The state of Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division yesterday began accepting formal applications from those seeking to open the first-in-the-nation retail cannabis outlets.
The agency had accepted 23 applications by mid-day yesterday, according to The Denver Post. The agency has just under 100 appointments already scheduled this week from entrepreneurs seeking state licenses to engage in retail marijuana production, infused products operation, and/or storefront cannabis sales.
Applicants will receive final authorization by the end of the year. Retail cannabis facilities to serve those age 21 and older are expected to be operational early next year.
Under state law, persons 21 and older may legally possess, consume, and cultivate personal use quantities of cannabis (up to one ounce and/or six plants). Licensed business may also legally commercially produce cannabis and engage in retail sales of the plant.
In an August memorandum, Deputy Attorney General Cole directed the US Attorneys in all 50 states, including Colorado, not to interfere with the implementation of state marijuana regulations unless such activities specifically undermined eight explicit federal law enforcement priorities.
Most of the explicit federal law enforcement priorities are direct and predictable effects of prohibition. As a legal, regulated market becomes the norm and as retail prices drop, those problems will diminish.
What a long, strange trip it’s been!
Will co-lease retail outlet in French Quarter in New Orleans, La
Email eddoming @yahoo .com
Already planning my vacation to Colo in the spring. Hopefully, there won’t be too many glitches, or opposition, before then.
Amen Galileo, and it ain’t over yet!!!
>Galileo Galilei. The original idea for that song was that they would continue to write verses over the years. Maybe it’s time for a new verse for the song “Puff the Magic Dragon” 😎
My friend is publishing this book and needs help. This book can help many people who are suffering.
Chronic Relief: Cannabis guide for the terminally & chronically ill
http://www.rockethub.com/projects/32069-chronic-relief-cannabis-guide-for-the-terminally-chronically-ill
http://mychronicrelief.com
Can the next ( A-G )From a ( R ) Party chang the rulling that this ( D ) ( A-G ) Have made ?
“Up to one ounce and/or six plants”– why leave it hanging, why not just say “one ounce and six plants”.
One ounce, sifted to #16 grade (with seeds going to flower Pot and twigs to tea Pot) yields 900-1100 x 25-mg single tokes in 1/4″-diam. screened crater of a long-stemmed one-hitter, lasts rwffly a half year at 11 tokes per two days.
When Obama had said that he and the DOJ would not interfere with medical cannabis laws and the dispensaries. Later there were raids and seizures of dispensaries.
In an interview, Obama had said that they would not interfere with operations and individuals who are complying with the law, that the raids were due only to egregious violations of the rules/guidelines set by the federal government. It was the law-breakers they targeted, he said, not the people who went through the rigmarole of applying, getting an MD recommendation, jumping through the hoops, following the rules. Truth or BS, whatever your opinion, his explanation sounds defensible.
So, I would think it prudent, imho, for future businesses, to document everything meticulously, AP/AR accounting and tax regulations, city code and regulations, tastefully designed/adorned buildings influenced by discretion, especially regarding signs and entrances. Considering all possible liabilities and pondering unforeseen externalities would seem to be necessity. Maybe call Saul.
And make ID age check one of the highest priorities, no ID no service no way no exceptions. Go above and beyond what is expected, doing more than even big brother would expect of you.
Security should be very high and very visible, such as would set a standard for the retail environment, for as long as is necessary (federal action against cannabis users ceases completely as the majority of states pass legalization measures).
ID checking should be a full time job duty for two, or a team of employees.
Although doubts and skepticism abound that random raids will occur regardless, but it wouldn’t be totally absurd to imagine that the drug agencies might be preparing to raid while people are preparing their businesses.
I would think sale to a minor would be the first sort of excuse for a federal involvement, a way to get media using the old drug war reporting of “drug busts” If people start getting arrested at the border for leaving the state and re-entering the warzone with too much cannabis, or any at all.
Hopefully desperate drug war agents will not find a way strong arm their way in and ‘send a message’ that the plutocracy, oligarchy, and their minions are still watching you, while playing the role as guardians of your public safety (lololololololol) because you’re too stupid to make your own decisions, of course.
