors are skeptical about the drug, an influx of families from others states are putting down roots in Colorado with the hope the cannabis treatment will help their kids.
> 
> ...


----------



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

dirtgrrl said:


> I just wanna grow hemp. When I wanna kill brain cells I use tequila.


Hemp used to be widely grown across the central plains states: Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri. I have seen lots of it growing along railroad tracks while driving back roads in Nebraska. When I was younger, I lived in Kansas City. Young adults would make night runs to chop down large plants that grew along the rivers, usually along the Kansas side of the city. I never went, so I cannot be any clearer than that.

Colorado has legalized growing hemp, on farms in fields, in addition to the highly monitored (cameras required, each plant monitored) cannabis grows in warehouses around the state.

Individuals are allowed to grow their own marijuana with a limit of six plants per person.

There continues to be a shortage of cannabis product in the retail shops, as reported by the news.


----------



## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

When I was a kid I remember having marijuana growing along all the roads here in Nebraska. Their were whole fields of pot. Some of the plants were 9 feet tall. In fact, where ever there wasn't any crops planted then the pot plants sprung up as volunteers. I remember walking through 100's of yards of marijuana plants that were over my head . I remember the smell as I walked through it.

Does anyone know that the original reason that marijuana was mad illegal was not because of the hallucinogenic reasons but because of the other issues. The cotton lobby had it made illegal because they were concerned that hemp would destroy their industry. Hemp made better rope, and fabrics then cotton. I believe that was about 1920.


----------



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Tweto said:


> When I was a kid I remember having marijuana growing along all the roads here in Nebraska. Their were whole fields of pot. Some of the plants were 9 feet tall. In fact, where ever there wasn't any crops planted then the pot plants sprung up as volunteers. I remember walking through 100's of yards of marijuana plants that were over my head . I remember the smell as I walked through it.
> 
> Does anyone know that the original reason that marijuana was mad illegal was not because of the hallucinogenic reasons but because of the other issues. The cotton lobby had it made illegal because they were concerned that hemp would destroy their industry. Hemp made better rope, and fabrics then cotton. I believe that was about 1920.


I knew at one time. Isn't all of it about money?

I had a boyfriend who went with one of his friends to do one of those night runs I talked about in Kansas City. They came back with plants that were huge, 9 to 10 ft.

An interesting story, related to those big weed plants, one night he smoked some and was paranoid, as goes with it. He lived in an apartment in a house next to the house I lived in that was also subdivided into apartments. The same guy owned both houses and the owner lived on the third floor of his place, while he lived on the first floor. The owner was a little crazy. One night, around the 4th, he decided to throw M80's (??) as a part of his celebration. He was also drunk. Before long, the police helicopters were circling around the block, and shining their lights down. I was awoken by the noise and the lights. The boyfriend, not knowing what was going down, began flushing his very tall plant in pieces down the toilet, because he was sure the police were going to bust him. The landlord had an interior stairwell that he could use from his third floor to the basement, so he could kind of go where he wanted to and sneek around in the building. From the basement, he could come and go, and hide inside the building. In a strange twist, my boyfriend and I were on a party line together. It was easier to go next door than to call, but not that night. So there we were, unable to call each other, and I had no idea what the heck was going on. From my place, I had no idea if there had been a murder or rape, or some other craziness.


----------



## Gians (Nov 8, 2012)

BillS said:


> That's ridiculous. Marijuana won't cure _anything_. Not only that, it has more toxins than tobacco. Long term potheads age faster even than tobacco smokers do. Want to look 55 when you're 40? Start smoking it as early as you can.
> 
> The whole medical marijuana concept is a scam. No doctor prescribes marijuana. You need a doctor to write a recommendation that you have a medical condition that marijuana will help with.
> 
> ...


I disagree with a good part of this, but to each his own.


----------



## millertimedoneright (May 13, 2013)

I smoked marijuana my entire teenage years and I have never beat any woman nor did I stop growing emotionally. I bust my tail at work everyday and I am currently a relief captain on a towboat. All that crap you said was nothing more than just crap that people say when they truly have no idea about marijuana other than what they have been brainwashed with by the government. I personally know doctors, lawyers, factory workers, construction workers, teachers, top tier college students, oilfield workers, etc. that all smoke pot on a daily basis. None of them have been effected in any negative way whatsoever. If you will look past all the government bull and research it you will find thousands of documented cases where marijuana has eased pain, nausea, and even cured some ailments. Marijuana has never killed anyone while alcohol and tobacco have killed millions. My aunt went from a sick cancer patient who couldn't eat, was losing her hair, and barely had the energy to move off the couch back to the woman she was before all because of the use of marijuana. Out of all the vices we Americans have marijuana is the least dangerous and most helpful yet it is still illegal in most places.


Sent from my iPhone using Survival Forum


----------



## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

That's ridiculous. Marijuana won't cure anything.

Tell this little girl that..
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/oregons-youngest-medical-cannabis-patient-is-now-cancer-free_032014


----------



## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Doesn't matter to me if it cures or just helps someone cope with pain. If my mother (a stage-4 cancer patient) wanted some weed to help her cope with chemo, you bet your sweet patootie I'd be getting it for her. And if I got caught, I would take responsibility for making that choice.


----------

