marijuana Archives - Yellow Scene Magazine

Stella’s Cucina | Off Menu

Samantha Farmer — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:00:30 +0000

Stella’s Cucina is a stunner — one of the best things to happen to Boulder since the legalization of cannabis. Speaking of the beloved botanical: when Stella Spanu and her husband, Jason Fibel, first envisioned Stella’s Cucina, their goal was to create something the world had never seen — a safe, sophisticated space where guests could enjoy marijuana alongside exquisite Italian cuisine.

The concept began with a marriage of art and science. Spanu, who grew up between Manhattan and Rome, comes from a family deeply rooted in the art world and the restaurant scene of Sardinia. Fibel, whose background lies in plant science, fell in love with food through Spanu’s lifelong passion for Italian gastronomy.

In 2019, the visionary duo purchased the building that formerly housed Walnut Brewery and enlisted architect Miguel Quismondo to design an Art Deco–inspired interior. Together, they outfitted the restaurant with a hospital-grade filtration system, sleek leather booths with built-in outlets for smoking devices, and even a subtle cannabis-leaf stenciled wall — among other thoughtful touches. However, when the city of Boulder opted out of legislation permitting cannabis consumption in hospitality venues, Spanu and Fibel pivoted to full-scale Italian in 2023.

Upon entering, Stella’s Cucina feels like a luxe speakeasy. The discreet entrance opens to an experience that’s impossible to forget. “A lot of heart and passion went into this place,” said Fibel, noting how every detail was designed to transport guests far beyond Boulder. In addition to superb sound and lighting, a regal navy-and-gold color palette, gleaming central bar, and softly curved interiors harmoniously create an atmosphere that is as immersive as it is elegant. “This is not just a place to get dinner,” Fibel explained. “It’s an experience.”

The hyper-seasonal Italian menu showcases handmade pastas, vibrant salads, gorgeous vegetables, perfectly executed proteins, and decadent desserts — each a crave-worthy work of art. Insalata a la Mano is a refined interpretation of a classic Caesar, featuring romaine hearts, white anchovy, three-year-aged Parmigiano Reggiano, house-made cesare foam, and golden croutons. Pasta highlights include Spaghetti al Pomodoro — house-made spaghetti tossed with Stella’s family recipe pomodoro, garlic-infused olive oil, and fresh basil — and Fusilloni al Ragù d’Agnello, with Colorado lamb, white ragù, fried artichokes, and mint. For those seeking something heartier, the Brasato al Barolo is a melt-in-your-mouth revelation: red wine–braised short rib with caramelized baby fennel, smoked potato purée, and a silky demi-glace.

While cannabis remains off the menu, Stella’s invites guests to get a little weird with its inventive bar program. Sip a glass from the robust wine list, a revitalizing non-alcoholic bubbly, or a signature cocktail like the Mia Marmellata — a blend of apricot and sage purée, dark rye whiskey, apricot liqueur, Amaro Nonino, and lemon. Craving a twist on a classic? Try the Negroni Giallo, featuring thyme-infused Marconi gin, Suze, Contratto vermouth, Tosti Vermouth Riserva, and yellow Chartreuse.

Zero-proof cocktails receive special attention as well. The Phony Spumoni channels the essence of the beloved dessert with Giffard Aperitif, grapefruit juice, simple syrup, lime, and Fever Tree soda water. For something crisp and invigorating, the Cetriolo Spritz combines cucumber, basil, lemon, Fever Tree tonic, and Thompson & Scott ‘Noughty’ N/A sparkling chardonnay.

Although Stella’s never became the cannabis-centric concept originally imagined, Spanu and Fibel have created something equally remarkable — a sanctuary for the senses. Live music fills the space five nights a week, from sultry jazz to vibrant DJ sets. On Fridays and Saturdays, Stella’s transforms into a chic late-night lounge, complete with a state-of-the-art sound system and a limited menu of late-night fare.

If the promise of fabulous food, exceptional drinks, and a stunning atmosphere isn’t enough to draw you in, Stella’s Cucina has also earned a coveted place in the Michelin Guide.

“There is nothing we want more than to be a part of this community in Boulder for many years to come,” says Fibel.

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The post Stella’s Cucina | Off Menu appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Marijuana sales tax revenue nears $3 billion in latest DOR monthly report

Guest Contributor — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 19:03:29 +0000

DENVER, CO- In its monthly marijuana sales and tax revenue report, the Department of Revenue’s figures show that tax revenue since legalization reached $2,992,476,904 after sales in June generated $19,639,293.

Date	Marijuana tax and fee revenue
June 2025	$19,639,293 (May 2025: $20,143,978)
2025 Calendar Year Total	$118,954,220
To Date Total (Since Feb. 2014)	$2,992,476,904

Date	Marijuana sales
April 2025	$111,652,403 (March 2025: $115,270,827)
2025 Calendar Year Total	$436,807,517
To Date Total (Since Feb. 2014)	$17,339,741,511

The Marijuana Sales Reports summarize total sales made by medical and retail marijuana stores monthly by county. The Marijuana Tax Reports show state tax and fee revenue collected monthly as posted in the Colorado state accounting system. Tax revenue comes from the state sales tax (2.9%) on marijuana sold in stores, the state retail marijuana sales tax (15%), and the state retail marijuana excise tax (15%) on wholesale sales/transfers of retail marijuana. Marijuana license and application fees generate the fee revenue.

To view the full reports, please visit the Marijuana Sales Reports and Marijuana Tax Reports webpages. To view how much marijuana tax revenue has been allocated to public schools, please visit the CDOR website.

The post Marijuana sales tax revenue nears $3 billion in latest DOR monthly report appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

25 Stories Then and Now

Julie River — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 02:17:01 +0000

The process of going through all of our stories from the past 25 years of Yellow Scene Magazine (YS) to find the 25 stories best suited for a sort of “Where are they now?” segment proved to be a little more overwhelming than I expected. That’s even when you consider the fact that our first several years aren’t well documented on our website, with the earliest being 2007, which is itself incomplete, and all the rest of YS’ early years only exist in physical form, collecting dust somewhere in the home of our publisher and founder, Shavonne Blades. Even if you take away those years, that’s still a mountain of articles to go through.

While some were absolutely fascinating, did all of them reflect the time that had passed and demonstrate something significant that changed over time? In the past 25 years, our coverage area of East Boulder County and the surrounding metro area has gone through significant changes. So has Colorado as a whole. So has the country, with Colorado often along for the ride while the country has bounced from one right-wing extremist presidency, to eight years of Obama, to another right-wing extremist presidency. In fact, what I found was that seemingly insignificant stories look very different through the lens of history.

Take, for example, “Bare Necessities” — which we’ll count as the first of our 25 stories — a strange 2012 story about North Boulder nudist couple Bob and Cathy Pierce who attempted to sue the city for harassing them but found it difficult when Cathy tried to enter the county courthouse topless. The unusual story raised some interesting issues at the time about personal freedom and the ability of police to enforce laws they don’t understand, considering that baring breasts is actually legal in Boulder. We didn’t follow up on the Pierces afterwards — it’s hard to imagine that story having an interesting follow-up, but boy would you be wrong. The following year, the couple was arrested in Marblehead, Ohio after a waitress overheard what she thought was Bob threatening then-President Barack Obama. Bob insisted he was talking about killing Obama in a debate and that he wanted to go to Washington to set the politician straight. The Pierces once again made headlines in the Daily Camera in 2016 after Cathy was convicted of felony theft and criminal exploitation of an at-risk elder for allegedly tricking a 73-year-old, half-blind man into signing away his trailer home for $1.

While the Pierces’ sordid exploits weren’t something we wanted to make front page news, it demonstrates that almost every story, no matter how inconsequential it may seem at the time, could have an interesting follow-up if you take the time to look into it. So how could I narrow it down to just 25 stories that demonstrate the inevitable passage of time? In some ways, the articles I chose were somewhat arbitrary, as almost any article could have fit this piece. But I think I found a series of articles that truly do reflect the important changes in local history.

Fighting Words (2008)

Riding the blue wave that the 2008 election brought, Colorado’s first all-Democratic leadership in the legislature looked to use their newfound majority status to get affordable healthcare passed in the state, with one phrase on everyone’s lips: “single payer.” As the article pointed out, “single payer” is the other term for one of the most terrifying concepts in American politics: universal healthcare. Why it remains such a divisive issue when most other countries in the First World have long since instituted a single-payer healthcare system is somewhat of a mystery, but for whatever reason, there’s always a completely unjustified pushback on the topic in American legislatures. But at this unique moment in 2008, Democrats finally thought they could get it pushed through. Spoiler alert: They didn’t.

Single-payer healthcare in Colorado is much like the proverbial football that Lucy always holds out for Charlie Brown, promising she won’t pull it away at the last moment, only for poor Chuck to land flat on his back when Lucy inevitably does so anyway. In 2017, Colorado attempted to pass a single-payer healthcare system by ballot initiative, but there was a problem: Colorado’s constitution bans public funding for abortion, so the ballot initiative, the way it was worded, would have meant that everyone who currently has abortions covered by private insurance would be forced to pay out of pocket, a situation that drew opposition from major abortion advocates. As recently as February of this year, a new bill was proposed to study the potential impact of single-payer healthcare, a bill that’s similar to one that failed in the last few years, but this version of the bill wouldn’t be funded by taxpayers, giving it a fighting chance of getting passed. Still, a lot has changed since 2008 when Democrats thought they could get single payer passed. Now they’re fighting just to explore the possibility.

An Education in Luring Top Minds (2008)

In 2008, Colorado State Sen. Brandon Shaffer was trying to get more people to go into teaching, particularly in districts and subject areas that are significantly understaffed, by instituting a $500,000 scholarship fund to get kids to go to Colorado public colleges and take teacher prep courses. Well, it seems he succeeded and created what became known as the Teach Colorado Grant, and in 2009 he introduced the “Troops to Teachers” bill which sought to bring more military veterans into the program.

Well, Schaffer went on to become President of the Colorado State Senate from 2009-2013, and, even though he’s no longer involved in politics, his dream of scholarships for teaching lives on. Today, the Educator Recruitment and Retention Program (ERR) offers up to $10,000 in one-time assistance to towards teacher prep courses, as long as the recipient signs on to work for three years in a “shortage area” for Colorado Public Schools. Still, education has a long way to go in Colorado, a state that was recently ranked 45th in the nation for education by USA Today, with teachers making less than the state median salary. It seems like we need more than just scholarships, we need to pay teachers more to incentivize better performance.

The Most Expensive Seat in the Country (2008)

In 2008, YS stopped in to a fundraiser for a “non-descript” man self-financing his campaign for the second U.S. Congressional District seat in what was being called the most expensive seat in the country (or at least one of the most expensive), predicting at the time that it would take $10 million or more to settle the seat. That non-descript man was none other than Jared Polis who, in 2019, was sworn in as Colorado’s first openly gay governor as well as our first Jewish governor.

Polis not only made CD2 one of the most expensive in the country, ten years later, he helped make that election the most expensive in Colorado history up to that point, with more than $200 million spent on Colorado campaigns and with Polis pumping more than $23 million into his own campaign. In 2022, he won re-election with a bit less of his own money financing campaign but still pumped $12.6 million into his own campaign that year. And, while we had a hard time picking Polis as our endorsement for the CD2 election in 2008, we had a little bit of an easier time in 2022 picking him for governor against the too-extreme Trump supporter Heidi Ganahl.

Far From the Party: A Republican Fights for Her Political Life (2008)

In 2008, we checked in on Betsy Markey, the Democratic challenger for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District against incumbent Marilyn Musgrave. The seat had traditionally been held by Republicans in this district, but Musgrave saw her lead in each election dwindling more and more, making it seem possible that, in 2008, Markey might overtake the Republican and win the seat.

Well, she did. In the 2008 election, Markey’s 11-point win was more than even her own staff had hoped for. The victory was short-lived, though, as Republican Cory Gardner won the seat back for his party in 2010, which he kept until 2015 when he moved from the House to the Senate. Markey’s political career didn’t end there, though, as she was then appointed to be secretary for intergovernmental affairs in the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration, a post she held until 2013.

Who Killed The Rocky (2009)

The closure of Rocky Mountain News, one of Colorado’s major newspapers, in February 2009 was a seismic shift in the local news industry that we look at in more depth in this issue titled, “The History of Independent Media in Boulder County,” which discusses how the 300 reporters at Rocky Mountain News (nicknamed “The Rocky”) competed with the same number of reporters from The Denver Post, resulting in too much competition for the same leads. In our 2009 piece, former Rocky writer Dave Flomberg explained the flaws of The Rocky’s parent corporation, E.W. Scripps Company, and how they failed to let The Rocky find a niche by focusing on local news while also failing to grow their digital content to reduce print costs.

Nearly 10 years later, in 2018, The Rocky’s biggest competitor, The Denver Post, nearly met the same demise. Learning lessons from the past, the staff of The Post launched what became known as The Denver Post Rebellion where its writers printed a series of articles protesting against the leadership of its hedge fund owners, Alden Global Capital, with the headline “News Matters” and the subheading “Colo. should demand the newspaper it deserves.” While Alden Global kept to their gameplan rather than following The Post’s call for them sell to better owners, Coloradans demonstrated that local news mattered to them, and The Denver Post Rebellion is often cited as part of the reason the newspaper didn’t fall the way The Rocky did.

Graduation: Now What? (2015)

In 2015, we examined how difficult it was for college students to find jobs in the wake of the then-recent recession. At the time, 44% of college graduates were underemployed, meaning they took jobs that didn’t require their college degree. According to an article in Forbes last year, the situation hasn’t improved in the past decade. 52% of college graduates — more than half — are now working in jobs that don’t require higher education and 75% of them remain in this situation for a full decade after college.

Down the Road: Ten Transportation Issues Impacting You in the Next 10 Years (2011) and Derailed (2016)

In this 2011 article, writer James Burrus talked about the transportation issues that would define the next decade. Now that it’s 14 years later, how much of what Burrus talked about has been realized? The Boulder BCycle bike-sharing program that he mentioned continues to this day, but now it competes with e-scooters from Lime, Lyft, and other major companies. Still, other transportation options that Burrus talked about in 2011, like FasTracks, have not fared as well over the years. In our 2016 article “Derailed” talked about a modified FasTracks proposal that was being put to voters.

The 2004 FasTracks program ran into funding difficulties in the 2010s that pushed their projection to build a commuter rail between Denver and Boulder/Longmont to the 2040s. As recently as February 2025, RTD has been talking about a revised plan to have a train from Denver to Fort. Collins with stops in between, such as Boulder and Longmont, by January 1, 2029. At this point, we’ll believe it when we see it.

Frack Attack (2012)

The concept of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing is a familiar one in 2025, especially for those living in the oil-rich areas of Colorado such as Erie. But, in 2012, the concept was still somewhat of a new one to our readers, enough so that we had to explain what it was. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, fracking dates back to an idea from 1862, although the modern concept of hydraulic fracturing started in the 1940s. Still, the boom in fracking is largely a 21st century phenomenon and, of the approximately 1 million wells that have been fracked from 1940 to 2014, about one-third of them were fracked after the year 2000.

In 2025, fracking and horizontal drilling have become more commonplace, and the results are becoming more and more catastrophic. EnvironmentAmerica estimates that 57,000 acres of land in Colorado have already been damaged by fracking, a number it says is equivalent to one-third of the acres of land in the state’s park system. Our latest fracking controversy happened just last year when the Draco Oil and Gas Development Plan proposed by Extraction Oil & Gas Inc./Civitas Resources was set to start drilling underneath residential areas and schools in Erie but was halted by a unanimous vote of the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission. The Draco Pad has sparked significant controversy due to its plan to drill 26 horizontal wells extending five miles beneath residential areas and schools in Erie. This would mark the longest lateral drilling ever attempted in Colorado, surpassing the previous maximum of four miles. Initially, the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) unanimously halted the project. However, on March 26, 2025, the ECMC reversed its decision, approving the plan with a 4–1 vote.

Notables: The New Guy (2012)

In 2012, we sat down with Longmont’s “New Guy,” the new city manager Harold Dominguez who had just uprooted himself from San Angelo, Texas to manage the Boulder County city. “Considering we had over 100 days of over 100-degree weather in San Angelo, I think we will enjoy it,” he said at the time about making the move from the sweltering Texas heat to the more temperate climate in Colorado. Well, he seems to enjoy it pretty well, because Dominguez isn’t the new guy anymore. He continues to serve as Longmont’s city manager to this day. In 2023, his base salary was raised to $305,620 by a unanimous vote from Longmont City Council due to his exceptional competency at the job and the council’s desire to hold onto him in that position.

Breaking out of the cubicle (2012) and The Rise of Flexible Jobs (2012)

In 2012’s “Breaking out of the cubicle,” we checked in with Avery Brewing Company and explained how they’re considered one of the most fun places to work in Colorado, largely because of the fact that they let employees grab a free beer from the taproom at any time, even during work hours. We also dipped into some other fun workplaces such as Louisville’s Natural Habitat Adventures, which was sending employees on annual trips and holding ping-pong tournaments, and Training Peaks in Lafayette which gave employees a $600 per year stipend to spend on fitness. In “The Rise of Flexible Jobs,” we talked to Sara Sutton, who started FlexJobs to help people in the then-difficult task of finding flexible jobs that allowed work from home.

Of course, we all know how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the standard workplace, forcing companies to allow more employees to work from home. At the height of the pandemic, 61.5% of all work in the U.S. was remote. Today, hybrid and remote work is still popular, with the average American worker spending 1.4 days of the week working from home. So getting a free beer during work hours doesn’t quite hold a candle to being able to work out of your own home.

Kiss the Ring (2012) and Lucky Stars (2012)

We did two articles on Brad Feld in 2012, the man who was one of the pioneers of Boulder becoming a hub for tech start up companies. As managing director of venture capital firm Foundry Group and founder of Techstars, Feld was quickly becoming one of the rockstars of the venture capital field.

13 years later, and Feld still lives in Boulder with his wife, Amy Batchelor, who he started the Anchor Point Foundation. Foundry Group and Techstars are still up and running. Meanwhile, Feld spends his time writing books about venture capital and startups, running marathons, and sponsoring documentaries about topics he’s passionate about. Meanwhile, Boulder is still listed amongst the top cities in the U.S. for tech startups, recently making the lists from Crowdspring and Yahoo! Finance.

Smoke Signals: Q&A with Mason Tvert (2012)

Anyone who enjoys cannabis legally in Colorado has Mason Tvert to thank for it. He led successful campaigns to decriminalize cannabis possession on CU and CSU campuses, passed an initiative to legalize the possession of small amounts of cannabis for adults in Denver and, in 2012, we interviewed him about his efforts to pass Amendment 64: The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, which, at the time, looked likely to pass.

It’s little secret what happened after that. About a month after our article ran, Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 and Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize recreational cannabis use. Other states caught on, and recreational cannabis use is now fully legal in 25 states as well as the District of Columbia. Taking it a step further, Colorado has just started issuing licenses for “healing centers” where people can ingest psychedelic mushrooms under supervision.

Small Space, Big Idea (2013) and Resurrecting a Village: Tiny Homes for the Homeless (2016)

In 2013, we profiled Jay Shafer, founder of Tumbleweed Tiny House Co. and the movement to live more simply in homes built to be under 150 square feet. In 2016, we looked into how tiny homes could be a better solution for solving homelessness than jail-like temporary shelters which are undignified for the people living in them as well as more expensive in a comparative analysis of costs compared to Dignity Village, (a Tiny Home community in Portland, OR). Flash forward to 2025, and the tiny home market is expanding very rapidly. Yahoo Finance! Predicts that the size of the tiny homes market is estimated to grow by $3.71 billion from 2025-2029.