When national legalization comes the price of cannabis will plummet from a street value greater than gold or platinum by mass, to nearly zero or the price of fruits and veggies. And people will still seek out connoisseur quality as the regulation of cannabis like alcohol finally becomes the norm, and ending decades of tragic injustice and stupidity.
look forward to seeing a site hosting shop details
Thanks for the input on paper work got have that legal stuff done right. Jimmy, No blowback.
Love the idea of adding a new verse to Puff the magic Dragon. Gallileo and yes we have come a long way. Keep on Truckin”
Jimmy, You bring up a valuable point. I was at a family barbecue just a few weeks ago. One of my sisters, who is completely against breaking the law yet has a son with Chrone’s disease, was talking to my Mexican wife who was brought up to beware of marijuana. They agreed,”I don’t mind people smoking weed so much if they would just keep it more discreet around family gatherings.”
It was then I noticed my friends from Austin were smoking out of some cool looking, concealed vaporizers. Right next to them… And everyone was okay… (Twilight zone music…)
What the HELL? ALL these years I’ve been trying to convince my wife to let me smoke in peace, and DESPERATELY trying to explain to my sister that there are people in Colorado who sell marijuana high in CBDs and low in THC that will HELP my nephew with his disease, WITHOUT making him HIGH, and ALL it took was a prettier, less SMELLY vaporizer to appease their epic gauntlet of anger?!
I’m almost as offended as I am confounded.
… but content for a solution. We all have to live together as a family. What’s good for one person is not always good for another. It’s just so hard for me to extend my empathy when my nephew would rather DIE from Chrone’s Disease than continue to suffer the side-effects and symptoms of prescribed medications. Or we could just give him some weed.
But if a cool looking vaporizer is all I have to invest in to pass the peace?
Then, by God, so let it be…
@ Evening Bud…
Welcome to Colorful Colorado. Enjoy your stay and we hope you get much enjoyment from your tourist dollars.
To those “vacationers” who want to move here because of our laws, GO HOME and don’t even think of settling here. We have enough fruits and nuts here already.
Best thing you can do is work towards legalization in your own state.
And to those who are thinking of smuggling a little smoke as a souvenir, write us from any surrounding state jail and tell us how that went for you. 🙂
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea,
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea,
and enjoyed his herbal toke, in the land of the Free…
Just out of interest if you can have 6 plants (even with only 3 mature at any one time) that means you could potentially have (10×3) 30 pounds of pot hanging around. Can you keep 30 pounds ? or do you have to give away 479 ounces to (479) friends every few months ! I think this needs some clarification.
[If you think 30 pounds sounds excessive check Jorge Cervantes’ Youtube channel – it can be done and WILL be done]
Kentucky is the third-largest producing State of Marijuana, yet we weren’t one of the firsts to cash in on this revenue-stream. It’s strange that even California wasn’t THE first! California missed their opportunity when they voted NO on their state referendum.
But enough of the blame-game, no matter who legalizes weed, in what order, or in what manner, this is a new beginning to a new era, and I am very much excited for this day and time!
@Joseph D. Smith
Joe, you’re sense of “strange” may be more on target than you realize.
Time for another essay:
The Subsidized Oil That Shut Down the Machine
An essay by Julian Olinick.
Behind the curtain of media coverage of Obamacare and the ongoing government shutdown, there is an internal battle going on within the GOP between farm and oil subsidies, specifically over petroleum based (crude oil) vs. celullose based (plant oil) ethanol.
With the recent passage of state hemp farming bills, Koch Industries, which has built an empire on petroleum based subsidies, has funded our shutdown. The hemp plant contains up to %80 celullose, requires less water than corn, no fertilizers or pesticides and grows throughout the United States like… well.. a weed. Kentucky and California’s recent Hemp Farming Acts are two good reasons why the GOP is fractionalized in Congress and the government is currently shut down.
