Black Friday/Cyber Monday? Nah Green Wednesday !!!

[lowbeyond]

http://www.denverpost.com/marijuana/ci_24823109

Colorado readies for 'Green Wednesday' pot sales
By KRISTEN WYATT Associated Press
Posted: 12/31/2013 10:57:17 AM MST | Updated: 43 min. ago

marijuana
A strain of cannabis known as Ripped Bubba sits in a jar on the counter at Northern Lights Cannabis in Edgewater on Dec. 23, 2013. (Seth McConnell, Your Hub)
DENVER—Police were adding extra patrols around pot shops in eight Colorado towns that plan to allow recreational sales to anyone over 21 on Jan. 1. Officials at Denver International Airport installed new signs warning visitors their weed can't legally go home with them.

And at a handful of shops, owners were scrambling to plan celebrations, set up coffee stations, arrange food giveaways and hire extra security to prepare for potential crowds and overnight campers ready to buy up to an ounce of legal weed.

While smoking pot has been legal in Colorado for the past year, so-called Green Wednesday represents another historic milestone for the decades-old legalization movement: the unveiling of the nation's first legal pot industry.

"It could be crazy. Or it could be crickets out there. Who knows? No one's ever done this before," said Robin Hackett, manager of BotanaCare in Northglenn, a suburb of Denver, who planned to have a DJ to greet shoppers.

Preparation for the retail market started more than a year ago, soon after Colorado voters in 2012 approved the legal pot industry. Washington state has its own version, which is scheduled to open in mid-2014.

Pot advocates, who had long pushed legalization as an alternative to the lengthy and costly global drug war, had argued it would generate revenue for state coffers and save money in locking up drug offenders.

Still, setting up regulations, taxation and oversight for a drug that's never been regulated before took some time.

Colorado set up an elaborate plant-tracking system to try to keep the drug away from the black market, and regulators set up packaging, labeling and testing requirements, along with potency limits for edible pot.

The U.S. Justice Department outlined an eight-point slate of priorities for pot regulation, requiring states to keep the drug away from minors, criminal cartels, federal property and other states in order to avoid a federal crackdown. Pot is still illegal under federal law.

With the additional police patrols, the airport warnings and various other measures, officials are hoping they had enough safeguards in place to avoid predictions of public health and safety harm from the opening of the pot shops.

But they confessed anxiety about the opening of retail sales.

"We understand that Colorado is under a microscope," Jack Finlaw, lawyer to Gov. John Hickenlooper and overseer of a major task force to chart news pot laws, recently told reporters about the first day.

Would pot-shop parking lots be full of overnight campers and crowds lined up to buy pot? Would sellers run out of marijuana? Would shoppers abide by state law and refrain from using pot publicly, or would clouds of pot smoke drift through neighborhoods?

Interviews with dozens of marijuana critics, legalization advocates and industry workers showed many share Finlaw's opinion.

Colorado's on a big green stage as dozens of state and foreign countries mull changing marijuana laws.

Since Colorado and Washington state's votes, Uruguay became the first nation to regulate pot. Across the U.S., several municipalities, including Portland, Maine, have ratcheted back criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of pot.

Critics fear the changing global marijuana approach is setting up Colorado and other places for serious public health problems.

"This movement in public policy basically conflicts with the essence of bringing greater mental health and public health," said Patrick Kennedy, a former Rhode Island congressman and chairman of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes legalization.

Marijuana supporters, meanwhile, were hoping that they'll make the best use of their chance to show that legalization can work.

Maura Foss, compliance manager at Breckenridge Cannabis Club in the ski resort town, is upping inventory from a normal 5 or 6 pounds to 50 pounds of weed for Green Wednesday.

Foss said she wasn't sure how long the pot would last given a steady stream of tourists calling and coming in seeking to buy it.

"We've been scrambling to get the basics ready, and we're as ready as we can be," Foss said.

http://www.thecannabist.co

your one stop shop for pot news ! lol

[wctriumph]

I guess we will see how it all goes. I don't think anything will change. Local stoners will still get stoned and continue on as they always have. The visitors will be the problem.

How long until the cartels try to move in on the lawful sellers with intimidation and murder so they can maintain their profits?

TEA

III

[kwando]

Jan 2nd is Colorado Employeer "random" drug test day.

[merl]

So, since we've seen how well this has worked for CO, is it time for the GOP to embrace pot to head it off? Stop it before the same thing happens in other states (saw a report this morning, FL is a target next year)

[wctriumph]

The legalization of pot is rolling on and it is a juggernaut that cannot be stopped. The legalize pot battle has been going on for decade after decade, the foot is in the door and the rest of the body WILL follow on through. It will start happening faster and faster and there is nothing that can be done about it. The reclassification of pot at the federal level to legalize it will happen within the next 2 to 6 years, bank on it. The only thing that has stopped it from happening sooner is that certain federal agencies have very large budgets to fight this killer drug and that money of OURS needs to keep flowing into federal coffers. It can't be stopped. It will be legalized so that one political party or the other can cultivate the votes, if votes are there they will be no stopping the pandering to get them.

[Skip]

Jan 2nd is Colorado Employeer "random" drug test day.

And the only way to detect DUI is with a blood draw. How soon before this is forced and administered on scene by the officer as it is in other states?

I'm not opposed to the concept of legalization (with other reforms) but did anyone really think they were voting for freedom on 64?

[merl]

I'd agree wc, so why not take that away from the dems as a vote getter?

[merl]

And the only way to detect DUI is with a blood draw. How soon before this is forced and administered on scene by the officer as it is in other states?

Just incase you think it is not happening already elsewhere
http://america.aljazeera.com/article...uanausers.html

The Los Angeles police department has announced a New Year’s crackdown on intoxicated drivers – with checkpoints to be set up across the county complete with breathalyzers and cheek swab tests that can detect recent drug use, the L.A. Times reported.

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer told CBS L.A. he believes drugged drivers are on the rise due to legalized medical marijuana, adding that the city attorney’s office will employ two full-time deputy city attorneys to prosecute DUI cases involving narcotics.

As an added bonus they get your DNA

[wctriumph]

I'd agree wc, so why not take that away from the dems as a vote getter?

It's a vote getter for any politician that will embrace it. I don't see a republican losing any votes if she/he makes it a non-issue by embracing the notion of a regulated legalization but, a hard line position against legalization will certainly loose votes. Political "parties" our certainly out of touch with US. The Colorado democrat party found this out the hard way thanks to some true patriots. I hope the republicans were listening and paying attention. We are the power and the Colorado republican party has not exactly been listening either.


TEA

III

[lowbeyond]

I'd agree wc, so why not take that away from the dems as a vote getter?

Because the WoD employs a shit-ton of law and order republicans....

Then again now that we have the WoT that makes the WoD look like child's play, i suppose they can all just do that instead

What you want the terrorists to win?! Why do you HATE AMERICA?!?!? Now let us in or else....