The Privatization of Colorado’s Public Education (2014)

If we thought that education was overly privatized in 2014, we had no idea what we were in for in the years to come. In our 2014 article, we looked at the increasing use of private corporations to dictate standardized tests in an attempt to cut costs and, by adopting a consistent, objective measure of student knowledge and skills, qualify for No Child Left Behind funding. Over reliance on companies such as Pearson went hand in hand with the introduction of Common Core State Standards.

In the years since this story ran, public education has become even more privatized nationwide with the sudden boom in charter schools, independently managed schools that somehow still qualify as a public school option for kids. According to pro-charter school advocacy group National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the five years from 2019 to 2024 saw an increase in enrollment in charter schools of 400,000 students nationwide in the 46 states that allow charter schools. Colorado is, of course, one of those 46 states. So, while the use of private companies to handle day-to-day operations in a public school was problematic, the move to make public education more privatized has become a sort of horrifying mutation of the existing problem.

Net Neutrality (2015)

In 2015, we looked at the decision by the FCC to classify the Internet under Title II of the 1996 Telecommunications act to ensure that service providers would treat every website equally and not charge fees to certain sites, like Netflix, to ensure the fastest possible speeds. The issue has gone back and forth over the years, being repealed during the Trump administration, then reinstated last year under the Biden administration. But then, in January of this year, a federal appeals court struck down the FCC’s net neutrality rules, arguing that the FCC did not have the legal authority to enact such rules. Interestingly enough, our article predicted that the net neutrality rules would make the Time Warner/Comcast merger more likely, but that merger never happened.

Hard-partying brothers Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron) plan to turn their sister’s wedding into a wild getaway. Photo Credit: Gemma LaMana.

Spotlight on Adam Devine (2016)

In 2016, we got a chance to sit down with actor Adam Devine to talk about his new comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, a movie you might not have heard of before despite its all-star cast featuring Zac Efron, Anna Kendrick, and Aubrey Plaza. That might have something to do with the abysmal reviews of the movie, which currently holds a score of 38% on Rotten Tomatoes with the critic’s consensus reading “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates benefits from the screwball premise and the efforts of a game cast, even if the sporadically hilarious results don’t quite live up to either.”

Meanwhile, Devine’s family has had a new addition, as last year he and his wife Chloe Bridges welcomed their son Beau into the world. Devine said of the experience of being a new dad that “Every day is like a new adventure.” Fatherhood seems to suit him pretty well.

Graphic image by De La Vaca

The ORR v. Abortion | Duly Noted (2019)

In this 2019 piece, we looked at Scott Lloyd, the Trump appointee who was then running the Office of Refugee Resettlement and denied a refugee the right to an abortion, even going so far as to say that he has never granted permission for a detainee to receive an abortion for any reason. Thankfully, the refugee sued through the ACLU and won her right to an abortion, but the incident demonstrated the Trump administration’s real agenda on abortion: They wanted to end it at all costs.

Sadly, we all know where this story goes: In 2022, the Supreme Court, in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson, overturned the landmark case of Roe v. Wade which declared a legal right to abortion. The decision reversing Roe v. Wade, spearheaded by all three of Trump’s Supreme Court appointees — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — found that “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” setting the battle for reproductive freedom back decades. The result has been that the decision on abortion rights was thrown back to the states, with many now finding their access to abortion to be severely restricted. Make no mistake, the Trump administration always wanted its appointees to stand in the way of any and all rights to abortion.

Time After Time… (2019)

Sadly, our 2019 article entitled “Time After Time…” was not a tribute to longtime pop star and LGBTQ+ advocate Cyndi Lauper. Instead, it talked about how time after time Donald Trump chose the dishonorable, disreputable, and immoral path and asked if the Republican Party had the fortitude to break ranks and vote to impeach one of their own amidst the strict party-line votes that are so common for Congress in the 21st century.

As we now know, Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019 brought forth charges against him for improperly seeking help from a foreign power to boost his chances of re-election. In fact, in 2021, Trump became the first president to be impeached twice, having faced another impeachment over his role in the January 6 insurrection. But he was acquitted of all charges in both cases by the Senate, keeping him from being removed from office and being barred from running again. Thus, he ran again in 2024 and became the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms as well as the first convicted felon to be elected to the Presidency.

“…Unmarried, straight white dudes who couldn’t get laid.” (2019)

In 2019, we discussed the Newsweek interview by Tareq Haddad with Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie that explained that Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist, targeted incels and other insecure white men with a message of xenophobia and racism because of how easy they are to manipulate. In essence, we learned that Bannon knew exactly what he was doing the entire time, using hatred and frustration as fuel for the fire that skyrocketed Trump into an unlikely presidency in 2016.

When Trump was re-elected in 2024, Bannon was no longer a member of the inner circle, and yet he still communicates with Trump and his team from time to time. However, Bannon recently told Chris Cuomo on NewsNation that he is part of an effort to win Trump a third term in 2028, despite the fact that presidents are term limited by the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. Short of a violent overthrow of the government, a third Trump term seems unlikely.

Fatal police shooting in Boulder over the weekend (2023)

Despite being one of the most recent stories on our list, this might be the story with the most significant developments in the time since the original article was posted. In 2023, we reported on the erratic behavior of a then-unidentified woman, who was later identified as 51-year-old Jeannette Alatorre. After officers responded to reports of a woman at the North Boulder Recreation Center refusing to leave the bathroom, less than an hour later they received another call about the same woman pointing a gun at the people trying to exit the recreation center. The gun was later determined to be an airsoft gun with the orange tip removed, but officers say they were unaware of that at the time. The police claim to have taken the proper steps necessary to de-escalate the situation non-violently before ultimately using lethal force, resulting in Alatorre’s death.

It’s possible that the police used every means available to them to avoid the death of Alatorre, but in the wake of officer-related shootings that could have been easily prevented, it was important to make absolutely certain that the right actions were taken in Alatorre’s case. This is where YS entered the story. When YS requested the officer’s body-worn camera (BWC) footage, Boulder Police Department demanded an exorbitant fee of $2,857.50 for locating and redacting the footage. YS, attorney Dan Williams, and Alatorre’s daughter entered into a lawsuit alleging that the fee violated Colorado’s Law Enforcement Integrity and Transparency Act of 2020, which restricts such fees. The city of Boulder argued that the broader Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act allowed them to charge reasonable fees of requesters. A district court ruled in YS’ favor in April 2024, but the City of Boulder filed an appeal in January of this year that has yet to be heard by a court. So, while the tragic story of Jeannette Alatorre is heartbreaking, it may change the way police are held accountable for such incidents in the future.

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The post 25 Stories Then and Now appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

The Cannabis Industry was Brand New Ten Years Ago, Its Time To Update the Federal Tax Code

Austin Clinkenbeard — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 02:04:12 +0000

It has been another year and the burdensome tax code 280E is still devastating the Colorado marijuana industry. The Biden administration teased a repeal earlier this year but it has still not come to fruition. For those not in the know, 280E effectively classifies marijuana businesses in the same bracket as an illegal street dealer, with no tax breaks or write-offs. This places cannabis companies in the difficult position of never being able to write off business expenses or have tax dedications.

Coupled with the decreasing sales, and falling prices, Colorado’s cannabis industry has been hit hard. They are not alone, many states are facing a crisis. It is not just falling sales, it is faltering tax revenues that threaten school programs and general budgets.

Colorado’s legal cannabis industry is celebrating its 10th birthday this year, having been legalized in 2014, but the federal government still treats marijuana sales as an illegal income source. Fortunately, and very recently, the Colorado state government has decided to tax and regulate the industry instead of forcing it further underground. The idea of taxing and regulating what people are already purchasing sent shockwaves throughout the nation, and, many states followed this path. This has resulted in collecting $2.7 billion in taxes over the last decade for Colorado alone. Instead of street dealers pocketing money, marijuana has actually helped fund some of the programs Coloradoans are so proud of. Generally, cannabis taxes go towards education programs, with the remainder placed in the general fund.

However, one major stumbling block remains in place by the federal government, always notoriously slow to act — Tax Code 280E. 280E reads as follows: “No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in a controlled substance.” This classification is one of the major burdens that marijuana industry experts have shared with Yellow Scene Magazine.

Not all states are the same. In California, Assembly Bill 37 was signed into law back in 2019, “eliminating conformity” with the federal tax code for the cannabis industry. Although that tax break happened before Covid hit, Colorado is now following suit in hopes of offering the industry a path to recovery, which would give a boost to the struggling business owners after pandemic sales have slowed. Optimistically, there is movement from the Colorado legislature, but ultimately, it remains up to the federal government to truly change the face of this clearly legitimate industry. It really seems illogical that marijuana is still classified alongside heroin in this day and age.

280E or not to be

Yet confusion abounds. News media stories about changes in the tax code and press releases from major entities seemed to signal a shift. So many marijuana businesses — countless from Colorado — filed taxes thinking they were now in compliance that it prompted the IRS to issue a statement in June, 2024 that 280E still applies to any cannabis business, despite rumors and hopes it would change. This only leads to confusion and uncertainty for corporate cannabis companies and small business owners and makes it nearly impossible for small scale dispensaries to get off the ground in terms of making money. How can a local, family run business succeed when there are no tax benefits and nothing but uncertainty on the horizon?
Officially, however, according the the Federal Government, “Until a final rule is published, marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance and is subject to the limitations of Internal Revenue Code Section 280E.” Effectively this pushes out newcomers and small businesses that are simply unable to afford these expenses. As smaller shops close, corporate-owned entities expand into that market and take their revenue, making the rich even richer. Corporate cannabis is not something that seems fun, it is actually somewhat dystopian compared to the idea of weed in general — you can grow you own, it is meant to be shared, and it generally promotes comradery rather than competition.

State of the industry during COVID

The marijuana industry bloomed during the 2020 lockdowns. Although many of us struggled and found difficulty in the stay at home order, the cannabis industry thrived. During the Covid lockdowns, many of us were forced to sit at home. There were restrictions on gatherings, social events were cancelled, and making sourdough bread became all the rage. Plus, do you remember Tiger King? It was a weird time. The world was upside down. Escapism was not just an ideal, it was needed. It is no wonder that the use and sales of marijuana hit an all-time high — pun intended.

However, as the world slowly healed, and businesses reopened, the free time and anxiety from the unknown receded. Naturally, most people smoked less. Not necessarily anticipating this change, the marijuana industry over-expanded in 2020 and 2021 with new grow operations, storefronts, and an increase in employees. The boom, like all booms, simply would not last.

Post-Covid

This expansion was forever unsustainable. Covid would not last forever, the world would always reset. Yet, profits drove business decisions. It was tempting to open more, grow more, and sell more when the world was yearning for a stress reliever and time killer that weed could provide. However, by the end of 2021, and the beginning of 2022, the numbers started to fall. Less people were buying. Too much was being produced. The price per pound was sinking, leading to reduced prices. Marijuana was a great escape but the world was returning to what many consider normal.

Between 2021 and 2022, the price per gram fell by an entire dollar. Just like climate change numbers, the overall change may not seem significant to the average person, but widespread changes in prices and temperatures have drastic effects on the system. Retailers searched for discounts, and promoted products with more markup, but eventually felt the lower profits hitting them in the bottom line. Staff was laid off, grows were canceled, and prices were adjusted. The main contact was the customer, who not only expected low prices but demanded them in the face of all the rising inflation killing the average consumer.

Yet, it is truly not all doom and gloom. Talking with experrts, there is still room for growth, expansion, and success in finding a niche and succeeding in an industry that is oversaturated. Creating and marketing your own brand seems to be one path to success. As Wanda James previously shared, the competition is fierce and broad. You need to differentiate yourself from the other pot shops just down the street. Echoing marketing frustrations, she asked readers to name the liquor store, bottle shop, or wine store nearby. They simply seem interchangeable these days, it is really the branding, marketing, and customer service rather than the price that sets places apart.

Price per gram

According to a CU Boulder survey, plus a plethora of anecdotal evidence, the price of marijuana seems to be bucking national inflation trends and dropping year to year.

$4.83 in 2021 | $3.84 in 2022 | $3.43 in 2023 | Lower in 2024?

Groceries are getting more expensive but your pot is not. Unlike food, insurance, and restaurants — which are all dramatically climbing — marijuana is actually getting cheaper. For consumers, this is great, but for business owners, it is deeply problematic. How do you keep up with raising wage expectations while the price of your product is falling year after year?

Chevron doctrine

Things rarely work out as expected. The Trump presidency was clearly a failure. One major adjustment during his term has sent shockwaves through every regulatory industry. The challenge and dismantling of the Chevron ruling. This is also a fantastic example of why the presidential election is so crucial because the winner appoints supreme court justices who rule on such broad topics as this, but I digress.

According to the Public Insitute of Policy, “The Chevron doctrine stems from the Supreme Court’s 1984 decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The decision basically stated that if federal legislation is ambiguous or leaves an administrative gap, the courts must defer to the regulatory agency’s interpretation if the interpretation is reasonable.”

Chevron was overturned in part because some Justices believed the Federal government was becoming too powerful and bloated. Although this has potentially horrifying implications for environmental, food safety, and workplace regulations, it also opens the question of where the Federal government can regulate marijuana, at all in the first place. A legal challenge along these lines would open up a whole new set of arguments, potentially allowing marijuana but also unraveling decades of carefully crafted safety regulations.

Proposed Changes by CO

Although the federal government seems to be wavering, Colorado has initiated changes that echo what California did five years ago. Colorado SB24-076, the “Streamline Marijuana Regulation” was mainly sponsored by Sen. Kevin Van Winkle, Sen. Julie Gonzales, and Rep. William Lindstedt. This act repeals the requirement for specific identification cards for access to marijuana, adds in additional warnings for potential side effects, and makes it clear that cannabis businesses not under federal tax compliance will still be classified and treated in Colorado as if they are. These changes came into effect on August 7, 2024, also hinting at a major change that — as of yet— has not come.

All eyes on them

The industry is changing, and rapidly. More states have legalized since Colorado, driving down the demand in tourism. It is no longer a novelty to smoke weed in our society, in fact is it practically an accepted fact. The tourist income has dried up as many people can now find a source of legal consumption in their own block.

“There is absolutely no reason for people to come to Colorado for cannabis tourism,” Wanda James shared with Axios. Yet, there are ways to bring tourists back in. Allowing marijuana spas, restaurants with weed pairings, and touring grow operations in the same vein as a winery tour, could bring new life to a stagnant industry. If only the government will let them.

It is essentially a waiting game these days. There are signals things are moving. State governments like Colorado and California have made changes to better accommodate the marijuana industry but all eyes are focused on the potential federal reclassification of marijuana from Schedule I substance, which it has been classified as ever since the ratings system took effect in 1970.

The post The Cannabis Industry was Brand New Ten Years Ago, Its Time To Update the Federal Tax Code appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Understanding Newly Legalized Psilocybin Means Looking Ahead

Austin Clinkenbeard — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 23:07:47 +0000

An anthropological approach can help us understand the applications of psychedelics and mental health.

As Colorado celebrates the 10th anniversary of legalized marijuana, the state looks to be one of the first in yet another realm — psychedelic-assisted therapy. In 2022 voters approved the Natural Medicine Health Act, decriminalizing and regulating certain fungi such as psilocybin mushrooms for medicinal use.

The use of psychedelics as a conduit for mental healing has deep roots in many cultures. Navigating the use of this newly legal form of therapy will require us to look abroad to successful practitioners, consult with local mental health professionals, and listen to non-Western sources on how to integrate psychedelics and mental healing.

With such a prevalent and growing mental health crisis, it is of critical importance that we try to do something to help our fellow human beings. The use of psychedelics in an assisted therapy setting with experienced guides may offer a path forward from the trauma and blockages of our modern lives. Use of psilocybin is still not fully legal yet in the state, but there are places like Jamaica and the Netherlands that do allow it.

“It went from wildly taboo, it seemed like a few years ago, to now my dad’s 80-year-old friends are coming to Jamaica to experiment with mushrooms. It seems like it’s changed dramatically, but there’s still some skepticism, and there’s still some hesitation,” Neil Markey, co-founder and CEO of Beckley Retreats, shared.

“I’m a former veteran. I was in from like, 2005 to 2012. I went to Iraq once Afghanistan twice lot of benefit out of these treatments over the last 10 years.” – Jesse Gould

“I think education is paramount in the realm of psychedelic medicines and that people need to be educated on what an actual professionally guided journey actually is — that it can be a deeply transformational experience,” Robert Grover, one of the founders of The Journeymen Collective, told us.

To be clear, licensed therapy while using psilocybin is not permitted in Oregon and Colorado allows for unregulated practitioners, so due diligence is needed when researching who to trust.

It all goes back to Nixon

Psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms have been used in what is now the Americas for thousands of years by numerous indigenous communities yet, like so many non-pharmaceutical drugs, it was not until the 1971 War on Drugs that their use became a legal issue rather than just a social one.

The use of marijuana, mushrooms, or any other now-illegal drugs in the 1970s also became a sign of rebellion against authority rather than mainly a way to connect to oneself. Most mainstream sources found the use — even discussion of them — unacceptable. Physicians and scientists were prohibited from conducting experiments with or studying the effects of them.

This led to repression of entire classes of citizens in society as well as repression of understanding the benefits and dangers of psychedelic drugs. The war on drugs oppressed minorities through the legal system and simultaneously repressed knowledge about the healing properties of plants like psilocybin and marijuana.

The effects of these Nixon-era policies are felt today. Mainstream Americans overwhelmingly accept that marijuana has medicinal properties, but the same is not yet true for opinions on psilocybin, although some polls have reported that 1 in 3 people believe it has medical value. One of the main battles proponents of psilocybin legalization face is de-stigmatization.

“This is not tripping balls.” – Gary Logan

“This is not tripping balls. Some people do adventure on their own, and they eventually come around and say, ‘I shouldn’t have done that on my own. Maybe I should seek out a guide or somebody to assist me during my journey.’” Gary Logan, co-founder of The Journeymen Collective, clarified.

“There’s kind of like a cartoonish characterization of what mushrooms do and the type of people that use it,” Matthew Williams, co-founder of Boulder’s Kairos Wellness Collective shared the false stereotype many proponents still face.

Even for those who have recreationally used mushrooms before, Williams sees a huge benefit. “I’ve noticed when people do this in a therapeutic setting, it’s almost like doing it for the first time.”

“Psychedelic is less than half the experience. The majority of it is: why you’re doing it, where you’re doing it, who you’re with,” Markey explained.

The war on drugs also led to a stigmatization of anyone who used these substances. In many cases, the healing properties and mental health aspect of their use was forgotten in mainstream society, and the label of “lazy stoner” or “drugged-out hippie” overshadowed medicinal benefits. Consequently, many people have experimented with psychedelics without any guidance whatsoever, sometimes with poor or even disastrous results. The role of a healer — be it shaman, therapist, or doctor — is crucial in navigating the worlds of mental health and psychedelic use.

“It’s opening up that, and it’s prevented sort of the blacklisting. Back in the day if you’re in a university and even mentioned it, that would be sort of the end of your career,” Jesse Gould, founder of Heroic Hearts, said.

Anthropology Bridges the Gap

Because legal research on psilocybin in the U.S. is a very new phenomenon, to gain a deeper understanding of the uses and properties, we need to turn to other cultures. Straddling both these worlds is the field of anthropology.

Instead of approaching topics of shamanic healing, the power of journeys, and the use of psychedelics from a mystical standpoint, anthropology offers a somewhat more grounded point of view. As applied to the use of psychedelics and healers who use them, anthropologists would argue we should not disregard the thousands of years of the history of their use just because Western medicine has not fully accepted them into their processes.

“Western medicine is still very much stuck on the medicated model. How long did it take our systems to figure out like, ‘Oh, meditation could be helpful.” – Jesse Gould

“If we take a historical perspective on this and look back into the past, when men lived in the village, only those who he [the shaman] felt were truly ready to step into a journey — the medicine would prepare that person to live in the village. So they actually help people integrate into the village,” Grover said.