Picture it; Kentucky, October 1st, 2003: Waves of hemp undulating in the soft southern winds, breaking the morning sunlight through the distant horizon with a peaceful, emerald green light that warms the soul and lifts the body up like the billowing smoke from freshly hemp-rolled spirits…
I’m sorry, where was I? Oh yes, October 1st, 2003; (ehemm) the first day of the shutdown, also marks the day that California Governor Brown signed his state Hemp Farming Act into law. The day of the shutdown also happens to be the day that the old Farm Bill expired. (ding! Anybody have a green lightbulb?)
The New York Times just broke the story on how the Koch brothers have been blueprinting this shutdown all along– but not only as leverage against Obamacare; but as leverage over farm and oil subsidies within the GOP!
October 2nd marks another crucial day; exactly 76 years since marijuana was outlawed in the U.S. because people in the timber and petrochemical industries– people like the Koch brothers today– did not want a local, renewable source of celullose oil and fiber from American grown hemp.
Right now the Republican party is divided into three major fractions;
1) The Koch brothers’ mad, mad Tea Party. Koch Industries makes a variety of timber products from paper towels to greeting cards. They also enjoy oil subsidies and back the American Chemistry Council that wants to make sure plastics are all made out of petroleum. Koch Industries is big into oil and makes all kinds of plastic cups and petroleum trash. The Koch brothers are on the DEA’s side of the anti-hemp lobby, who switched gears to focus on hemp too late before the passage of the hemp amendment through the House late summer. (Hemp could cost Koch Industries a fortune since– either for their great hubris and greed or the fact the U.S. government won’t sell them the patent on cannabis [or both] they refuse to invest in anything more than hemp’s continued prohibition). David Koch even lobbied Senator Coburn in June to end corn ethanol subsidies. Now he made some powerful enemies. It’s all about stabalizing the high cost of petroleum fuel and plastics and timber products. Koch Industries, along with a dozen conservative petroleum based lobbies, (Exxon-Mobile) have basically purchased the gullible Tea party into political suicide just to stop celullose ethanol subsidies.
2) Next is the Grover Norquist corn-belt brigade who are worried primarily over the highly influential Iowa primaries and their corn subsidies. Placing Norquist, of all people, against the Koch brothers may have actually made an unusual ally for marijuana legalization.
3) Then there’s Senators Rand Paul and Minority Leader Mitch McConnel from Kentucky, which I will amicably call the “Hemp Party,” who are pushing for the hemp research amendment in the pending Farm Bill. As you well know, Kentucky has already legalized hemp where the plant grows quite well, and are anxious to get hemp industries to their state and “create jobs without spending a dime” once and for all. (Take THAT ye party of Texas TEA!) Now Kentucky has to pitch lower property taxes because the heat is on with California and Colorado in the hemp game.
While Obamacare is taking the lime light, the real “green” light is hidden between the Congressional kickbacks that come from farm and oil subsidies (Monsantos, Exxon-Mobile, Koch Industries, etc.)and the donations we give to non-for-profits (like NORML, MPP.org, DPA and votehemp.com). I’d say “it’s that simple,” but I’ve already lost count of how many paragraphs it took for me to explain all this. (sigh).
In conclusion, the “circular firing squad” within the GOP right now is just a battle in the war over petroleum based vs. celullose based ethanol. Believe it or not, Obamacare is just a ruse compared to the epic and tragic petroleum/celullose ethanol battle in the pending Farm Bill.
You are correct fellow activist,Joseph; the legalization of weed is truly “the beginning of a new era.” Even the mere passage of this hemp research amendment will be nothing short of an American Golden-Green Age; An innovative marijuana revolution for energy, medicinal, food, fuel and building equality across the planet. For those of us within this movement, let me say it is an honor and a privelege to fight this battle with you all. Time is truly on our side.
Get a load of this guy. (positive)
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1947753853001/cannabis-cowboy-campaigns-for-pot-legalization/
Julian/Oct 4 made the point about vaporizers, but there’s a huge majority out there that haven’t tried one and don’t know the difference from “smoking” (H-ot B-urning O-verdose M-onoxide papers etc.). Most cannabis users still don’t know how to vape with a one-hitter let alone what a long-stemmed one-hitter is. (Yes, it’s just as discreet as any e-cig or vape pen– you suck everything, no effluent.)