“Journeys have been taking place for thousands of years, but it’s been sort of stuffed away in the closet, and it’s been made to be viewed as something that you’re going to lose your mind, and you’re not,” Grover expanded on the idea of healing through a guided journey.

It’s not just psychedelics. Everyone we spoke to emphasized that psilocybin and other psychedelics are part of a larger pathway to healing. Setting intentions, acting on new revelations, and using non-psychedelic techniques are all key components to a successful experience.

“I’m a big believer in teaching mindfulness practices alongside the use of these compounds, and that’s true to how they’ve been done in indigenous communities for quite some time,” Markey stated.

“I do believe that Western medicine hasn’t caught up to these intangibles around how we treat these sorts of things. Western medicine is still very much stuck on the medicated model. How long did it take our systems to figure out like, ‘Oh, meditation could be helpful.’ You know, when I was growing up, it was just a ‘woo-woo’ thing to do without any sort of basis,” Gould recalled.

While anthropology is not specifically interested if the spiritual aspects or the shamanic journey is rooted in physical reality or not, the fact that so many cultures practice forms of mental healing in this way lends credibility to the tradition. It is not important to prove or disprove that shamans actually connect with another spiritual world, rather the importance lies in the process.

Additionally, it is important to learn from, not appropriate the cultures we draw from. Executive Director for the Naropa Center for Psychedelic Studies, Joe Harrison, told us that “the Center’s programming is conducted under a commitment to anti-oppression. Trainees are introduced to several Indigenous sacred plant medicine traditions, are educated on the harms of colonial extraction and appropriation, and explore what it means to be in [the] right relationship to Native American and Indigenous stewards of sacred plant medicine traditions.”

Western Medicine

Traveling to someone who specializes in healing, going through a ritual, and believing the person can heal you, are all aspects of shamanic healing. Western medicine acknowledges the power of belief when it comes to healing. Patients seeing improvement when given a placebo is well documented. Nearly half of the total healing effect can be traced to belief in the drug and doctor administering it.

Additionally, there is support growing among the Western medical community that psilocybin and other alternative drug therapies have medicinal benefits. A Los Angeles Times op-ed compiled a substantial amount of evidence via medical studies that psilocybin can help lower depression and fight anxiety, reduce tobacco and alcohol dependence, and reduce suicidal thoughts.

Williams pointed towards the recent Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies conference in Denver in June 2023. “I just was overwhelmed. I had no idea. The amount of research and the amount of information that’s available now, it blew my mind.”

Criticisms of this new form of therapy point towards a lack of medical certification or license needed by instructors and that not every center provides pre or post care.

Mental health professionals are still learning how to navigate this world as well. The Harm Reduction Journal states: “It is argued that therapists can meet with clients before and after their own personal psychedelic experiences in order to help clients minimize risk and maximize benefit.” Locally, Naropa University offers a psychedelic-assisted therapies certificate program to help lend credibility and advance research in the new field.

Harrison, described Naropa’s program: “Our flagship training program, the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies (CPAT), is an 8-month, 150-hour, non-degree certificate program that provides postgraduate level training for advanced professionals working in relevant therapeutic areas including mental health counseling, psychology, medicine, chaplaincy, and social work.”

As Williams notes: “There are limitations of talk therapy. You can plateau in your journey for help and then the neuroplasticity that comes with psilocybin is great because it gives you a different perspective.”

Mushrooms and Masculinity

Some of the most powerful and compelling testimony for the legalization and regulation of psilocybin have come from veterans. There are abundant signs that mental health resources for veterans are severely lacking. Continuing to take the same approach will only lead to the same results: lack of effective help for veterans. Gould spoke on the ineffectiveness of care for veterans, especially in the realm of PTSD.

Our society encourages the repression of feelings, especially among men, and especially among those who go into lines of work like military service. Psilocybin can help. “[Veterans] can be vulnerable with these other people that are going to have the similarities of that unique experience that even their family might not have, that allows new layers of depth,” Gould shared.

Gould, himself an Army Ranger veteran, founded Heroic Hearts in 2017 with the aim to help veterans with mental health via psilocybin-assisted therapy in ways that current mental health pathways could not.

Doors of Perception

It’s not just for complex trauma or PTSD. Logan and Grover report that many of their clients at the Journeymen Collective are seeking something more out of life. Psychedelics and psilocybin will not be the answer for everyone, but they will be the answer for someone.

“People have a lot of depression and anxiety and grief, and they’re looking for that deeper level of purpose that’s calling them to create, and they don’t know how to access it because the lenses of their perception are muddled,” Grover said.

The potential benefits are enormous, including “clarity and calmness of mind. There’s an emotional component that plays into it as well, whereby people are no longer triggered by what someone else says or does to them unless it’s, of course, abusive,” he shared.

It really is more than just taking the mushrooms. “[There’s] preparation … [and] integration support, which we believe is obviously the most important,” Grover expanded on the crucial pre and post care provided.

Williams noted the importance of the process. “Without action, you go back to your life situation, that caused you [stress], and there’s no change,” he said.

Having an experienced guide you trust is possibly the most important aspect. “It’s important to have quality guides that have seen all the different positive outcomes, all possible outcomes, and knows what to do if it’s challenging, so you don’t freak yourself out and get to a traumatic experience,” Markey said.

“We are beacons of light that create more beacons of light that go out into the world to draw people into more connectedness. There’s more lighthouses — we’ll call us that — that are popping up around the world. The growth of the medicine man or the shaman — it’s happening globally,” Logan shared.

You Can Lead a Human to Mushrooms

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” is an old adage that is quite applicable. Handing someone mushrooms is not the same as guiding them through the journey. It can lead to new perceptions, but it is up to each individual to actually walk the new pathway.

Simply having a mind-opening revelation during a psychedelic experience will not itself lead to change. As each healer stressed, it is a journey, not a one-stop shop. New ideas can be formed, but old habits are hard to shake. The psychedelics are a door, but each person must walk the threshold themselves.

“If you don’t lay in new patterns, you’ll revert back, you know. But you have this kind of opening, and that’s where you can really make some progress. It’s helpful to have some support from people that have done a lot of this and know how to guide that,” Markey explained.

He continued: “You’ll hear a lot of skepticism around psychedelics because, you know, people are like, ‘Well, it’s not a one-and-done type of thing.’ Well, nothing is. There is incredible potential for this newness and this new perspective.”

“You know, you can go to Peru or Costa Rica or Mexico and go work with a shaman there, but we’re thinking, well, has that shaman really lived in North America to know what the Western anxiety and mental health actually is, and will they be there with you after the journey?” Logan explained the importance of connecting on a cultural level.

The post Understanding Newly Legalized Psilocybin Means Looking Ahead appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Colorado’s cannabis industry faces its biggest challenge since legalization

Austin Clinkenbeard — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 20:41:01 +0000

Despite acceptance at the state level, federal tax code 280E is holding the industry back.

Boom and bust?

“We are coming off of some record-breaking years,” Buck Dutton of Native Roots told YS. Despite many businesses struggling during the past few years, the cannabis industry actually saw a boom in sales. “The pandemic was so good for the cannabis industry, [but] there were so many industries that were really hard hit.”

The sudden influx of people staying at home during the pandemic led to a huge increase in the sale of cannabis across the state. Whether it was to help calm the anxiety that world-changing events brought about or simply to occupy the wide-open window of free time many of us faced, people increasingly turned to marijuana.

“People stayed at home, and anytime you’ve looked at the Great Depression, wars, when the country has been through different things, the reliance on drugs, alcohol becomes huge,” Wanda James from Simply Pure explained.

Times of stress generally see an increase in substance use. Covid was no different. The National Library of Medicine generally agrees although the exact correlation may be more complicated. A 2018 study found that “Most of the participants of the survey (58.3%) reported an increase in drug use during the crisis, compared with only 25.6% of the sample who reported a decrease in drug use.” Fortunately for citizens in Colorado, legal alternatives to harder drugs and alcohol were available during COVID-19.

“What I am thrilled about this time was we went through a pandemic, and we had choices for something better than alcohol, right? Better than heroin,” James expanded.

Like any booming industry, the marijuana game saw an influx of interested parties looking to make money. New dispensaries opened up, grow operations expanded, and the misleading appeal of high profits had people who have never smoked a joint in their lives suddenly looking at cannabis as a potential investment.

However, what follows a boom cycle is usually a bust period. Currently, the cannabis industry is facing its most difficult challenge since legalization. Businesses that reported millions in sales just months earlier are now facing a harsh new reality.

As employees have returned to work and free time shrunk back, marijuana sales slipped. Profit margins, already significantly hampered by federal tax code 280E, became razor thin.

I’m a business, man

For many the cannabis business is just that, a business. With sales at all-time highs, more and more people jumped into the cannabis game hoping to turn a fast profit on a booming market. New dispensaries and grow operations sprang up to satisfy the seemingly insatiable demand. Now the market is quite literally oversaturated. The price per ounce of marijuana has dropped significantly. You may have noticed groceries, rent, and gas prices are all affected by inflation, or at least corporate greed, but not marijuana.

Interestingly enough, consumer prices of cannabis have not been noticeably impacted by inflation. Businesses that YS spoke to mostly said that they are eating the costs of higher transportation, packaging, and labor instead of raising the price of marijuana.

In fact, the opposite is happening, prices are dropping, especially in large markets like Denver and Boulder. “It is a race to the bottom that has to bottom out. You can’t just be giving it away. Profit margins are getting really tight, and I think that the smaller operators are really struggling with that,” Dutton explained.

Capitalism pressures businesses to expand. The allure of more profit, new markets, and illusions of grandeur too often lure small businesses into overexpansion. Expenses can grow and are not always in line with new revenues. Expanding at the wrong time is worse than not expanding at all. Sadly, many small cannabis business owners are currently staring at this looming problem head on.

When asked how smaller operations can survive this shifting environment, James replied resoundingly, “They don’t. They don’t.”

These days even high-end flower is not that difficult to grow. Legalization removed many of the risk factors that growing cannabis used to come with. Growers in legal states do not face the same threat of police raids, black markets, and lengthy jail sentences that all contributed to driving the price up.

“So all of these growers went out there, expanded their grows, or people came in and they added all these growers, so we flooded the market with way too much cannabis. They can’t sell it now. And so that’s also just driving the prices lower,” James shared.

Additionally, compared to years ago when cannabis was still illegal in Colorado, prices have naturally fallen as risks of legal jeopardy fell. “The reason why cannabis was expensive, you know, was because if you got caught growing it or making it or selling it, you went to jail. You were taking your life in your own hands,” James shared.

The systemic effects of these harmful policies still reverberate loudly today, but much of the legal risk factor for growing marijuana — at least at the state level — has been removed. That translates into a lower price per ounce and much more flower being grown overall, further lowering its value.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

The feds

The limbo in between full legalization at the state level and the Schedule I Classification of marijuana at the federal level has led to crippling tax penalties.

U.S. Code 280E states: “No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within the meaning of Schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by Federal law or the law of any State in which such trade or business is conducted.”

This means there are limited federal tax deductions for any business expenses in the marijuana industry.

“No other businesses are like that. If I own a restaurant, if I make $100 a day, and I pay my staff $50, I’m taxed on the remaining $50. Not true in cannabis. We’re taxed on money that we don’t even have,” said James, sharing the frustrations businesses have with the current tax code.

Different operations face different challenges in the business world, but nearly everyone agrees that 280E is the most crippling law for the industry. “The tax regulation 280E has been a massive handicap on the cannabis industry from the beginning. Cannabis is a legal industry in Colorado, but we’re not treated as such. The cannabis industry functions with an effective tax rate of roughly 70%,” Dutton wrote.

280E was originally intended to strip illicit drug dealers of potential revenue. It is a punitive tax meant to drive illegal drug dealers out of business — and it’s working.Rescheduling cannabis on the national level would provide numerous benefits. “If 280E is removed, licensed cannabis companies can invest that capital back into the business and community. This would strengthen our efforts in community engagement, research, expansion, product development, staff compensation, and marketing. Those efforts would increase sales and in turn, drive the state tax revenue that has decreased in recent years,” Dutton expanded.

The IRS provides information on how to navigate these challenges, and they do allow one specific tax benefit. “Marijuana business owners can deduct their cost of goods sold, which is basically the cost of their inventory. What isn’t deductible are the normal overhead expenses, such as advertising expenses, wages and salaries, and travel expenses, to name a few,” wrote De Lon Harris, commissioner of the IRS Small Business/Self Employed (SB/SE) Examination.

Not being legal on the federal level also impacts what payment methods are available. MasterCard recently announced it will not be allowing purchases of marijuana, even on debit cards. This limits ways customers can pay and adds more hurdles for already struggling businesses to overcome.

James is leading the fight against these harmful penalties that no longer reflect the reality of the cannabis industry. “I am the only elected official that owns a dispensary in Colorado. So that’s the other reason why I really want to fight the government right now because I am the government,” she said.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Cannabis tourism

Colorado once shone as the lone beacon of marijuana freedom in the United States. For years the legal cannabis industry in the state attracted tourists. Even if the factor that brought them here is weed, tourists, directly and indirectly, contribute to the local economy.

“Even if you came here for cannabis tourism, you still went to a restaurant, you brought a Rockies t-shirt,” James, also a former member of the Colorado Tourism Board, explained.

Fortunately for the consumers, but unfortunately for Colorado tourism, other states followed the light and legalized marijuana. From Alaska to Washington, people now have a choice of places to take a vacation if they want to participate in marijuana tourism.

“What we saw last year and after COVID is we have lost cannabis tourism to about 70%. Now that people can go to Las Vegas, they can go to New York, they can go to California, they can go to Oregon, and people still come here to Colorado because it’s a wonderful place to come, but it’s not the singular place to come,” James expanded.

To the benefit of everyone except Colorado’s tourism, access to marijuana continues to expand nationwide. The political climate is one of acceptance or at least tolerance. This is all to say that marijuana sales have also declined because of fewer people traveling to Colorado to obtain it.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

The path forward

Rescheduling marijuana on the federal level would immediately bring relief to small businesses across the nation. Once 280E no longer applies, cannabis business owners can start operating much more like any other business — with tax deductions and write-offs — to help improve their bottom line and reinvest in their company and community.

However, the tax code is not the only challenge facing would-be dispensary owners. “My question to most dispensary owners right now is how many liquor stores in your neighborhood can you actually name? Yeah, there’s a liquor store on the corner. What’s the name of it?” James elaborated on the importance of branding.

James’ advice to would-be newcomers is that “if you’re getting into the cannabis game, and this is really important for people to know, what’s your niche? Why do people know you? Why do you go to Starbucks and not Dunkin’ Donuts? Or why do you use Nescafé at home and don’t go to any of them?”

Fortunately, Simply Pure’s brand is a strong one. “We’re well known because we’re Black-owned women-owned, and we’re the very first dispensary owned by African Americans in the United States. And we do so much for social justice and for politics, and we call ourselves the most political dispensary in America,” James proudly shared.

James sees the wine industry as a potential model for the future of the cannabis industry. There could be tours of the fields, examining the flower as it grows, tastings, and food pairings as a way to elevate the experience. However, overly harsh regulations stifle this creativity.

“I can’t even take a bud out of my grow facility. So if I go in there and see a great bud, I’m not allowed to walk out of my facility with it. So the ridiculousness of regulation prevents, I guess, what I would call ‘fun marketing,’ you know, things that consumers would love to do,” James shared.

There is a bill currently working its way through the California legislature that would allow public marijuana consumption at places like cafés that would also serve food and drinks. This could usher in an entirely new smoking experience involving more socialization and de-stigmatization centered around a “coffee house” culture. As many know from Amsterdam’s reputation, this model can draw tourists by the millions and could be a way to make certain states stand out again in the tourism realm.

Boutique experiences, tastings and pairings, and coffee house-style settings would all still run afoul of the many laws surrounding this still relatively new industry. Legalization at the national level would not mean every state follows suit — cannabis would likely remain illegal in some areas, but it would remove much of the burden on business owners in states that have legalized it.

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The post Colorado’s cannabis industry faces its biggest challenge since legalization appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Month in Review | August 2023

Austin Clinkenbeard — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 20:53:12 +0000

Photo by the Paul Wilkinson Law Firm

[LOCAL]

Online marijuana sales began on August 7th. Someone should really start a pizza + weed delivery combo.
Fort Lupton police officer found guilty for leaving a woman in his patrol cruiser that was struck by a train. The officer parked his car on the train tracks after taking her into custody. She survived but was severely injured.
Newly implemented law in Colorado to raise age to buy a firearm to 21 has been blocked by Federal Judge.
Nearly a quarter of a million dollars worth of bikes have been stolen in Boulder this year according to the Stolen Bikes dashboard
Mike Johnson is inaugurated as Denver’s Mayor after beating Kelly Brough earlier this summer.

[NATIONAL]

Florida tries to ban AP Psychology in their growing fight against being educated.
Two attorneys associated with Colorado, John Eastman and Jenna Ellis, are indicted alongside Trump, this time simply for attempting to overthrow our government and end democracy as we know it.
The State of Georgia also indicts Trump over his tampering with election results. Pardons in Georgia particularly hard to come by.
Entire Colorado River Basin faces massive drought mainly due to decrease in snowmelt from shifting climate patterns.
Mitch McConnell apparently freezes on live TV in a scary incident, prompting questions of his health and fitness for office.
Twitter rebrands to “X” begging the question: why?

[INTERNATIONAL]

Sinead O’Connor passes away at 56. Thank you for speaking up against Papal abuse when no one else would.
U.S. soldier who was about to be disciplined sprinted across the North Korean border, defecting to the brutal regime.
Over 1,000 Russians and Belarussians are stripped of their permanent resident status in Lithuania after being deemed “threats to national security”.
Heading to Europe next year? Make sure to apply for a Visa, something previously unrequired.
Group of West African nations say they will intervene in Niger’s ongoing coup if it is not soon resolved diplomatically.

Small Talk

“Tragically, young people are getting their hands on guns all too easily and putting them to terrible use against others — and with serious consequences for their own lives.” – DA Michael Doughtery on recent youth gun violence

“The fire was just traveling too fast, and too hot and next thing you know Lahaina town is gone, literally gone.” – Mark Stefle, Maui Fire survivor

“While I appreciate the need for transparency, it is important to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation regarding the law enforcement officers’ use of force.” – Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons on Sheriff’s records request denial regarding the shooting of Charlie Foster

“Now, more than nine months have passed, no evidence has been revealed and it has become even clearer that the impact of the dean’s actions has been irreparable and far-reaching.” – Letter signed by more than 300 academics protesting firing of CU Boulder professor Patty Limerick from the Center of the American West

By the Numbers

22% – Increase in abortions performed by Colorado clinics following harsh restrictions like those in Texas
$1 Billion – Barbie Movie revenue, highest ever for a female director
13% – Number of Colorado families who will receive free full time preschool, not the promised 50%
110° / 31 Days – Phoenix experiences an entire month of daily temperatures over 100°
60% – Increase in water bills after a sudden water rate hike for Lafayette residents
17 – People shot and killed by Colorado law enforcement in 2023 so far

The post Month in Review | August 2023 appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Boulder’s cannabis board recommends allowing pot smoking lounges

Guest Contributor — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 18:00:42 +0000

By Shay Castle
Boulder Beat (AP Storyshare)

Boulder’s cannabis board recommends ‘pot bars’ and other on-site use
Hospitality establishments would be limited to 25+, not allowed on Uni Hill

Boulder’s Cannabis Licensing and Advisory Board is recommending the city allow on-site use of some cannabis products, paving the way for new standalone businesses like smoking lounges, or existing businesses to offer pot-infused drinks, lotions and more.

In an unusual move, such hospitality establishments would be open only to people older than 25 — despite the statewide age limit of 21 for marijuana consumption and sales. Defenders say the move protects public health and Boulder’s youth, while critics say it creates a dichotomy that promotes drinking.

The recommendation “points all interested 21-24 year olds to liquor and bar establishments,” wrote former CLAB member Alana Malone, in comments shared with city council, “sending the message that they aren’t mature enough to consume cannabis in a legal venue, and should stick with consuming alcohol in public until they turn 25.”

Two years, 22 votes
Colorado began allowing marijuana hospitality establishments in 2019; HB-1230 laid out requirements and created an “opt-in” system for cities. Denver’s first two licenses were approved last year.

Boulder’s CLAB spent nearly two years developing its recommendations, eventually voting on 21 separate measures. (One measure was debated twice; find a full list, as well as vote totals and comments, here)

The initial vote to recommend allowing hospitality licenses — city council would have to adopt changes to Boulder’s laws — was 4-2, with board members Michael Christy and Robin Noble opposed.

Noble, in her dissenting opinion, noted concerns from law enforcement and public health officials over safety and the “normalization” of marijuana among youth, as well as “parents and community members who believe marijuana is having harmful impacts (and) oppose any commercial expansion of marijuana in our community.”

“The downsides of licensing marijuana consumption businesses outweigh potential benefits,” she wrote.

Christy was contacted for comment, but deferred until he received advice from city attorneys. He did not respond in time for publication of this story.

No edibles; beverages OK
CLAB’s other recommendations were to allow on-site sale and consumption of THC-infused beverages and “sublingual” products (those that dissolve under the tongue) as well as topicals (applied to the skin) and flower (for smoking.)

Not allowed under the recommendations are “concentrates intended for inhalation” (more commonly known as dabs) or edibles. Food and beverages were handled differently by the board because the latter are absorbed more quickly — 5-15 minutes minutes for liquid, versus 60-90 minutes for edibles — and have a shorter duration of psychoactive effects: 45-90 minutes, versus three to four hours for infused food.

“The ability for novice customers to titrate their intoxication and be responsibly monitored in a hospitality setting over more than two hours per serving strains credulity,” wrote CLAB member Brian Keegan, in his dissenting opinion.

Hospitality licenses should not be subject to density limits on retail marijuana establishments, CLAB voted, and should be treated the same as bars when it comes to zoning. Like pot shops, hospitality licenses would not be allowed on University Hill. Hours for hospitality licensees would be 8 a.m. to midnight, with sales stopping at 10 p.m.

“Opening at 8 a.m. could allow for different types of businesses” to use infused products, “such as spas, yoga studios, coffee shops, brunches, etc.” wrote Kathryn Thomson, a non-voting member of CLAB.

Also similar to alcohol-serving establishments, businesses applying for a hospitality license would have to garner support of the surrounding neighborhood, via a “needs and desires” hearing.

Public health v. constitutional rights
The board’s biggest debate came over the issue of indoor smoking. Colorado law exempts cannabis hospitality businesses from the Clean Indoor Air Act; CLAB voted 4-1 that Boulder grant the same exemption “only if ventilation systems [that] ensure non-consuming customers, workers and first responders are safe from the health impacts of secondhand smoke.”

The debate spilled over into the vote over whether or not to recommend allowing consumption of marijuana flower, which the board passed 4-3. Noble, Christy and Tom Kunstman opposed the measure.

“Similar to the tobacco industry, the marijuana industry says adequate ventilation can protect workers,” Noble wrote in her dissenting comments. “It can’t. CLAB heard from HVAC engineers, including experts invited by industry, who said no ventilation system can effectively remove the safety hazards of secondhand smoke.

Outdoor consumption was recommended, consistent with current rules about smoking and with additional guardrails. Consumption must occur within the licensed premises and “protected from plain view of the public.”

For Keegan, the trickiest decision was the suggested 25-and-up age limit. He abstained from that vote, unable to make up his mind.

There is research suggesting cannabis use could be harmful to still-developing brains, Keegan said — but that’s true of alcohol as well.

“I’m torn between the public health mindset of regulating cannabis commensurate with its risks, and the reality” that cannabis is legal for Coloradans over 21, Keegan said in a Thursday interview.

“There are many behaviors not regulated commensurate with their risk,” he wrote in notes to council. “Cannabis consumption should not be held to a higher standard given the lack of scientific and medical knowledge.”

Keegan’s abstention counted as a yes vote.

Malone, CEO of concentrate brand Green Dot Labs, said both industry representatives on CLAB were left out of that discussion, which “wasn’t planned.” Malone had already left the meeting when the vote was taken.

There is no precedent for such an age exclusion, Malone said: the right of 21-24 year olds to buy and consume cannabis is enshrined in the state constitution via Amendment 64.

“Only in Boulder would we be required to turn away a 21-24 year old medical patient or veteran who relies on cannabis for medicine from a cannabis hospitality establishment,” Malone wrote in comments on the 4-1 vote.

‘Years away’
Shawn Coleman, a former marijuana lobbyist who helped craft legislation, said Colorado gives local municipalities wide discretion to implement their own restrictions.

“State law is a floor, not a ceiling”, Coleman said.

Coleman found many of the recommendations “absurd” and “ascientific,” including prohibitions on edibles. Fast-acting products are already available that would circumvent concerns over delayed onset, he said.

Malone asked that the vote banning concentrates be revisited. She abstained, on advice from a city attorney that was subsequently overturned. Her peers declined to relitigate the matter.

“Allowing all products that are legal” under state law “is the only right way to approach a product set or menu set” for hospitality purposes, Malone said.

As the science on cannabis — and the products on offer — evolve, Coleman predicts CLAB’s recommendations will need to be revisited.

“These things don’t come at no cost to the taxpayers,” Coleman said. “Why waste the public’s time?”

CLAB’s recommendations are going to city council next week; ironically, on April 20. There is no discussion or vote scheduled, although Malone said staff has prepared a presentation, and Keegan has been asked to attend in case council members have questions.

It’s unclear if and when city council may take up the topic; their 2023 work plan is full, and new council members — with new priorities — will be elected in November. Given the strong feelings over aspects like indoor smoking and the 25-plus age limit, Keegan believes they may choose to put it to a vote of the people.

Whichever route elected officials choose, Keegan said, “we’re months or years away from this becoming a final decision.”

The post Boulder’s cannabis board recommends allowing pot smoking lounges appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Month in Review | October 2022

Thomas Rutherford — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 16:00:04 +0000

Nury Martinez

On Oct. 18th, President Joe Biden made a pledge to Congress promising that, if Democrats can hold on to their majority, the first bills he will sign into law in 2023 will protect abortion rights.
On October 6th, President Biden pardoned all people federally convicted on marijuana charges. He also announced an investigation into the drug’s federal classification.
On October 13th, it was reported that the January 6th panel plans to subpoena former President Trump in regards to his actions during the Capitol riot.
Angela Lansbury, star of the beloved mystery show Murder, She Wrote, passed away on October 11th at the age of 96.
Nury Martinez, the Los Angeles city council president, was called on by President Biden to resign after audio of her making racist remarks was leaked.
Uvalde, Texas suspended its entire police force on October 7th amid protest of its response to the May 24th mass shooting.
The approved $1 million from Denver’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) has begun to be distributed. The ARPA will distribute the money in 3 stages to around 4,000 individuals experiencing food insecurity as a result of inflation and the COVID pandemic.
FEMA has awarded $3.4 million dollars to the state of Colorado to support Marshall Fire Recovery efforts.
CU Boulder has expanded its parental leave policy with benefits to employees kicking in immediately.
A Longmont man named Sammy Valdez that has been suspected in connection with a Lafayette fentanyl overdose has begun his trial.
On Thursday October 6th, Yellow Scene was the first publication to report on the disappearance of Chloe Campbell. Previously listed by police as a runaway, Boulder Police Department was flooded by calls the following day which ultimately caused them to escalate the case on Saturday, October 8th, and formally investigate it. This resulted in Campbell being found and returned to her family on October 10th.
On October 18th, an amber alert was put out for A’myah Gordon, a 10-month old from Aurora. She was last seen in the 14900 block of East Alameda Parkway in Aurora.
Denver’s So Many Roads, a Grateful Dead-themed bar, has been ordered to close for the month of November in response to reports of employees dealing cocaine and other substances.

Small Talk

“Yeah, we’re back. That was checking off boxes. That was me two years ago, which is obviously I’m still me, but that was the mentality I was in. I’m back. Everybody knows I’m going to go get this bucket, and everybody has the belief that I’m going to go get this bucket.”

– Jamal Murray on his return to the Nuggets after receiving knee surgery.

“It’s moved from spur of the moment, ad hoc, to an organized, well-funded, premeditated effort to make charges of election fraud.”

– Larry Jacobs, a professor of political history, elections and voting behavior at the University of Minnesota, in regards to election deniers reportedly increasing efforts to sabotage upcoming elections.

“We know that the last few years have been challenging. Some of the toughest years in our history. But we’ve never kept our eye off of keeping Colorado moving forward.”

– Governor Jared Polis during his contentious debate with opponent Heidi Ganahl.

“About eight or nine years ago, KeHE said that we want to be more closely connected to the natural foods community and the epicenter of the natural foods industry.”

– Organic food company KeHE Distributions, LLC executive director of brands Ben Friedland in regards to doubling down on making Boulder its home with the opening of a new innovation center on 14th and Canyon.

“It can give exposure to the beauty and unique characteristics of Boulder to a broad audience. We want to continue to attract attention from the movie business.”

– President and CEO of Boulder Chamber of Commerce John Tayer in regards to a film titled “Elevation” starring Anthony Mackie and Morena Baccarin filming scenes in Boulder

By The Numbers

The United States reached a record $31 trillion national debt.
Longmont City Council Race candidates Mitzi Nicoletti, Sean McCoy, and Gary Hodges, all competing for the same seat, have collectively raised $13,000 in campaign donations.
President Biden has announced that he will release 15 million barrels from the oil reserve.

A new law will take effect next year that allows companies to receive tax credits if their employees reduce their transportation to and from work, with companies being eligible for 50% returns.
As of June, 15 cities and other local U.S. jurisdictions have decriminalized possession of psilocybin or deprioritized the policing, prosecution, or arrest of users.
COVID rates are down in Colorado. As of October 17th, there have been 155 new cases with a weekly average of 62.

The post Month in Review | October 2022 appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Hemp in Colorado: A Seed and Fiber Frenzy

Mollie McCoy — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 14:00:16 +0000

If you are looking for an article about the highs and lows of marijuana, you may be in the wrong location. Though intricately intertwined with the marijuana industry, the hemp industry has its own regulatory system and laws regarding sale and consumption. The only individuals getting high in this article are possibly cows.

Seeds are the main focus of hemp crops, with misconceptions from all sides clouding the industry. The modern variations of cannabis from hemp — delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), and delta–8-tetrahydrocannabinol — all range in their properties and uses. Cannabis and its many forms are not fully understood by the general public, leading to discrimination and blurred legal lines when it comes to the cannabis industry. Many people mistakenly believe that all cannabis produces a psychoactive high.

Uses of hemp

The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) Hemp Program Manager Brian Koontz has been working within the regulatory side of cannabis for 13 years, switching to head of the Industrial Hemp Program in 2019.

“For several years, I tested plants to make sure they didn’t have any harmful or dangerous pesticide residues on them, trying to educate marijuana cultivators on best practices for pest control… safe pesticide use. In 2019, I took over the program; now, I’m involved in rule-making, policymaking, and directing the whole hemp department which is the crux of what the department is for. The hemp program is to assure that legal hemp is being cultivated, not something else.”

Though the crop is not as heavily regulated as its cousin marijuana, this cannabinoid is dealing with its own agricultural problems and accomplishments with crop fads, dropping rates in industry participants and growth in the fiber industry. Many early hemp industry members focused only on the CBD element of the plant/crop, leaving a hole in the industry.

“In 2018-2019, the majority, well over 70 percent of growers, were cultivating for CBD extraction, the market got flooded immediately. You don’t need 50,000 acres of hemp production or hemp harvest to support that much CBD.”

According to Koontz, Colorado has supported businesses and green projects to provide high-quality hemp fiber goods to a broader audience. They are attempting to close the current gaps in the cannabis industry. “Colorado has been involved in projects like the Patagonia Project, where Patagonia wants to cultivate domestic, organically grown hemp for clothing which began in 2019.”

Kim Kovaks, CEO of Element6 Dynamics, speaking to Governor Polis. Photo: Element6

With the acts of war unfolding in Ukraine, it was truly by chance that the Ukrainian hemp fiber equipment purchased by Element6 Dynamics made its way to Longmont, CO, just two weeks before the war broke out. Equipment from eastern Europe, has been helping to open more fiber mill operations throughout the state. As the machinery becomes more available companies such as Element6 Dynamics are able to use those fibers to create plastic from the plant.

“There are facilities like the one in Longmont and others opening in another part of the state in April. They’re looking for multi-use hemp fiber for packing materials, hemp board for construction and furniture. Hempcrete is another big commodity. They mix the fiber with lime and make formed walls for buildings or cinder blocks for construction, which are supposed to be long-lasting, weather-resistant, mold-resistant building materials.”

The Industrial Hemp Program has its very own lab for THC and a biochemistry lab, ensuring that all hemp is within the legal 0.3 percent limit of THC. The Industrial Hemp Program launching further research thanks to the United States Department of Agriculture. “One of our most significant achievements, which we started in January, is to fulfill our state plan. Last year, the USDA approved it to manage hemp and to utilize other authorized labs; the state has 15 other labs to do regulatory testing.”

Though Colorado’s industry is running relatively smoothly with approvals for research and testing as well as locations for fiber processing opening up throughout the state, the industries in other states are a bit more complicated. According to Koontz, the hemp seed industry is like any other crop, with certain larger companies always having an advantage over the individual producer.

“Some states are very strict; you can only plant hemp if you use this seed. That’s when well-known seed companies limit that market. These more prominent companies, like New West genetics and Charlotte’s Web, do their own research and seed trials. The little guy, the person collecting feral hemp and trying to cultivate it on a smaller level, will always be a challenge to the smaller producer.”

Equity and equality in the cannabis industry may still be lacking. The state, according to Koontz, is trying its best to provide opportunities to those who know how to grow the crop and open a door for individuals from all walks of life to join the industry. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a backlash from particular communities in Colorado.

“We don’t deny hemp registrations based on where it’s grown or who’s growing it. If they’re willing to meet the criteria we have for hemp registration, which includes straightforward things like agreeing to regulation, inspection, and paying their fees to do it in the first place. Many geographical regions have asked us not to supply or grant or issue registrations because they don’t want it in their areas. In Pueblo several years ago, they particularly didn’t like outdoor hemp and outdoor marijuana growing in the same place.”

Like any crop, you have to research how it grows, the best environments to cultivate it, and protect it and other crops from disease and cross-pollination. “House Bill 21-1301 mandated that the Department of Revenue and CDA work collaboratively. Holding heavy workgroup sessions discussing how to prevent feral hemp, how to prevent cross-pollination, how to do a feasibility study on how, how far hemp pollinates, and how it pollinates. Four different workgroups are involved. There’s a lot of work to ensure that hemp and marijuana crops aren’t compromised due to cross-pollination.”

Governor Polis (right) visiting a hemp farm

As the landscape of the industry changes, veterans of the industry can take more of a breath than they might have in the past. The state, at one point, made growers burn all crops that tested above the 0.03 percent levels of THC. “If your crop tested hot, you had to bury it, burn it, and incur a significant financial loss, and now they can take the crop and blend it all, the seeds and stems… everything which would dilute the flower material and retest it and have it still as a viable crop.”

As mentioned previously, the only individuals in this article possibly getting “high” are cows from the prospect of using trimmings and fibers that cannot be used for other purposes as sustainable food for livestock. More research is required regarding humans consuming the meat or milk from these animals whether they may then ingest levels of THC. Though getting toasted off of your steak or coffee creamer is enticing to some, it is not generally a good business practice to potentially drug your consumer. Koontz stated, “I would like to see it further expanded to feed and food — hemp proved as animal feed, for example. You know, there needs to be more research done. To ensure that you know that the beef we eat, we won’t get high off the meat. If you raise big agricultural animals, you’re going to eat their meat or drink their milk, and you have to get that approved by the FDA.”

Most people know about the benefits of hemp, CBD, and THC for cancer patients and children with epilepsy. Charlotte’s Web, a prominent strain, is almost a household name. Dr. Jeremy Widdmann, the co-founder, botanist, scientist, farmer, and grower at Boulder Hemp out of Longmont, began his interest in cannabis by helping sick people. “You’d have a hard time finding somebody that doesn’t know somebody with cancer. I’ve been cultivating cannabis and hemp and extracting. So I provided different formats, tinctures, etc., to family members suffering, which helped quite a bit. The hobby turned into the passion turned into the business.”

Though most people don’t see hemp-based food in the supermarket and ultimately think, “This will get me high,” or has marijuana in it, the difference between the two compounds isn’t that big. Dr. Widdmann helped us understand that the devil is really in the details of these two compounds.

“The difference between marijuana and hemp is a number chosen based on research. What we’d consider hemp may be more of the fiber green variety decades ago. It’s hemp if it’s less than 0.3% THC, and it’s marijuana if it’s more, and depending on where you go, that number changes. So it’s kind of silly. I focused on the hemp side because there’s less regulation around it. We can grow acres and acres of it outdoors, reducing the cost to folks who need it.”

To have reliability among strains and seeds is a long process of growth and testing. The plants go through multiple growth cycles until the final seeds are produced.

“You take a plant through the cycle of growing into flowering, and you have these beautiful buds you can’t tell by looking at it. You send it into the lab, and we identify the individual plants that produce very low THC and higher CBD, and we take those to the next generation of breeding. And then, at each cycle of breeding, we do the same thing. We grow plants, determine the ones that are high CBD; anything that goes above that 0.3 percent THC, we don’t take that to the next generation, and then after some time, we have a stable population of seeds that produce high CBD and low THC that we can reliably sell to the farmer.”

After the long seed selection process, growth, and harvest, it is time to use the crop to produce CBD and food goods. The process being a little bit sticky, Dr. Widdmann explained as the crop is processed:

“Once it’s harvested and dried and the stems and stalks are separated from the flower, we have it extracted; we use different extraction techniques. We use supercritical CO2, so that’s just high pressure, high-temperature CO2. That extracts the cannabinoids and the terpenes. You’re left with this thick oil, kind of molasses-looking oil, and it goes into the tinctures and topicals and whatnot. And most of it goes into our products and our partner brands products; we do sell some wholesale so other folks that have a brand that can do all their own formulations, but they don’t have a farm, so we can provide that good organic product to them.”

Like any other crop, certain portions of the plant are used for different purposes, with the thicker stock portion of the hemp plant being used mostly for making items as clothing. “Hemp that looks more like bamboo, where it is planted densely, it’s these tall 12-foot plants. The outside base is the fiber; it’s thick, and the density between nodes is your branches, so it produces these long fibers, and there are quite a few of them. So that’s the sort of hemp that is better for fibers and textiles.”

Laura Pottorff from the CSU Seed Lab tests hemp seeds from two groups. Though the lab does not test for compounds such as THC or cannabinoid levels due to the school’s federal funding, the university is dedicated to research that helps the state, industry, and environment. “The testing that our lab does is for germination and purity. We have these two buckets of seed; we have common seed and seed that has been selected and bred, chosen for specific traits.”

All of the tests add value to the crop, letting the farmers know the capability of their seeds and harvest, with most farmers opting for more expensive seeds in order to guarantee more consistent results.

“We require the seed lab to do the germination and purity test because it must meet minimum standards, separating it from a common seed. And so all of this, these layers, these steps add value in terms of decreased risk so that if I am the farmer, and I want a crop that is better for fiber, there is a fiber variety, if I want this variety, then I would probably spend more money to buy Byala Paretsky? Because it has been verified by a third party, the certification agency, unfortunately, on the side of the common seeds, there is no guarantee.”