Even today most articles in the shock tabloids about cannabis have a picture of a joint at the top. This one remaining ignorance barrier, maintained by and for Big 2WackGo, blocks the way to true toke freedom. Google long-stemmed one-hitter and find out all about vaping then go on the infowarpath and inform all your friends.
Using a 25-mg-per-serving one-hitter an OUNCE (after sifting away tea POT cellulose and flower POT seeds) yields 900-1100 single tokes. At 11 tokes every two days, about 6 months’ worth.
@ Alex,
Thanks pal. I look forward to visiting your beautiful state, and experiencing the freedom! I’ll be happy to contribute to the education fund–heck, by the time I leave they may want to name an elementary school after me, lol.
@ Jimmy,
I agree with much of what you say. I especially agree that it’s better that the cannabis shops in Colo are overly-diligent about following the rules, carding people for their age, etc. so as not to give the feds any excuse to cause problems.
@ Julian,
That is quite strange. But, like you said, if a vaporizer is all it takes . . .
I thought that only current medical dispensaries were allowed to apply for recreational until 2016?
If you grow 6 plants, you would have one as a clone, and two in various stages of vegetative growth, while the remaining three are flowering, also at different stages of development, separated by time between veg and stretching; also allowing for more, ongoing periodic harvests.
I would think thirty pounds for three plants is a maybe a large estimate? Ten lbs per indoor plant dried? That is highly optimistic. BTW, outdoor growing is not allowed, if that’s the kind of scenario you were imagining.
Lots of cannabis can be “condensed” into bubble (water) hash, or concentrated into BHO or resin extract, the plant matter remaining can be crock-potted for days, concentrated into cannabutter or teas, even ground dry into cannabis flour, but is low value in THC.
The mass of leaves, stems, and plant matter is a liability, for very little medicine. Condensing decreases the weight while concentrating the potency.
Also, it seems that even if a person possessed greater than an ounce in their domicile, they would have to be blindingly stupid to carry an amount that is too much (anything approaching 1 oz.) while still leaving themselves open to the possible risk of getting busted (even while it is legal!), thus getting busted for no good reason. How could you live that down? Because then begins the usual draconic punishment for not obeying random, capricious rules based on hogwash, and which may as well result beatings and waterboarding as political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, considering the offense in question is a non-crime, period. It is far less serious a crime than smoking tobacco cigarettes, if that really is the govt’s concern (hint: it’s not), about public safety on pain of prison.
Arbitrary unjust laws are usually accompanied by punishments that do not fit the crime (non-crime in this case). For example, crack cocaine had much harsher penalties than powdered coke. Transparent racism, a double standard. That would just seem to make sense.
Considering that “they,” the dragged warriors, likely put their thumb on the scale to rake in more big prize money. You would think that decades of enforcing unjust laws being awarded for being good at it, would motivate this sort of thing, while becoming desensitized to its sheer stupidity compared to the real crimes being committed.
@timmy, since you raise the issue of raising, I wondered about this idea: plant dozens of seeds, then over time harvest leaves for tea-making, letting only a couple of females mature and produce buds.
An ounce of herb = a thousand tokes, rational to carry around is a gram (40 tokes); I want to mention that a company in the LA area makes the neatly named La-Cons, polyethylene canisters with a hinged lid that you won’t lose.
The best size is #750150, one-and-a-half inches wide and 3/4 inches high; you wrap 4-5 “fingers” of 1-mm colorfully insulated phone wire around thehinge, braid out about two inches and attach to a lighter, using both wire and tape for a secure grip– which will take less than two feet of such wire. Save the wire from demolition sites, don’t let scrappers get it. The same kind of wire can also be used to attach a 5-inch braid to your screened Long-Stemmed One-Hitter, leading to a 2-inch safety pin (Screen Maintenance Utensil).