Pottorff explained that the CSU Seed Lab tests for certain levels of germination and other traits determined by the grower to reach a satisfactory seed commercially; once the lab determines the seeds with the selected characteristics, a grower can choose the best strain or seed for their needs.

“It’s all going to be based on the person purchasing it with their values. What do they want? Do they want something, a seed that was produced without any commercial herbicides? Did the herbicides used and other types of pesticides meet the definition of certified organic? Is that what they want? Or does it mean that the crop was grown using soil health? Values and protocols?”

Bethany Niebauer, is the vice president of the Industrial Hemp Research Foundation and a cannabis compliance consultant with Axial Compliance Consulting. She has been involved in the industry since 2015, focusing on licensing for both kinds of Cannabis. Niebauer helps individuals and businesses gain licensing for hemp and marijuana throughout the country.

“It depends on if you’re doing hemp or marijuana. For example, I’m working with a client in New Jersey who wants a dispensary license; they are a little behind the eight ball because they don’t have real estate. And the license requires that you have a deed or a lease. So they are frantically trying to find real estate. But that’s it. The New Jersey rules are written in such a way that there are very few real estate spots. So that’s, that’s a big part of the challenge. You know, background checks and resumes for every team member involved, I have to … part of my job is writing the different SOPs and procedures for how they’re going to operate. A hemp license is comparatively so much easier. The trickiest part of the application is you have to give GPS coordinates, which sometimes is hard for older generations. You have to usually make a map with precise boundaries about where you’re going to grow. You check some boxes and provide a background check; you typically get your license within about 30 days.”

Hemp isn’t just a crop that supplies food and medicine but leaves a significantly lesser footprint than its counterpart, the tree, regarding certain products such as paper and slower-growing cyclical crops. “Hemp has a much, much faster-growing cycle than trees. Trees, depending on the kind, have a 5- to 10-year growing cycle, and hemp has a growing cycle of less than a year; it might be one full year, depending on the kind of habit. If we made paper from hemp, we would be in a very different place. Anything you can make from petroleum, you can make from hemp.”

Though hemp is more accepted in 2022 than previously, it doesn’t mean that working in the cannabis industry is easy, with prejudices and misconceptions playing a significant role in how the company conducts business.

“There is an element of scorn. For example, a payment was denied last week; it came from my client’s brokerage firm. And what they told her was they were not willing to send funds. They used the phrase, ‘We’re not sending funds to someone so heavily involved in the drug trade.'”

Niebauer spoke to the more significant problem of the cannabis industry being heavy regulations; though the state is addressing this in ways Koontz mentioned, many in the industry don’t see these actions to be enough.

“There’s an enormous separation between capital, specifically startup capital, and the people who have been harmed or have specific industry knowledge, to grow the plant, how to process it, how to market it, access to banking services, if you wanted to start a cannabis business. You could walk down to Wells Fargo or whoever and get a small business loan; that would change so much. The fundamental problem is that the people the drug war has harmed have been entangled in our legal system, which is incredibly expensive and robs people of opportunities.”

According to Niebauer The Industrial Hemp Research Foundation, is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization, is dedicated to funding research for industrial hemp. You can donate to the foundation via their website today.

“We want to fund graduate research for students involved in hemp agriculture. Research is incredibly expensive; the students usually have to take out loans. We are trying to talk to universities about easing that burden. If we can, I think that would make a big difference in the industry if people didn’t have student loans, the sort of job opportunities and things you could explore if you weren’t dependent on a very high-end lucrative career to pay back those loans.”

Morris Beegle is a partner with the NoCo Hemp Expo, an entrepreneur, and a musician with songs featuring the importance and celebration of hemp. Beagle is the CEO and founder of We Are For Better Alternatives (WAFBA). The NoCo Expo is in its eighth consecutive year. The Expo, according to Beegle, is a way to make connections among those in the industry and exhibit new growth, collection, and testing methods.

“The Expo is open to a broad spectrum of businesses that can and do participate in some area of the hemp supply chain. These can include farmers, breeders, processors, equipment manufacturers, laboratories, CPG brands, white-label manufacturers, and ancillary service providers from banking, insurance, accounting, and legal.”

According to Beegle, the hemp industry has been taking a lot of hits from the pandemic to climate change and laws put in place that were built to help both business owners and personal and medical patients stay within regulatory standards. Yet, the industry of hemp has prevailed, with the FDA still being the only wall to the overall legalization of cannabinoids.

“The 2018 Farm Bill has now cost the hemp industry billions of dollars in lost revenue and investment to build proper infrastructure throughout the supply chain. The FDA, along with a few other government agencies, in conjunction with outside influence, is the biggest obstacle standing in the way of the hemp industry maturing and becoming the most valuable addition to the U.S. agriculture system in the last 60-70 years.”

For Beegle, the most significant gap for cannabinoids is with the general public not having much knowledge of the substances that many of them are so staunchly against. He envisions a world where this crop is enjoyed and understood by all. “There is still much-needed education, particularly in non-cannabis-leaning states and countries. My work is focused on building the industry and promoting benefits of the industry—the plant for health, the planet, and the future.”

Graphic by Mollie McCoy

The post Hemp in Colorado: A Seed and Fiber Frenzy appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Denver’s Marijuana Mansion: Icon, Destination, Cultural Hub

Erin Reese — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 02:00:36 +0000

A legacy space continues to make strides in cannabis culture for Colorado.

Photos by Erin Reese

Nestled quite anachronistically among condominiums, a Domino’s Pizza, and several nightclubs, just a block from homeless sweeps a few days prior, sits a lovely sandstone mansion. The building, which is in the national registry of historic sites, has largely not been able to monetize its opulence until recently. The Cresswell Mansion’s history in Colorado cannabis culture however was already established years before.

Named the Cresswell Mansion for the family to whom it was originally built, it stands as a living monolith to the past. In our more recent history in 2011 the Marijuana Mansion became home to the Marijuana Policy Project in Colorado. You know, those nice people that helped Colorado reach sensible cannabis laws? The bulk of the work on 2012’s Amendment 64 was done here within the mansion.

After having been the incubator of cannabis legalization and regulation in Colorado starting in 2019, she would begin her glow up granted it required more black lights than a head shop sells in a year.

A slew of designers and artists worked over the course of a few years and a pandemic. With hard work they have created a space that doesn’t just demand attention, but grabs it, and sits it in a comfy chair that’s hard to get out of. Through the shutdown the mansion lay disused, stuck on the precipice of operation, held back by the needs of the people to stay healthy and safe. The grand opening comes almost a year late and after the shutdown, a time when many people were exhausted from isolation.

While not a conference center or auditorium, the Mansion operates as a cannabis-friendly event space and can easily hold space for small businesses and local organizations. Local businesses can provide their employees a uniquely combined-use event space, meaning both a bar serving alcohol downstairs and a safe space everywhere for non-drinkers to toke up.

Owners are keen to indicate that the purpose of the space is not just to give your get-together some elevation, but also to destigmatize and normalize the use of cannabis.

If all that weren’t enough, the 4200 sq. ft. mansion has its own green dragon dispensary on premises. To make sure that you have incredibly close access to whatever you might need, for a great night, or even a walkthrough.

The Grand Opening / House Party

The music from the DJ was well-contained within the 4-story home that looked like it was from a Scooby Doo episode. As soon as the doors opened it was hard to mistake it for anything but a party. Name given, tag received and I was set loose in what can best be described as a museum dedicated to getting stoned. I say set loose quite loosely because quickly I was caught up to and provided a much needed escort through what was such a wonderfully curated experience.

The bar was hopping and was made to have a speakeasy feel and was a historically well preserved space.

Upstairs the rooms become increasingly more like cutouts from a Lewis Carol piece. Highly stylized spaces, some covered in cannabis leaves, some with ball pit bathtubs, all with a deep theme of weed.

I had brought my own, not knowing the scene would be complete with large bowls of pre-rolls, edibles, and other offerings all on the altar of making the night that special, which it did.

I got stuck in what I called the Cheshire Cat room, dizzying black and white spirals speckled with cannabis strains made me plop right on the floor and just sat in the moment, I spent some time and smoked a few joints with some cool folks. We talked about the old days. Mostly, waxing nostalgic about arrests, paranoia and trauma, all caused by the drug war. We talked about Colorado’s social equity programs, and how they don’t go far enough.

The talk of days gone by really framed the evening. The thought of a space where you can consume openly seemed at the beginning of the night somewhat like an end point or high water mark. The more we talked about how things were though, the more we all began to realize that this is just another step, and a good place to jump out from into more equitable and just cannabis legislation and experiences.

And that’s just it. It isn’t just necessarily a place to cop a buzz and take some Instagram pics. It’s more than a cute hang out for your progressive work party. More than a cannabis-themed art gallery. The Marijuana Mansion is at the cutting edge of cannabis business in Colorado. It is one of about a dozen groundbreakers in the Front Range that allow legal on-premise smoking. While many of those businesses are leaning more towards the typical Amsterdam coffee houses and cafés, some are leaning to create sensible community spaces.

Standing out as truly unique in the Denver cannabis scene, the beautifully curated visual, tactile, and psychotropic experience purposes to give back to the community of cannabis users who worked hard to bring us where we are today, by continuing to destigmatize the use of marijuana, and bring us open spaces where we can talk about the future, and toke up while we do it.

The post Denver’s Marijuana Mansion: Icon, Destination, Cultural Hub appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

House Bill 1317 is a Big NO | Blunt Talk

Kayleigh Wilson — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 18:13:54 +0000

Why deny Coloradans medical marijuana?

House Bill 1317 is new legislation in three Colorado state house that, for the first time ever, would require your personal or primary care physician’s permission to get medical marijuana (MMJ) treatment. It would also put your physician in control of the amount you can purchase, by prescribing exact dosage to patients. MMJ users under 20 in need of an MMJ card will be limited even more so, and will require two primary care physician notes to have access.

What does this bill mean for medical marijuana patients?

It means that there will be a limit on the amount of cannabis medical marijuana users are allowed to purchase and possess, and thus use as at-home treatment. Not only are all MMJ users at risk of having treatment discontinued, should their physician deny them, but members under 20 are at double the risk of not receiving the treatment they need at all.

How will this affect medical marijuana patients?

This legislation is dangerous because it can (and will) prevent patients from receiving the help that they need. Cannabis is not federally regulated. Medical Marijuana users currently have access to the treatment, without the need of health insurance, but it appears some want to see MMJ subsumed under the widely reviled US healthcare system. These patients may not have access to other medical treatments, due to the current failings of our healthcare system, specifically our health insurance system. This could fully prevent many from receiving help at all. Statista reports that there are 86,683 active MMJ card users in Colorado as of January 2021.

“This requirement places an undue burden on young adult patients, many of whom may not have access to even one primary care physician – much less two,” says CO NORML. According to the census, uninsured rates are the highest for people aged 19-34, young adults. Medical marijuana patients that are 18-20 have the least access to a physician, yet would need access to two.

Depositphotos

Needing a physician’s note to access MMJ, apart from being an undue burden, is also ridiculous on its face. Your average physician does not work with or around marijuana, and is currently uninformed on what dosage is appropriate for the various conditions MMJ treats (there are dozens).

“I have suffered from CVS due to malrotation my entire life,” said Kayleigh, age 23, “and did not find the help I needed until I started using cannabis legally at 19. Doctors had me on medications throughout my life, even 11 at one time. Nothing helped me. When I started using marijuana, a lot of my pain ceased and I now only have to take 4 of those medications. Since finding out of my cannabis use, majority of my doctors are now unwilling to treat me. I’ve been told by a doctor that morphine was better for me than cannabis is. Since then, I have had to leave the state for medical attention.”

Health care providers, it can be assumed, are unfamiliar with how marijuana works in general, given it is illegal federally and not regulated medically. THC is a unique pain killer, given that everyone’s tolerance is vastly different, depending on many factors, including day, or time of day. It would be impossible for an inexperienced doctor to properly dose a patient, let alone be the one to grant permission.

It appears Colorado legislators are approaching this matter the same way they are approaching opioids, and it needs to be done differently (hint: the opioid didn’t work out well). On May 27th, as we were about to go to press, the CO House approved 1317, sending it to the Senate, a last stop before the governor’s desk.

How can you make a difference?

Get informed and oppose House Bill 1317… for Colorado.

The post House Bill 1317 is a Big NO | Blunt Talk appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Month In Review | April 2021

De La Vaca — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 05:00:38 +0000

Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation will be taking over the role of the Colorado Wild Rabbit Foundation.

• Ten of our neighbors were murdered in cold blood at the Boulder Table Mesa King Soopers, including three employees and one responding officer. Our hearts are still heavy with the loss, even as the news cycle moves on to the hundreds of other shootings that are replacing the COVID death reports as America “returns to normal.”

• Boulder King Soopers shooter, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, appeared before Boulder District Court Judge Thomas Mulvahill at the Boulder County Justice Center on March 25, 2021. Additionally, a gag order was rejected, DA Dougherty plans to introduce more charges, and the defense implied a mental health defense.

• Restore Colorado launched with 17 participating restaurants and businesses beginning their direct support of regional regenerative farming. Restore Colorado is a groundbreaking public-private collaboration between Zero Foodprint, Mad Agriculture, Boulder County, the City of Boulder, and Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency, according to a Boulder County press release. The official launch day was Earth Day, April 22, 2021.

• Boulder County Public Health announced Friday April 16th that the county was moving to Level Blue effective immediately, but with some modifications. The lower level of coronavirus restrictions includes increased capacities for events, restaurants, gyms and bars.

• Boulder County launched the Boulder County Carbon Conscious Certification (BCCCC) for licensed commercial cannabis cultivators. The certification recognizes cultivators who exhibit a commitment towards saving energy and reducing their carbon footprint. The certification comes with a new package seal that “allows the consumer and others in the supply chain to know that they’re supporting a cultivator who is working towards carbon neutral cannabis production.”

• Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation will be taking over the role of the Colorado Wild Rabbit Foundation, reports the Camera. That organization plans to close within the next few years, giving Greenwood time to finish construction on a brand new “bunny hotel” to house the rabbits.

• Walter Mondale, 42nd vice president under the Carter administration from 1977–1981, died on April 19th, at the age of 93. Rest in Peace.

• J&J Vaccines were pulled from shelves after 6 – of nearly 6 million doses – resulted in blood clots, one of which resulted in death. Women around the country were quick to point out that birth control has a higher rate of blood clot and death. The vaccine’s safety is being studied to understand the cause.

• President Biden, after running on a platform of ending the border wall and releasing kids from cages has *checks notes* done neither of those things. More kids are in cages (meaning held beyond the legal 72 hour limit before they should be transferred to ORR), and border wall construction continues.

Small Talk

“We adopted a slightly modified version of the state’s dial framework to ease into recovery, taking data into account to ensure restrictions gradually ease and allow individuals and business to have guidance consistent with the state’s dial that we have been operating under up until this point.”
– Lexi Nolen, Executive Director of Boulder County Public Health

“That stays with you forever. You can’t unsee anything in this job. And Michael will remember forever what he saw in that King Soopers, as well as the conversations with victims. Those things will haunt him.”
– George Brauchler, former DA, on what DA Michael Dougherty faces in prosecuting the King Soopers Shooter

“Today I mourn the passing of my dear friend Walter Mondale, who I consider the best vice president in our country’s history.”
– Former President Jimmy Carter, in a statement from the Carter Center

“It shall be the policy of my administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall.”
– President Biden, who has removed border funding from his 2023 budget plan while continuing to use Trump appropriated taxpayer funds to build the wall

“The Fake News Media is attacking me for being TOO PRO-LIFE (100%). Last night, Congress passed a bill which is not clear about preventing buying of body parts of babies murdered in the womb. I voted NO.”
– Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, who, along with CO Rep. Boebert, voted against a bill to reauthorize a bone marrow transplant program

By The Numbers

100%

Capacity of restaurants, bars, and gyms, with 6 ft. distancing, allowed under the new modified Level Blue restrictions for BOCO

33/0

Number of new COVID cases and deaths in BOCO over the last 30 days, as of the time of this writing, according to NYT.

2

Snowstorms within two weeks, to cement Colorado’s reputation for severe and unpredictable weather. We heard they call this “Third Winter” in Colorado.

275/3500

Number of bone marrow transplants performed by the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute, annually and to-date.

The post Month In Review | April 2021 appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Blunt Talk: Kyoto For Your Fido

Zoey Skye Whitman — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 04:54:38 +0000

Marijuana, the miracle plant. Whether you are consuming the plant to get high, using the plant to treat an ailment, or creating merchandise with hemp, we almost all use a little Mary Jane in our day-to-day lives. Unfortunately, up until recently, there was one major aspect of our lives that had been overlooked: our pets. Dogs specifically benefit from the use of CBD derived from the marijuana plant. How? It reduces pain, anxiety, seizures, inflammation, and it is known to improve skin and coat health. That’s a good, shiny boi.

Thankfully, in 2021, pet lovers have easy access to a variety of CBD products for their pets.

CBD, or cannabidiol, is a naturally occurring component found in the flower of the marijuana plant. CBD has over a hundred phytocannabinoids, which endow the compound with holistic and therapeutic properties. CBD, when separated from the psychoactive portion of the plant (THC), provides all of the health benefits of marijuana without the high typically associated with the plant.

Seventy-two percent of dogs suffer from anxiety at some point in their lives. Anxiety is displayed in dogs by unexplained barking or howling, excessive panting, shivering, cowering behavior, destructive behavior, aggression, and even self-harm. Our pets have no other way to communicate their discomfort, much like a baby crying or scratching themselves. When introduced to the body, CBD helps curb your companion’s anxiety by changing the brain’s receptor response to serotonin. One single dose of CBD is sure to lower your dog’s anxiety without the worry of intense side effects from pharmaceuticals.

Anxiety isn’t the only health issue CBD can help treat. The miracle compound has had undeniable success in treating chronic pain, diabetes, irritable bowel, cancer, and more. CBD has been known to slow the growth of cancer cells all while assisting in curbing nausea associated with typical cancer treatments.

CBD has also had success in treating and cutting back the intensity of epilepsy in dogs. CBD can reduce not only the severity of epileptic episodes but it can reduce the frequency of the episodes as well. If your poor pup is having an epileptic episode, CBD oil can help bring the episode to an end all while providing relief and comfort during their recovery. Pet owners all across the country have found more success in treating their dog’s chronic seizures with CBD alongside their vet recommended medications then without.

Say hello to Gregory Hatt. He is a marijuana enthusiast and Colorado resident. Gregory has an extensive background in marijuana and has been present in the industry for about 15 years and counting. Gregory took the time to sit down with us to give us a true insight on his experience with CBD and how it aided his beautiful Golden Retriever, Cali.

“I started using CBD before it even got big. I’m talking about when a small bottle of CBD tincture was 250 bucks, when it was hard to get. I got my first tincture from Charlotte’s Web CBD. We spent thousands of dollars on CBD treating Cali, doing everything we could do for her.” Unfortunately, Gregory’s beloved pet had cancer and was fighting hard for her life. Soon after Cali also suffered from a torn ACL and had a very hard time walking. “We were trying to fight the cancer and we were trying to provide some comfort for her leg. Before her leg would shake, and she couldn’t run around the beach like she used to.”

“What was great,” Hatt said, “was once we started using the CBD we saw an immediate improvement. Her leg wouldn’t shake, she had more energy, and she was a lot more mobile. It made her remaining days a lot more happy, and she could go back to doing some of the things she really loved.” He chuckled to himself and said, “I spent a small fortune to help her and it was worth every penny because it improved her quality of life. We definitely enjoyed giving that to her.”

Though Cali had since passed, Gregory remains thankful for the peace and comfort he was able to give Cali through the end.

These days there are new CBD companies around every store corner and waiting on your screen itching for your next scroll. It’s a challenge sorting through them all to find the right company that will work for you and for your pet. Luckily for you Yellow Scene has done the grunt work for you.