Relevance to Colorado? These “ancillary” products (yes, the sifters too, #8, #16, $32 etc.) make sifted herb more convenient to use in 25-mg servings instead of “roll it up” in a H-ot B-urning O-verdose M-onoxide joint, and there’s a Revolutionary Dosage Regulation headshop bizness waiting for you to get into and develop, making cannabis use in Colorado look moderate and rational so the rest of the world will join the trend.
1… I don’t appreciate people saying you can only have 1oz of cannabis in your house as that only applies to what you’re allowed to carry around.
You can keep all all the cannabis you grew… yes, hundreds of pounds if you grew it there.
2… The ‘Fear’ of talking about cannabis is fading and people are beginning to share real information about cannabis.
3… Commercial cannabis sales start up January 1st which means I (and hopefully others) can start reviewing just how horrible their products generally are.
4… People have stopped losing time and money over going to jail/prison over recreational use.
5… People who couldn’t afford to get a ‘pot doc’ recommendation can now just grow and use it on their own. It’s not like most ‘pot docs’ have more than a kindergarten education on the subject anyway.
6… Cannabis can finally be used as an exit drug by anyone over 21.
Cannabis is non-addictive and the benefits to the people of Colorado have just begun. You can read my short write up on why cannabis addiction is always a mis-diagnosis here: http://thecleangame.net/2013/09/cannabis-is-non-addictive-period/
Pass it on and push for the same or better legislation in your own state today… 😀
Keep it Clean! 😀
What a dick Alex is… HIS STATE? YOU OWN THE STATE? People cant decide to move to the state if they are sick and want to stay legal? UP YOUR people like you make me SICK!!!
gonna go to kentucky for my cannabis, it closer than colorado
If you read the August 2013 Federal memo to the end, it clearly states that the US Attorneys still have the right to prosecute anyone who violates the federal laws REGARDLESS OF STATE LAWS and REGARDLESS OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES and the memo cannot be used to provide a defense for anyone prosecuted for violating the federal ban on marijuana. They can hand out 5 year sentences like they did in Montana any time they please, and there is no defense.
@ Kevin
AMEN, brother! It seems that the success of CO and WA is just what the rest of the states need to push them forward with their own legalization processes, especially in this stage of the “game”. $$$$ is what makes the world go ’round, and if millions of honest, taxpaying citizens moved from states still in the dark ages, to an enlightened state, it would send a powerful financial statement to other states (losing such citizens) to get on with it, or get left behind. I don’t understand “Mr. Alex’s” attitude; OBVIOUSLY he isn’t one of the visionaries who are applying for cannabis retail sales license.
I myself am a 53 year old, crippled with a back disease, and I cannot get the (cannabis based) help I need. Prescription drugs for my condition have SO many NEGATIVE side effects, I have had to add 5 MORE prescription drugs to counteract them; marijuana is all natural,
non addictive and inexpensive, and could deal with my back issues, while eliminating my dependance on the myriad pharmaceuticals I am forced to rely on sans cannabis. BTW, at 53, and in my current physical condition, I’m not sure that I will see MY state legalize (even medicinally) marijuana in my lifetime. I wonder if everyone in Colorado is as closed-minded and selfish as Alex seems to be…
Might have to agree awith Kevin on the the comment from ALEX.
SO no one should move to the state due to you have to many fruits and nuts?
so sick people are fruits and nuts?
I am thinking with all due respect for people who want to vaction there ie….. EVENING BUD , should be considered the fruits and nuts for driving to give their money to people that want to segregate the sick from the vacioners.
But with due respect for you sir just because your state led the way for the other states to follow ……you may not always have the place of choice your state has right now because when its free every where, people like yourself should be left out and then maybe your selfish stingy comments wont cloud your judgment against others for want to rejoice in your state of confussion.
is this a rant…….so sorry just wanted to bark out against those with a powerful self-connection to themselves that disregard others ……meaning your not better than those would like to share within your state you should feel ashamed to feel like your better than those who fight the same war beside you..
as always
thanks for reading
chris
Looks like I will be vacationing in Colorado from now on!
Boycott that creepy piece of junk Florida even more than you already are! Think of the HASH!
Im so happy im gitty, we have get PA governor out in 2014 and find one that support 80 percent legalization.