Kyoto Botanicals is a wonderful local CBD company located in Longmont and Wray, Colorado. Kyoto takes immense pride in their work and ensures that their formulaters have stuck as close to nature as possible, promising the utmost quality ingredients no matter the product.

The CBD one stop shop has an array of products for all consumers. The shop features a CBD Warm Body Balm with 400 mg of CBD, breathe face serum, a variety of CBD tinctures, CBD gummies, body oil and more.

Each item is guaranteed to be affordable for any household. Each item is within the $25 to $55, so we can all afford to treat ourselves and our pets. Kyoto isn’t just here to cater to your needs but the needs of your pet as well.

CBD Oil and CBD-Infused Gummies from Kyoto Botanicals

Kyoto celebrated National Pet Day this past April 11 by offering Colorado pet lovers a 20 percent off coupon for their new CBD infused dog treats. While that epic offer ended on April 17th, we think you love your pet enough to pop in anyways. The slobber summoning treat chews are set at a low dose of 2mg per chew or 60mg per jar. Your Fido will be sure to thank Kyoto for the bacon beef flavor chews, and believe that they’ll leave your furry friend begging for more. The best part of their CBD dog treats is the price. We’re in love with a good deal on a great product.

Don’t ignore your pets body language. Give yourself a good night’s sleep while providing your pet with the tools they need to ensure their comfort.

The peace of mind that comes from knowing what you are putting into your pet’s body tops trusting pharmaceutical companies that rarely disclose all of their products’ ingredients. If your pet needs a helping hand, talk to your vet about CBD. It may be just what your furry friend needs.

The post Blunt Talk: Kyoto For Your Fido appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Origins and Dissemination of Cannabis Throughout the World: A Brief History

Natasha Winkler — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 16:38:31 +0000

Cannabis was first officially classified scientifically in 1753

The cannabis plant has been used by humans for thousands, possibly tens of thousands of years.

Surprisingly, it has been illegal for less than 1% of the time since humans first documented using it. Carl Linnaeus was the first to classify Cannabis sativa in 1753. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck identified Cannabis Indica and published these findings in 1785.

Cannabis is in the cannabaceae family.

Cannabis is a genus of flowering plant and was placed in the Cannabaceae family by Stephan Endlicher, an Austrian botanist, in 1837. Cannabis ruderalis remained unidentified until 1924. While the precise origins of cannabis are not completely known or understood, we have been able to uncover a greater degree of detail in more recent years.

Pollen fossils in Asia show cannabis diverged millions of years ago.

Cannabis has been cultivated and used for at least 12,000 years, although recent evidence suggests it was first used at least 30,000 years ago. The plant enjoyed an almost uninterrupted run throughout history as practically every society recognized the benefits of the plant for medicinal and recreational purposes. Recently researchers reviewed over 150 fossil pollen studies in Asia. According to their findings, the team announced that Cannabis and Humulus diverged around 27.8 million years ago. The team also discovered that the oldest Cannabis genus was found in China and, according to their research, was approximately 20 million years old.

The global spread of cannabis.

The cannabis plant then dispersed into Europe around six million years ago. Cannabis pollen probably didn’t appear in India until just over 32,000 years ago. Meanwhile, hemp rope that was found in what was formerly Czechoslovakia was dated to around 27,000 years ago. These discoveries raise the question of whether Cannabis was first used as a multipurpose crop, or whether the domestication of hemp and drug-type Cannabis proceeded independently. Regardless, cultivated drug-type Cannabis was spread from Central Asia and/or India to Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia by Arab and Hindu cultures between 2,000 and 500 years ago. It has been claimed that the Jamestown settlers brought the cannabis plant to North America in 1611. Throughout the colonial period cannabis fiber remained an important export.

Where did the variations come from?

While cannabis is now recognized as its own genus of plant, scientists are unable to agree on how the breakdown from genus to variant species occurred. One suggestion is that environmental changes caused the appearance of different cannabis species. The truth is that there are far, far fewer distinct cannabis cultivars than all these silly names would lead us to believe. There are probably less than thirty distinct Type I chemotypes (varieties that primarily produce THC) popular today.

Cannabis was sourced in nature.

Before the emergence of Dutch seed companies in the late 1980s, underground growers either sourced their seeds from local farmers or breeders, or from imported cannabis. In today’s global market, “clone-only” varieties carpet the world, spreading a lack of genetic diversity while increasing a myriad of potential agricultural problems in terms of susceptibility to disease and intolerance to imposed environmental stresses. Therefore making weaker genetics.

Recent variations lack environmental immunities.

This chemo-typical variation is due to classes of chemotypes producing different amounts of terpene essential oils, some of which modify the effects of THC and can produce different psychoactive effects. What’s unfortunate is that if more informed breeding were used the market could produce much more variation in these Type I varieties. As a consequence, present-day commercial cannabis crops are most often grown from cuttings instead of seeds, and they are increasingly cultivated indoors under artificial light rather than under the sun.

One day we may be able to map global cannabis genetics.

Cannabis has made its way around the globe hundreds, thousands and – some even claim – millions of years ago. Despite genetic gaps and potential shortfalls, this plant isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. As legalization continues to spread across the globe, more research and discoveries will come to light. In addition, as science begins to truly understand cannabis, genetic improvements will continue to be made.

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Sammie’s Humanity: A DiverCity Conversation with Sammie Leon Lawrence IV

De La Vaca — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 19:57:54 +0000

All photos by Paul Wedlake

A DiverCity conversation with Sammie Leon Lawrence, the Fourth of his Name, Holder of Custom-made Dragon-topped Walking Aids, Gardener of Souls, and Weilder of Badass Afros. Long may his humanity be known.

It’s easy to think about ourselves and each other in terms of base didactics: failures or accomplishments, wins or losses, wealth or poverty. It’s simple to separate our humanities out from who we are perceived to be. The idea is important to consider in a world that doesn’t see all bodies as able, all flesh as equal. The truth is, strip away everything else – the pretension and ego and image – and all we have left is our humanity, or lack thereof.

At base, we are all humanity. But even then, not all humanity is created equal. Have you met Sammie?

“My name is Sammie Leon Lawrence IV. I’m the fourth Sammie,” he says, “the first Native American and Black Sammie”.

When I asked who he was, he began by telling me that he was “born a blonde haired, blue eyed, white baby. That’s the first one we should start off with.” It’s ironic because today he’s known for his Blackness; a new icon of black strength and black vulnerability here in Boulder, Colorado. The same Boulder that’s been in the news, nearly non-stop of late, for police overreach or violence or aggression against community members.

He has had PTSD since age 6, recalling watching, “my mom get beaten by my dad. Not only that, I watched him get carried away… After he was arrested they put them in handcuffs and drove him away. I chased after the car and it started to rain. That is literally the memory that follow me for 13 years.” One of his PTSD triggers is violence against women, violence against humanity in general.

He’s a community activist. He says,“I support all people in my community. I am a gardener of the souls of people.” It’s an interesting metaphor, being a gardener, and one he comes back to throughout our conversation.

But the conversation bounces around. He pauses, in between nibbles of tako (octopus) sashimi and refills of black tea at HAPA on Pearl, then asks, “I believe you’re familiar with Spiderman? There’s a line in there called, ‘Sins of our fathers’. I’ve had plenty of times when I’ve been a villain in my own story, feeling lost or worried. I am who I am because I choose constantly not to be the villain. To be the hero of my story.” But heroes also make mistakes.

When asked about his mistakes, he says, “learning about my anger. Learning about my emotions and learning to be in control of my emotions fully. Being a man who didn’t grow up with my father, it’s a different aspect. I had to teach myself how to be a man.”

Being a man is hard when the world seems to keep throwing new issues at you. He tells me, when asked what he’s doing now, “I am healing my brain”. It’s a clear statement that may seem a little odd unless you know his history. Sammie has brain issues. They’re actually rather new. I have to wonder how that affected his work in dealing with his emotions of late.

“I ended up dealing with a brain injury last year that impacted my ability to work and basically function with everyday life. I got a brain injury from a workplace injury, from an unsafe work environment, in Boulder actually. As I was walking,” inside of a marijuana dispensary he was an assistant manager at, he says, “there’s a metal beam that starts falling down. There were multiple other beams behind it.”

He was struck in the head and immediately knew something was wrong; slowness in movement, uncharacteristic for a man with ADHD, issues with walking, problems with thinking. As with all injuries, but especially with head injuries, immediate medical care is critical. Sammie wasn’t able to access health services for a few days, he tells me, while waiting for health care access information from his work. So much for humanity.

A couple of days later, he says, he was fired. He ended up having neck issues, spent time in physical therapy, and the issue with his work place became a worker’s compensation issue come over which he had to file a lawsuit. From the injury he developed non epileptic seizures, a form of brain damage and a condition I’ve personally witnessed manifest. He had a small seizure in the parking garage near the HAPA where we talked; construction crews were working and a machine making piercing beeping sounds triggered it.

“It was very difficult to keep cool and keep calm,” he tells me. “I have a firm… I don’t like being buried. I may be a worker of the gardens of souls, but I don’t like being buried because of the fact that I have to grow out of it is sometimes difficult.”

It reminds me of Mexican students protesting under banners that read, “they tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds”.

“I’m proud that I got to speak up about everything that happened, own my own accountability with the issues with the job, in court. I’m a firm believer in accountability. I couldn’t get off the street without accountability. I couldn’t get stabilized in the apartment where I’m at now without accountability. Let alone, I couldn’t go on being disabled the way I am, getting assistance the way I am, without accountability. Because it would be easy to let it go. It would be way too easy”.

You may know him today for his recent, filmed interaction with the Boulder Police. We won’t spend a lot of time on this because there are plenty of news reports and videos out there for you to form your own opinion. In fact, every citizen has the right to film the police. And Sammie was there filming to keep unhoused people safe. From the perspective of an outside observer, it seems like as a formerly unhoused person himself, he understood the struggle and as an activist he understood solidarity; that’s why he was there. All part of his humanity.

His real passion is youth. “Eventually I’m going to be working back with Attention Homes. They are… a model example of how a shelter should run. They’re not a one-size-fits-all kind of place”, accepting and understanding the different goals and aspirations of people.

Which brings us back to his gardening. He tells us, as others have said before, “one of the reasons why I work with the youth the way I do, you get to see the fruits of your labors.”

On the humanity of Sammie Leon Lawrence IV: Sammie’s a gardener. Boulder is a garden. And we are all seeds.

When we are buried, unwillingly or in the wrong way, or in the wrong places, maybe while on a sidewalk eating a sandwich facing down oppression, may there always be a Sammie there to make sure we’re grounded, planted, and that our humanity is seen..

The post Sammie’s Humanity: A DiverCity Conversation with Sammie Leon Lawrence IV appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Month in Review

editor — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 20:30:41 +0000

Boulder is moving to vacate marijuana convictions going back to 1979, in a move that places BOCO DA Dougherty in the progressive front of DA’s nationwide. * In regional police violence, the officer who killed a homeowner who had killed a violent intruder won’t be charged. The homeowner failed to drop his gun when commanded but had hearing loss from his time serving in the armed forces. The officer has one other past shooting death, of which he was also cleared. * Erie is closer to finalizing the appointment of a new town administrator, after narrowing the final candidates list, which include Castle Rock’s Deputy Town Manager and former South Lake Tahoe City Manager. *About half of Colorado’s population is at risk from wildfires – a 50 percent jump from 2012 numbers. In Boulder County, more than 60 percent of residents are vulnerable, according to a Colorado State Forest Service assessment. * BOCO’s fleet vehicles are going green. Commissioners approved a resolution stating that “100 percent of the new light-duty vehicles purchased by the county will be electric vehicles when the technology accommodates the needs of the vehicle use.” * The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a grant award of $611,940 to the BOCO Housing Authority, to be spent on identifying youth at risk of homelessness and families whose children are in foster care due to housing instability. BOCO goes national in the immunization wars. That is, Lindsay Diamond, a local resident, won the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2018 Childhood Immunization Champion Award. Congrats. This is a national recognition that highlights individuals who make a significant contribution toward improving public health through their work in childhood immunization. * BOCO Commissioners voted 2-1 to approve a one-year pilot program to study the use of e-bikes on trails throughout BOCO Open Space. Former Commissioner Cindy Domenico voted against the measure. Residents came out in large numbers to protest the move that would see an increase of traffic in otherwise safeguarded areas of the county.

The post Month in Review appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Summer Infusions

Natasha Winkler — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 20:36:39 +0000

With summer around the corner, let’s talk about making it greener than ever. Whether you’re sitting by a beach with your toes in the sand or enjoying the sunshine from an office window, there are plenty of ways to infuse your summer with fancy drinks, cookouts and adventures. Check out these tasty and fun filled ideas to add to your next sunshiny day.

Drinks

An afternoon cocktail can add sparkle to any day. For a citrus twist, here’s an Italian classic: the Aperol Spritzer. Teasingly bitter, but cool and bubbly, it’s between a cocktail and a glass of wine, ideal for adding a few drops of alcohol tincture for greenery. Traditionally consumed after lunch and before dinner, aromatics help stimulate the appetite. We already know cannabis does that.

Aperol Spritzer

½ oz Aperol

1/8 oz cannabis tincture over ice

Top with Prosecco ¾ of the way

Finish with a splash of sparkling water

Express an orange peel over the top

If wine is your thing there are frozen versions at even fine dining locales. Go a step further and introduce cannabis to be savvy. Pink wine is low in alcohol and watered down with ice and fruits, so it’s a safe place for a dose of cannabis. You can make them on demand or two at a time by dividing the ingredients in half for each run of the blender.

Frosé (Makes 5)

1 bottle rosé wine (drier the better, since you’re adding sweetness!)

½ carton of fresh strawberries, leaves removed

Juice of ½ lemon

1 tsp cannabis glycerin tincture

2 cups ice cubes

Fruits for garnish

Eats

When you’re entree ready, this recipe boasts mouth watering ingredients and potential for a grilled hit! Spark up your bowl and grill.

Cannabis-Infused Lemongrass Chicken Skewers (Makes 4 servings)

8-12 stalks lemongrass, or 8-12 metal or wooden skewers

4 boneless, skinless breasts cut in 1” chunks

2 lemons, sliced

12-16 whole mini peppers, poked through with a skewer if using lemongrass stalks

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

1-2 tbsp. canna-oil

1 tbsp. bell pepper, finely chopped

1 tsp. cumin

½ tsp. Aleppo pepper

¼ tsp. ground ginger

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp. coarse black pepper

1 tsp. salt

Juice of ½ lemon

Lots of lettuce leaves — Romaine, Boston, red or green leaf (or a combination)

Directions:Preheat grill.

1. Skewer chicken, lemon slices and peppers.

2.
In a small bowl combine yogurt, canna-oil, chopped peppers, ginger, garlic, and salt. Squeeze lemon juice into the mixture. Stir well.

3.
Grill skewers until the chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear. Serve with the sauce and lettuce on the side. Wrap the chicken and peppers in the lettuce leaves to eat.

The only thing better than a grilled slab of meat is a grilled slab that gets you stoned. This citrus steak pairs perfectly with spicy fresh greens.

Marijuana-Infused Skirt Steak Salad (Makes 4 servings)

20-ounce skirt steak

Juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp chili powder

2 bunches cilantro, stems removed

1 bunch flat parsley, rinsed, stems removed

1 bunch arugula, rinsed and trimmed

1 bunch scallions, shredded or chopped

½ cup shredded carrots

16 cherry tomatoes

2 tbsp canna-olive oil, plus 1 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp Dijon mustard

Salt and coarse black pepper

Directions

1.
Place steak on work surface, rub with lime juice and chili powder. Broil or grill until done. Allow to sit after cooking for 8-10 minutes.

2.
In a large bowl combine the cilantro, parsley, arugula, scallions, carrots and tomatoes.

3.
In a small bowl whisk together canna-olive oil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and mustard. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on the side with the steak and greens, or toss before serving.

After Dinner Coffee

Coffee after dinner is common. Why not add some CBD benefits without losing quality or taste? BOCO-based SteepFuze was founded from Devin Jamroz and Ben Glennon’s quest to merge CBD’ with whole roasted coffee beans. Congenitally blind Master Coffee Roaster and Owner of The Unseen Bean, Gerry Leary roasts SteepFuze’s organically grown, fair trade, 100% Arabica beans to perfection. Complementing every small-batch roast is a full-spectrum cannabidiol (CBD) infused with hemp extracts during the roasting process.

CBD Coffee Ice-cream (Makes 1-quart)

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups of whole Original SteepFuze Coffee beans OR SteepFuze Peruvian Decaf beans

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Heat the milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt, and 1/2 cup of cream in a med. saucepan until warm, not boiling. Cover & remove from heat.

2. Let steep at room temperature for 1-hour.

3. Pour remaining cream into a med. size metal bowl, set on ice over a larger bowl, place mesh strainer on top of the bowls, then set aside.

4. Reheat the milk & coffee mixture on med. heat until hot. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks together. Slowly pour the heated milk & coffee mixture into the egg yolks while whisking. Pour the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

5. Stir constantly over med. heat for about 10 minutes, scraping the bottom as you stir.

6. Pour the mixture through the strainer into the cream. Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee as possible. Discarding the beans, mix in the vanilla and stir until cool.

7. Finally chill the mixture in the refrigerator and then place in your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

Smokes

When you’re ready to spark your own sunshine these buds are sure to put a smile on your face. Godfather OG is the most potent marijuana strain on the planet. This indica dominant hybrid is reported to have a THC content of over 34 percent! This strain will hit with an incredible cerebral high that soon results in euphoria. Users feel happy, and soon, Godfather OG works its magic on the body.

Chemdawg previously held the record for highest THC content, winning the Cannabis Cup with a THC level of 32.13 percent when cultivated by Next Harvest in Denver. It is one of the most mysterious marijuana strains as little is known about its genetics or history. This strain has a powerful relaxing effect ideal for calming down a racing mind. If you’re stressed and need to chill out, Chemdawg is perfect. It is also conducive to creativity.

If you’re growing your own remember the heat of summer can wreak havoc on any garden, indoor and out. Taking precautions with cannabis is highly recommended. Cannabis plants can only withstand a certain amount of heat and light. To keep your green garden from wilting here are some tips for indoor and outdoor grows to survive a hot summer.

1.Never let your plants dry out, but don’t over water!

Plants drink a lot in the heat and if they dry out they can die almost overnight. Having a good amount of water will help them be as healthy as possible. Conversely, it’s easy for plants to get over-watered in the heat, because hot water contains less oxygen. “Over-watering” and droopiness are actually the symptoms of the roots getting enough water but not enough oxygen.

2.Take Advantage of Evaporative Cooling

As water evaporates during the day, evaporative cooling keeps the roots and area directly around the plant slightly cooler. To enhance, some growers take a shallow but wide tray, fill it with something like pebbles or gravel, then fill it with water up until the top. Place your plant container on top.

3. Temperature monitoring & counteraction.

This is the magic number: 77°F (25°C). Even tropical plants thrive around this temperature, providing relative humidity is around 50%-60%. In fact, this temperature is damn near perfect for most plants.

Strategies for Combating
Excessive Heat in your Indoor Gardens

1. Reduce Nutrient Concentration

Highly recommended for hydroponic growers!

2. Temporarily raise and/or dim your grow lights.

3. Power Down!

It’s much more preferable to simulate a cloudy, overcast day than a scorched desert. Don’t be afraid to switch off half of your grow lights for a few days during a heat wave.

4. Add Air Conditioning

5. Keep Your Roots Cool

The optimum temperature for active metabolism in most plants’ root zones is around 64-68°F (18-20°C). Ensure that your water or nutrient solution is at this temperature too.

Outdoor Gardens

If your grow is outdoors it becomes a bit more difficult to control temperature but opportunities to cool your grow are still available.

1. Offer Shade.

It’s easy to move plants in containers, but even if plants are in the ground you can offer shade. Erect a frame around them so they’re getting full sunlight most of the time, but when it gets really hot you can throw a shade cloth over the top to give them partial shade without reducing airflow.

2. Offer a Breeze.

If your plants are in containers and can be moved this is an ideal option. Sometimes different parts of your yard or grow area are more suitable than others, so it can help to think about whether a slightly different placement may be better for your plant. That being said, don’t leave cannabis plants totally exposed or put them somewhere they’ll get beat up by the wind! If your plants can’t be moved remember that plants that are grouped together often perform better than a single plant scorching in the sun by itself.

The post Summer Infusions appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Blunt Talk: Cole v. Sessions

Natasha Winkler — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 19:08:32 +0000

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ memo rescinded the Cole memorandum on January 4, 2018, ruffling some leaves in cannabis culture. The Cole Memo set eight enforcement priorities for the Department of Justice (DOJ) with respect to marijuana. Sessions rescinded the foundational guidance that states have relied on to regulate the production and distribution of both recreational and medicinal marijuana, pursuant to state law and the will of those states’ citizens.

Sessions’ memo creates broad discretion for federal prosecutors to potentially prosecute marijuana businesses operating legally on the state level, even if they are not engaged in marijuana-related conduct enumerated by the Cole Memo as being an enforcement priority. At this time, the DOJ has given no indication that there will be any enforcement priorities targeted at state-legal marijuana businesses.

Sessions’ clear disregard for states’ rights and democracy felt like a slap in the face to the more than 30 states that have some kind of legal cannabis, and specifically individuals who depend on cannabis for health and wellness. Sessions policy positions federal law enforcement against the will of voters. So far, eight states have legalized recreational marijuana through ballot initiatives with voter support. “We represent a state that posed the question of marijuana legalization to its voters not once, but twice,” Democratic representatives Jared Polis, Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter, and Republican Rep. Mike Coffman wrote in a letter to Sessions days after the Cole Memo was rescinded.

The author of the Obama-era policy, James Cole, stated to the Associated Press, “I couldn’t immunize people through the policy, but it did give them a level of comfort that was enough for them to say, if I behave, we’re basically going to be OK.” The change, he said, removes “clarity and consistency” for an industry that depends on it. Notwithstanding the foregoing, it should be noted that Congress has already cut-off federal enforcement dollars to the DOJ aimed at prosecuting state-legal medical and industrial hemp businesses per the “Rohrabacher–Blumenauer” amendment, first approved in 2014.

Sessions did not actually announce that there would be a crackdown on cannabis businesses, but rather that it would be left to the discretion of the local US attorneys in the various districts to decide how and when to enforce the federal laws. This does not amount to much of a substantive change in policy, which begs the question of why Sessions bothered to make the announcement at all.

Even if Sessions’ memo might not result in federal agents busting down dispensary doors, it will still hamper the industry. Cannabis industry expansion could be hindered if potential investors are spooked by the updated guidance. Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), a leading anti-legalization group, said in a statement that Sessions’ move, “makes investing in the marijuana industry a risky move.” The decision to repeal the Cole memo even affected the stock price of Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, which dropped more than 5 percent. The concern for legalization advocates is that Sessions’ policy change could lead to a chilling effect both among marijuana businesses, costing potential jobs and tax revenue, and on efforts to legalize, hurting a movement that has picked up steam in recent years.

Whether or not to crack down on marijuana in states where it is legal is a decision that will now rest with those states’ top federal prosecutors, many of whom are deeply rooted in their communities and may be reluctant to pursue cannabis businesses or their customers. The core issue here is the conflict between federal and state laws on marijuana. Over the past couple of decades, states have moved to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational purposes, but federal law has remained largely unchanged, keeping cannabis illegal at the federal level for any use — medical or recreational. In Colorado, U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer said his office will continue to focus on “identifying and prosecuting those who create the greatest safety threats to our communities around the state.” All of Colorado’s congressional delegation, except for Rep. Doug Lamborn, have been working together, along with lawmakers from other states where marijuana is legal, to come up with solutions to protect Colorado’s marijuana industry and financial institutions.

The post Blunt Talk: Cole v. Sessions appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Gender Parity In The Cannabis Industry

editor — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 19:43:04 +0000

Gender equality in the workplace has been a hot topic since women entered the workforce. The issue stems from the idea that the “workforce” of modern industries were established by men. Women got a very late start on the race up the corporate ladder.

When the tech industry broke out in the 80’s we saw what a new capitalistic sector can do to level the playing field. In 1984 women made up 37% of computer science graduates according to girlswhocode.com. There seems to be a fighting chance when there’s a more equal start.

With the cannabis industry still in its infancy we can see the equivalent opportunity for women. In 2015, according to Marijuana Business Daily, “the leading business news information resource for the medical marijuana and retail cannabis industry,”women held 36% of executive positions on the green scene. Compare that to the national average of only 22%. From a high of 63% of executive positions in testing labs to 28% of investment positions, it really is greener on the other side of the fence for women in cannabis.

In all management areas of the cannabis industry, women hold a greater percentage of executive positions. Even minorities hold a higher than average percentage in cannabis.

The science sector behind the booming marijuana market holds the highest percentage of female workforce, shattering the glass ceiling with almost three times the average of all U.S. businesses at 63%. Test laboratories are one of the most profitable sectors of the industry but this isn’t why women are dominating the field.

For the same reasons the average American household finds women making the healthcare choices for their families it seems these women have a genuinely compassionate interest in the cutting edge cannabis research potentiality.

Recently released globally, “Mary Janes: The Women of Weed”, a documentary by award winning filmmaker Windy Borman, explores this concept and others. Women are changing the face of today’s fastest growing industry – cannabis. Borman discovers how they’re also changing the world through a series of empowering and educational interviews with a broad diversity of women leading the industry today.

Borman’s presentation of leading women in the industry was a grand step in reshaping the way women, weed, and industry unite. I spoke to Borman about why she thinks women choose the cannabis industry and her responses about cannabis falling under the health and wellness category, thereby resonating with more women.

Borman emphasizes that, “Women don’t necessarily want to ‘take over.’ They want parity, an even playing field. There is no ‘glass ceiling’ in the cannabis industry because everyone is figuring it out as they go.”

While the field is level and the green light currently applies equally, closing the workforce gender gap may still only be temporary. Using the tech industry again as a comparison, girlswhocode.com reported the number of women graduating with computer science degrees has plummeted to just 12%. Similarly, the percentage of women holding executive positions at cannabis businesses has fallen substantially over the past two years. In 2017 Marijuana Business Daily conducted a follow up survey to their 2015 survey and found that women now only hold an average 27% of executive-level roles in the marijuana industry, down from 36%.

There are many theories as to why the drop has been so precipitous. Marijuana Business Daily, stated “a tremendous amount of change has come to the marijuana industry in the past two years … the executive structure of businesses in the traditional economy – where males occupy more than 75% of senior roles – has begun to seep into the marijuana industry”.

As the industry ages and blends with traditional markets, the demographics internal to the cannabis industry will fluctuate. As marijuana proves itself as a profitable industry, those with more interest and ability to capitalize will flood the market, driving down the numbers of those with a genuinely compassionate interest including women and minorities. So far, the cannabis industry holds significantly higher percentages of women in executive roles than the national average, let’s hope it stays that way.

The post Gender Parity In The Cannabis Industry appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Longmont Going Green?

Natasha Winkler — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 23:23:16 +0000

The city of Longmont is looking like it might go green with a “special marijuana tax.” Since 2011, retail medical and recreational marijuana sales have been banned within city limits, but recent actions by Longmont City Council suggest that may soon change.

In 2009 Longmont adopted a 90-day moratorium on the “acceptance, processing and approval of any application for a city license or permit for the operation of any business to acquire, possess, manufacture, produce, sell, distribute, dispense, or transport medical marijuana within the city”.

Longmont City Council, 2017. Photo: Courtesy of the City of Longmont.

This moratorium was extended twice through 2010 and became a ban in May 2011. At that time there were seven dispensaries in Longmont that had to close their doors despite filing petitions, restraining orders, and even attempting to sue the city. At the initial hearing , the council listened to an hour and a half of public commentary from medical marijuana patients, dispensary owners and citizens — both for and against the measure. The council voted 7-0 for the ban, but public opinion was much more divided.

In 2013 Longmont City Council amended the initial ban to include recreational marijuana in response to Colorado’s adoption of Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. It seemed like all hope for Longmont bud-lovers had gone up in smoke, but things changed. In early 2016, Longmont City Council authorized the formation of an interdepartmental task force—with members from Police, Fire, Planning, Code Enforcement, Finance, the City Attorney’s Office and the City Manager’s Office—to collect information and offer recommendations about overturning the municipality’s marijuana industry ban.

To complement the findings of the interdepartmental task force and gather additional residential opinion, the City Council delayed further discussion on lifting the ban until the results of the annual Longmont Customer Satisfaction Survey were collected and reported. In November 2016, in response to the preliminary question, “To what extent do you support or oppose the limited retail sales of recreational marijuana in the City of Longmont?” more than half of respondents were supportive and only 33 percent were strongly opposed.

These results at very least, solidified the City Council’s reconsideration of the cannabis ban and potential retail sales. On April 18, 2017 staff recommended the Council only consider recreational sales and to continue the ban on medical retail sales. This recreational-only twist was motivated by the Council’s attempt to reduce the risk of underage sales and also increase revenue potential for the city.

In July, staff laid out details about what lifting the ban and allowing recreational marijuana shops might look like. They gave suggestions and recommendations regarding topics like application fees, the number of shops that should be allowed, and the potential implementation process. Discussion included distance from schools, whether they should be allowed in downtown storefronts, should they have a lottery application process or review them for most “qualified”. It’s unlikely the town will be overrun with recreational marijuana vendors, as it seems the majority of Council members support limiting the number of shops within city limits to four and a non-refundable application fee of $15,000.

On this November’s ballot, voters will be asked to approve a “special marijuana tax” of 3 percent, which would apply to all retail cannabis products. This would bring in approximately $600,000 in city revenue, but the terms of the bill would allow the Council to increase that 3 percent up to as much as 15 percent without a public vote. This tax includes the condition that 1.5 percent will be earmarked for affordable housing. (Note: If the rate were raised to 15 percent – only 1.5 percent would go to affordable housing and council would have authority to budget out the rest.) If this ballot measure passes, it will have no end date; if it fails, there will be no “special marijuana tax” on the books.

At the moment, both the city’s approval of recreational marijuana shops and the subsequent appearance of the “special marijuana tax” on November’s ballot are up in the air; however, both seem likely. Council appears to have motive for doing business in this way. Councilmember Sarah Levison said, at the May 21, 2013 meeting where the they banned dispensaries, “We’re not ground zero for this one. … We can always repeal a ban. When one of those things gets started and someone else gets sued first, we can learn from that experience and do it the right way.”

Longmont City Council decided it would rather let other communities experiment with marijuana commerce before it allowed dispensaries and it definitely seems like they want all the numbers crunched and in effect before any retail ban is lifted. For Longmont residents and visitors alike it appears that recreational sales are inevitable; it’s a matter of working out the details first.

The post Longmont Going Green? appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Industrial Hemp May Finally Have its Moment in the Sun

Kaley LaQuea — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 22:40:40 +0000

The state’s seed certification program aims to better support farmers looking to add the crop.
Photo courtesy of
Grow Hemp
Colorado

Though the implementation of industrial hemp growth may not be of interest to recreational fans of the plant, a report released by the Congressional Research Service earlier this year outlined roughly 25,000 uses for the crop, in industries ranging from textiles to aviation and many in between.

In late 2016, the Colorado Department of Agriculture announced a new certified seed program, introducing three varieties of seed that have passed trials and will grow in accordance with state law. Colorado requires that THC levels in industrial hemp crops be below 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis. The first of its kind in the nation, the program presents certified seed options that meet state standards, providing more oversight for farmers wishing to implement the crop and alleviating concerns over the amount of THC present in the plant.

The review board of the Colorado Seed Growers Association accepted three industrial hemp seeds — Eletta Campana, Fibranova and Helena — to be grown here. According to Schiavi Seeds CEO and founder Andrea Schiavi, a Kentucky-based supplier of European hemp seeds for the CDA and other agricultural departments in the U.S., the program is a step in the right direction, but long overdue.

Farmers interested in growing industrial hemp must register with the CDA, but the department does not facilitate the sale of seeds, or regulate processing and distribution of seeds or the crop. Some seeds available to buy in Colorado may contain THC levels above the 0.3 percent threshold, putting farmers at risk of having to destroy a harvest. The CDA conducts random testing on industrial hemp THC levels throughout the state. If the hemp is found to contain a higher amount, it must be destroyed, which is exactly what happened in the case of Byers farmer Edward Linnebur.

“Not only did I make the investment and plant it, but then there’s value of the crop I had to destroy. It’s very expensive when that happens to you. There are already many things a farmer has to risk with weather, hail drought and all that, but then when you have to go out and destroy it, that’s hard to do. What if it was you?,” Linnebur asked. He acknowledges the need for regulations on seeds and an overhaul of the industrial hemp program.

Industrial hemp has had a rocky history in the United States, mostly stemming from its derivation from the Cannabis Sativa plant and the regulations surrounding marijuana. Industrial hemp has gone through many iterations of legality, but progress seems on the horizon.

Colonial farmers were required by law to grow hemp, and it was accepted as legal currency in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. At the turn of the 20th Century, recreational use was introduced to American culture after the Mexican Revolution and an influx of Mexican immigrants around 1910. Marijuana became associated with the immigrant community and fear and prejudice drove the “Marijuana Menace” campaign. By 1931, 29 states had outlawed the drug.

The 1936 film “Reefer Madness” stirred panic about the effects of marijuana. The passage of the Tax Act a year later effectively banned hemp production. It didn’t last long however, as material shortages during World War II affected production of necessities like parachutes and marine cordage. The response? The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Hemp for Victory” program, which promoted the growth of hemp and offered draft deferments to farmers willing to stay in the U.S. to grow. By 1943, 375,000 acres had been harvested by the program’s farmers. The hazy 1960s prompted harsh drug laws, and In 1970, industrial hemp was lumped in with all other forms of cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance.

Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 in 2012, but the legislation did not include provisions for the production of industrial hemp. The next year, the Colorado Senate passed SB13-241, or the Hemp Act, which set guidelines for industrial hemp. Federal parameters were laid out in the U.S. Farm Bill introduced in 2014, which removed restrictions for states that had previously legalized the manufacturing of the crop.

By 2015, the amount of industrial hemp in Colorado had increased tenfold, with nearly 2,000 acres of the crop being planted that year. Industrial hemp’s versatility does not seem to be especially well-known by the general public, but the demand for its byproducts is definitely there.

Although hemp and marijuana both originate from the Cannabis Sativa plant, their uses diverge greatly. Recreational use of marijuana utilizes the leaves and flowering tops of the plant, while the stalk of hemp can produce fibers that are useful in many ways. Hemp seeds produce milk, oil and other food products. The problem: People still confuse it with weed and are wary.

Veronica Carpio of Grow Hemp Colorado is a former dispensary owner and proponent of expanding not only Colorado regulations for hemp and its uses, but federal ones as well. She helped advocate for the passage of SB 15-196 in 2015, giving birth to the certified seed program and requiring its facilitation by the Department of Agriculture. “We really needed it for long term stability and growth,” Carpio said. “We also will have the economic advantage of setting the standard and opening a new level of standards for the entire country.” Carpio was the first female hemp farmer in the state.

Carpio backs Schiavi’s advocacy for a federal policy on industrial hemp. She acknowledges that hemp provides not only economics benefits, but sustainable environmental ones as well. According to Rick Novak, manager of the Colorado Seed Growers Association and director of Colorado Seed Programs, diversity is the key to everything.

Novak said diversity allows farmers to decide which seeds to grow, and gives them more financial opportunity. And hemp is more sustainable than other crops, “because the timing of the water requirements may be different than other crops, which when we’re looking at irrigation needs, diversity regarding the timing of water supplies sustains water over the long term,” Novak said. “You don’t have all your acreage using water at the same time, so you can break up water requirement needs so you can utilize water resources more effectively.”

In other words, it’s not that hemp is necessarily a miracle crop for the environment (it uses slightly more energy than cotton in production, for example, but about half as much land and water) but rather the diverse nature of its needs as well as its potential byproduct that make it useful and beneficial to Colorado. In addition, as long as the stalks aren’t being burned, the growth and production of hemp helps offset carbon emissions.

Novak urged supporting the processing industry by unlocking more uses for hemp in the state. “The sustainability of processing the crop is not where it needs to be,” Novak said. “There should be more opportunities for farmers processing fiber or seed. I think the seed is more transportable, but for the fiber, we need the industry to start expanding and evolving as this crop grows.”

The shortage of processing equipment and the unique nature of the crop make this difficult. For example, many farmers don’t have access to, or own, a decorticator; the machine needed to strip down the stalks from the hemp to access the fibrous material. Because of this, the current hemp stock doesn’t have much value.

Cross contamination is another possible downside of any crop, but unregulated seeds and strains of hemp with elevated THC levels pose a problem. The certified seed program hopes to curb that. “It’s like keeping your dog on a leash in a neighborhood of dogs that are in heat,” Novak said.

According to Novak, hemp is a ‘prolific pollinator’ — meaning that its pollen is big, light and can travel long distances. The seed certification tag allows tracking of the genetics of the seed and the past generations of a crop in the possible event of contamination of neighboring fields. Contamination wouldn’t show for several generations however, which in other crops takes about three years.

In February, the Colorado House and Senate voted unanimously in favor of a bill that directs the agriculture department to study the possibility of using hemp seed in animal feed. With a cattle population of over 2.5 million in Colorado, the passage of a bill allowing the use of hemp seed in feed has potential to benefit ranchers and livestock farmers. Hemp is naturally high in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and according to Hemp Food Australia — a prominent player in the manufacturing and exporting of hemp — it increases life expectancy in livestock and improves digestion. Hemp has been present in European cattle and livestock feed for some time as well.

The Colorado Cattlemen’s Association opposes hemp in feed on the basis of potential THC contamination. The original bill attempted to introduce hemp into feed without further study. The study now underway will be carried out by a group composed of the agriculture commissioner, a hemp and livestock producers and processors, and other experts who can contribute to the conversation, according to the commissioner.

The push for better processing methods as well as sustainable uses like animal feed are all part of the current concerns brought to the Colorado Legislature. Though it’s been a long road, many players like Schiavi remain hopeful and excited about what’s next.

“It’s unbelievable that we are so behind, but many other states now look to Colorado as an example,” he said. “It’s really very important for whole industry, and I do believe other states will follow.”

The post Industrial Hemp May Finally Have its Moment in the Sun appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Is Marijuana Reform Inevitable Under the Trump Administration?

editor — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 21:53:16 +0000

In 2012, Colorado citizens voted to become the first state to legalize weed for purely recreational purposes, leaving the federal government in a bit of a conundrum. Marijuana is still considered by the federal government to be more dangerous than cocaine, so what was it going to do about the eruption of grow operations? One solution would have been to reclassify marijuana out of Schedule I — the list of drugs like heroin considered the most dangerous and addictive — but that didn’t happen because of entrenched opposition from the Drug Enforcement Administration and an apparent lack of desire at the White House to go to war with its own DEA. Instead, the Department of Justice wrote a memo as a short-term work-around, drafted by deputy attorney general James Cole.

A Sessions-led Justice Department could jettison the Cole memo, a 2013 Justice Department declaration that signaled the federal government wouldn’t crack down on marijuana sellers in states where it is legal. The administration could also appoint US attorneys who are against drug reform.

The legal marijuana industry, which is anticipated to top $6 billion in sales this year, also has reason to fear Sessions, but its response has been much more subdued. The National Cannabis Industry Association, the industry’s largest lobby, released a statement saying that it looked forward to working with Attorney General Sessions. It seems they believe it’s safer to weather his tenure at the Justice Department than to fight it.

Under US law, marijuana possession and distribution is illegal, but how Sen. Jeff Sessions will enforce that law as the nation’s attorney general is not immediately clear — especially after the topic was raised during his Senate confirmation hearing.

Sessions declined to say whether he’d adhere to the more lenient marijuana enforcement guidelines adopted by the Obama administration’s Justice Department in states that have legalized medicinal or recreational marijuana use.

“Would you use our federal resources to investigate and prosecute sick people who are using marijuana in accordance with their state laws, even though it might violate federal laws?” asked Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont).

“I won’t commit to never enforcing federal law, Senator Leahy,” Sessions replied. “I think some of [the Obama-era guidelines] are truly valuable in evaluating cases,” he added. “Using good judgment about how to handle these cases will be a responsibility of mine. I know it won’t be an easy decision, but I will try to do my duty in a fair and just way.”

In prior statements, Sessions has been firmly critical of the Justice Department’s approach on the issue. In an April 2016 Senate drug hearing, Sessions said, “We need grown-ups in charge in Washington saying marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought to be minimized, that it is in fact a very real danger. You can see the accidents, traffic deaths related to marijuana,” he said. “And you’ll see cocaine and heroin increase more than it would have, I think.”

And so far, Congress has shown no interest in trying to stop the Sessions nomination, at least not on this issue. Even members who are in favor of protecting states from federal interference on the marijuana issue have said they support Sessions’ confirmation as attorney general. Without any restraint from Congress, the only thing that could stand in Attorney General Sessions’ way of launching a new front in the marijuana wars is the president-elect.

President-elect Trump has given mixed signals on marijuana laws. He has spoken out about the negative effects of making marijuana recreationally available, but has said that changes to marijuana law should be handled on a state-by-state basis.

Though it is possible that a slightly more restrictive ‘Sessions Memo’ will replace the existing Cole Memo, Trump’s tendency towards populism has at least buoyed the spirits of some legalization supporters.

One thing is for certain: With one-fifth of the US population living in states that have legalized, the federal-state conflict over marijuana will likely only get more intense.

The post Is Marijuana Reform Inevitable Under the Trump Administration? appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

2016 Election: State Congressional Candidates and CU Regents

editor — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 18:02:52 +0000

The post 2016 Election: State Congressional Candidates and CU Regents appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Know Your News

editor — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 18:07:24 +0000

By Jake Plessinger

On Tuesday, October 28^th Erie’s Board of Trustees will review one new ordinance regarding retail marijuana in Erie. The Board has already sent two new issues to be resolved in the General Election ballot on November 4, 2014

Ordinance 35-2014: an order that would amend the “Business Regulations” article of the Town’s Municipal Code which outlaws retail marijuana businesses within Erie’s town borders. A moratorium was first set up in January 2013 and was extended in August of the same year to last until December 31, 2014. Due to Colorado’s Constitution (Article XVIII, Section 16) each city can choose whether or not to allow retail marijuana businesses within their borders. However, because of Amendment 64, they cannot outlaw the private use or growth of marijuana, at least within the parameters established by the amendment. The individual cities, or the moratorium set in place in Erie, also cannot interfere with the lawful possession or growth of a limited amount of marijuana of an individual who is 21 years of age or older. The Board will meet on October 28^th to either lift the ban or extend the moratorium set on retail marijuana for the town of Erie.

Ballot Measure 1A: ballot measure 1A will make a new 0.185% sales and use tax that will be used to fund flood relief in Boulder County for a duration of five years (resulting in about $49.6 million during the period). The tax would only be subject to Boulder County and would help fund immediate flood response, the repair of infrastructures such as roads and bridges, help Boulder County’s readiness for flood response and help give relief to those who suffered in the flood of 2013.

Ballot Measure 1B: this ballot measure would ask Boulder County residents to keep a 0.9 mill (like a windmill) ad valoreum property tax for 15 more years. For example, 0.9% tax would equate to $21 per year if you had a property estimated to value around $300,000. The money generated from this tax goes to services that promote family stability and to families that have been in natural disaster so they can have the necessities for life. Increased need and decreased funding have made it difficult for Boulder County to make sure its residents are provided for in case of a natural disaster.

The two ballot issues make for interesting topics of consideration. Though, yes, the taxes go to funding aid and natural disaster awareness, they are still taxes and as long as people have air in their lungs they will fight any kind of tax that pops its ugly head in front of them. There is no guarantee that the money will actually go to fund these measures, as the money can be deferred or placed where it’s thought it is needed, but the money could go to some much needed programs and relief efforts around the Boulder Country area. As far as Ordinance 35-2014 is concerned, a measure not voted on by the public, there shouldn’t even be a meeting about the subject. Putting the exhausted for-or-against marijuana debate aside, the legal trade of marijuana could bring in millions of dollars of revenue for any city (and already has for Denver alone). If Boulder County needs tax money so bad why not sell marijuana, a commodity that only goes to local needs as it isn’t legal federally, to come up with some relief funds? It only makes sense to use something that could generate millions of dollars of revenue rather than create new ways to tax other goods and home owners. Doesn’t it?

Credit to:

erieco.gov

Picture from:

bloomingbath.com

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A brief chat with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

Brett Calwood — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 14:47:33 +0000

Detroit indie pop band Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. will be at the Fox Theatre in Boulder on October 28, we we spoke with Josh Epstein about what we can expect.D

Yellow Scene: How’s Detroit doing right now?

Josh Epstein: I went to the Motown Museum today. I live in Los Angeles now, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that, but Dan is still here with the rest of the band, and I come in for at least one week every month to work with everyone. I don’t feel like I’m too far removed from it all.

YS: Concerning the new song, “James Dean,” it’s been said that you’re embracing a mellower side – is that fair?

JE: I think there’s some mellow stuff on all of our albums. What I noticed, that I guess I hadn’t fully been aware of, is that people gravitate to the thing that you give a push to on the internet. Whether it’s the first song that comes out – you can’t put out a song that’s not a single anymore because everyone assumes that it is. It’s not a single – it’s just a song we made. I think that’s natural. With the way that people are listening to music, you don’t necessarily get through to all of them.

YS: Do you like playing Colorado?

JE: I love it. I think Colorado’s a beautiful state, and Denver’s always been one of my favorite cities. The fact that marijuana is pretty much fully legal there now is pretty cool, and most of the people in our band don’t even use marijuana, but it’s progressive and smart of them. Obviously, it’s working out. It’s always sunny, and if you like nature you can be physically active. Some of the people I admire most who are making music, like Nathaniel Rateliff, are from there. It’s really cool. We got lucky enough to be invited to play a couple of festivals at some of the ski resort towns, and got to hang out and go skiing. For Michigan guys, we’re used to skiing on landfills. Being on those mountains was just beautiful.

YS: What are your plans for the set?

JE: We’re doing new stuff actually. This will be the first time we’re trying to do some new songs live and test them that way before we record them. We’ve got a new touring member, and I’m really excited about getting out. I feel that we finally have enough songs that we can do anything we want with the set. We can make one that’s a little bit more contemplative, or we can do a super high energy set. So we can play around. I think we’ve finally got a system for playing everything where we can change things on the fly – we don’t have to come up with set lists anymore. It’s going to be really fun.

YS: When the tour’s over, what’s next?

JE: We’re recording our new record on all the breaks. We’ve been recording a new record, but on the breaks we’ll finish it. In December, we’ll finish it totally, then we’ll lay low in January and February, and then we’re going to come out with the new record.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. plays with Miniature Tigers and Madi Diaz at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28 at the Fox Theatre; 1135 13th St., Boulder; 720-645-2467; $15-$17.

Pic by Catie Laffoon

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The Changing, Prettier Face of Pot

Reilly Capps — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 19:01:44 +0000

New plants are sprouting. Thousands have new jobs. People are inking TV deals. Why? Because millions of square feet of industrial warehouse are proving money grows on weeds.

The Growing Kitchen’s owner thinks they could go global. Karing Kind’s owner thinks they might be a billion dollar company. Talking to those in the biz, the word “billion” comes up a lot. Billionaires will be minted. Possibly a billion billionaires, with a billion dollars each. Again, why? Because Coloradans can now sell weed to almost any person on Earth.
“The customer base is now four billion.”

That’s Michael Elliott talking. He is a lobbyist, the director of the Marijuana Industry Group. He has a personal interest in being a booster for the weed game, so he’s hard to take completely seriously. Four billion is roughly the number of humans in the world over the age of 21. That number includes cockroach farmers in Bangladesh. It includes the Pope, Rick Santorum and your mom. And we all know, beyond a doubt, that pot smokers are only young, male and single. Right?
So be serious, Mr. Elliott. Four billion people are going to smoke Colorado weed?

“It could be,” he says. “How do we have any idea how big demand is?”

Dylan Donaldson, owner of Karing Kind dispensary, said he’s seeing an entirely new customer base since he started selling pot to the general public. Not just different individuals—most of his medical patients went elsewhere—but a different demographic altogether. More business people in suits and ties, more $40 haircuts, more Audis.

Forty percent of Karing Kind’s clients now come from out of state, from as far away as London and Qatar. Before retail, Donaldson sold a half-ounce of medical weed for $75. Now, he sells the same half-ounce for $240, and he can’t keep it in stock. The lines are often out the door. The owner of Karmaceuticals, similarly, said each month this year has been better than the last. The owner of Terrapin Station said he expects to pay $250,000 in taxes for March alone.
One of the biggest questions they all face: what do we do with all this cash?
And everyone wants to know: how big could it become?

Use increased with the introduction of medical marijuana in Colorado, after 2000. About 100,000 Coloradans told a doctor they needed a prescription to get high. They were among the only people in the world who could get high without worrying about the cops, though many had to remember to pretend to limp when they went to the doctor’s office.

But that’s changed. Now it’s as easy to buy weed as it is to buy a cup of coffee, and just as pleasant. At the retail marijuana shops in Boulder—there are more than six now—the buying experience is more reminiscent of a Zales jewelers than a liquor store.

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Smoke Signals: Q&A with Mason Tvert

Greg Campbell — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:27:41 +0000

Mason Tvert first began campaigning to convince Coloradans that marijuana is safer than alcohol after Lynn “Gordie” Baily, a CU student, and Samantha Spady, a CSU student, died just days apart in separate alcohol poisoning incidents in 2004. Since then, he led successful campaigns to decriminalize marijuana possession on both campuses, succeeded in passing an initiative to make possession of small amounts of marijuana legal for adults in Denver and backed an unsuccessful bid to legalize marijuana possession statewide in 2006 (the measure failed by a 60-40 margin). Now, Tvert is campaigning for the passage of Amendment 64: The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, which is ahead 47-38 in the latest poll, conducted in July. Tvert spoke to Yellow Scene about the amendment and why he thinks 2012 will be the year Coloradans finally legalize marijuana.

YS: What’s been the reaction to this initiative?

MT: Support is growing and the opposition is going down. I think that’s in large part to a strong effort to educate the public about the initiative itself as well as the issue behind it.

YS: There’ve been other attempts in the past to legalize marijuana, not just in Colorado, but in other states, most notably in 2010 in California, that have failed. What’s different this time?

MT: We certainly looked at the experience in California in 2010 as we were drafting the initiative and planning out the campaign to take into account what happened out there. Ultimately there are two or three very big differences here. The first is that this is a presidential election year. There was an analysis done in California following the election that showed that had it been an election year, based on the turnout, the initiative would have received 49.5 as opposed to 46.5. … No. 2 is obviously that it’s 2012 and not 2010. Support traditionally in this country goes up about one and a half percent per year and it’s been accelerated here in Colorado.

YS: So what’s unique about Colorado?

MT: Well, that’s No. 3. It’s not California. There are a couple of big differences. … In California, there were a number of different efforts going on, but here in Colorado we were very focused on making sure that the public is aware of the fact that marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol, and really shifting the attitude. That led to the development of a much more comprehensive and sensible approach to medical marijuana. Obviously we’ve seen the emergence of a state-regulated medical marijuana system, which has demonstrated that it is possible to regulate marijuana. …

And of course people have experienced the tax revenue and the benefits of it. We generate millions of dollars for our localities and our state through licensing fees and sales tax revenue. More people are appreciating that there is a net benefit.

YS: As you know, marijuana is still illegal on the federal level and 64 won’t change that. Has the shadow of the federal government affected the campaign at all?

MT: Certainly, it’s a situation that’s being discussed, but ultimately the federal government’s position on this initiative is irrelevant. Colorado has the right and the ability to adopt this initiative and end the arrest and prosecution of adults 21 and older for the private possession, use and limited cultivation of marijuana. Obviously we’ve seen that it is possible for our state to regulate marijuana. …

It’s important to point out that if it passes, it immediately will remove the penalties for private adult marijuana possession and we certainly hope the federal government will not take action to prevent the state from controlling this now-legal substance. The federal government can’t do anything about Colorado changing its state and local laws when it comes to marijuana. If our state decides to not continue to arrest and prosecute people for marijuana possession, the federal government without a doubt has the ability to do that [itself], the legal ability to arrest and charge people at the federal level, but they have made it very clear that that’s just not even a possibility. They do not have the resources to be patrolling the streets and handling 12,000 cases of marijuana possession every year.

YS: But they could do something else, like threaten to withhold transportation dollars, for instance.

MT: I think that would further upset people around the country, let alone in Colorado. Clearly they haven’t taken any sort of step like that when it comes to medical marijuana. The federal government, much like virtually everyone in the country, recognizes that this is going to happen, whether it’s in 2012, 2016 or 2020. There’s no doubt that at the rate that support for marijuana reform is going, marijuana will become legal and will be treated similarly to alcohol. Taking that sort of measure would be on par with the federal government having done that when states began repealing alcohol prohibition. For example, Colorado repealed alcohol prohibition prior to the federal government [repealing it]. Many states did. That’s what ended up forcing the federal government to evaluate federal prohibition, because all the states essentially said, “We’re no longer going to enforce this law.” … [Withholding transportation funds] would be a nuclear option that we don’t think the federal government has any intention of taking. It would spark far more support for this than ever before, and they would really speed up the process of changing federal laws to allow for marijuana.

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Jared Polis makes another DEA agent look like a fool

Greg Campbell — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:28:10 +0000

Have we mentioned lately how much we love Rep. Jared Polis? If not, allow us to reiterate, using his recent grilling of Drug Enforcement Agency chief Michelle Leonhart as People’s Exhibit 1. Long frustrated at Washington’s hypocrisy regarding marijuana laws, the Boulder lawmaker attempted to get Leonhart to admit that smoking pot was less dangerous than using drugs like heroin and methamphetamine, which, like marijuana, are Schedule 1 drugs under the Controlled Substances Act.

Leonhart wouldn’t bite. In fact, Polis posed the question with slight variations 11 times in just over three minutes during a hearing Wednesday at the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, but Leonhart dodged them all.

“Is crack worse for a person than marijuana?” he asked.

“I believe all illegal drugs are bad,” Leonhart answered.

“Is methamphetamine worse for somebody’s health than marijuana?” Polis continued.

“I don’t think any illegal drug is good—”

“Is heroin worse for someone’s health than marijuana?”

“Again, all drugs, illegal drugs–”

“Yes, no, or I don’t know?” Polis interrupted. “If you don’t know, you can look this up. You should know this as the chief administrator for the Drug Enforcement Agency. I’m asking a very straightforward question: Is heroin worse for someone’s health than marijuana?”

“All illegal drugs are bad.”

“Does this mean you don’t know?”

This Abbott and Costello routine went on for some time, with similar results. (Watch the full exchange here.) It would have been funny if it didn’t illustrate so starkly the government’s head-in-sand approach to reforming marijuana laws in light of indisputable evidence that marijuana is, in fact, much less dangerous and less harmful to users’ health than other illicit drugs as well as many prescription medications.

Polis has made it a habit to make DEA agents look like fools. Prior to this exchange, he blasted Denver’s new DEA Special Agent In Charge Barbra Roach for saying that she was shopping for a home in a community that has outlawed dispensaries and voiced her concern that marijuana grow operations are a danger because they might expose people to “mold and water damage.”

Polis lambasted her on his Facebook page.

“Her choice of where to live in our state is absolutely her own decision (though I question her judgment, she is entitled to her decision),” he wrote, “but to publicly state shortly after arriving … that living in our premier city and many of our great towns is outright unacceptable to you is nothing short of an affront to our entire state.”

He then addressed the DEA’s pressing concern over mold and water damage:

“No doubt that some idiots have flooded their basements growing marijuana. No doubt that some idiots have flooded their basements growing tomatoes. I stained my tiles in my living room last year growing narcissus. OK. So for this we need a federal cop busting people?

“I mean, if you are dumb enough to flood your basement or create hundreds of thousands of dollars of mold damage, that is entirely your own fault and federal law enforcement should NOT be in the business of preventing you from ruining your basement. The fact that an opponent of medical marijuana uses arguments like ‘it causes water damage to homes’ shows how bankrupt that side is of facts.”

Now you see why we love this guy?

Greg Campbell is the author of Pot Inc.: Inside Medical Marijuana, America’s Most Outlaw Industry.

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Marijuana advocates are no stranger to ‘invalid signatures’ on petitions

Greg Campbell — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:38:33 +0000

It’s potentially a big day in the world of marijuana. Proponents of a ballot measure seeking to legalize pot for people 21 and older will turn in another batch of signatures today to make up for what Secretary of State Scott Gessler said was a deficiency of about 2,500.

Originally, the group behind the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act turned in nearly twice as many as the 86,105 signatures needed to take the matter to voters, but was told that more than half were invalid. Proponents were given time to make up the shortfall and, according to Westword, are prepared to turn in nearly five times the amount necessary.

Whether these new signatures will pass muster is an open question. Colorado has a history of marijuana legalization measures falling mysteriously short of the necessary threshold. In fact, the medical marijuana amendment that passed in 2000 could have been in effect a year earlier if then-Secretary of State Victoria Buckley hadn’t “lost” a batch of petitions containing valid signatures.

In 1998, petitioners needed to only gather 54,242 valid signatures to make the ballot, but Buckley’s office deemed the number that was turned in to be insufficient. Supporters took her to court to argue otherwise and Buckley was overruled. The amendment was put on the ballot and Coloradans voted on it.

But the votes were never counted. The state Supreme Court overruled the lower court’s decision, agreeing with Buckley that there were not enough valid signatures, a decision that rendered the votes null and void.

But after Buckley died of heart failure in July 1999, her predecessor, Donetta Davidson, found 66 pages of signatures in her office that were never included in the original count. After personally tallying them all, Davidson found that there were indeed enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, albeit barely. So the medical marijuana amendment was placed on the 2000 ballot and the rest is history.

The official explanation for the missing signatures is that Buckley’s office was understaffed and that they were innocently overlooked. That can be hard for some people to swallow, considering the degree of attention the proposal had at the time and that it was dragged through court up to the highest level in the state. According to an article in the Rocky Mountain News, though, that’s the line everyone stuck to. In fact, Davidson said she assumed the petitions were found in Buckley’s office not because they were stashed where they’d never be found, but because Buckley was busy recounting them in order to correct her error when she died.

The main backer of the medical marijuana amendment, Martin Chilcutt, graciously declined to speculate on the truth of this version of events, saying only, “Bless her, she’s not here.”

The backers of the current legalization effort—led by Mason Tvert of SAFER—have been equally gracious in giving Gessler, the current secretary of state, the benefit of the doubt that approximately 80,000 of the original signatures were invalid. That could partly be because there seems to be little trouble getting Coloradans to sign the petitions. In fact, the deadline to cure the deficiency isn’t until Tuesday. But because they’d collected so many so soon, Tvert told Westword that there was little point in waiting to submit them.

“(W)e’re moving forward with the campaign as we had planned,” he’s quoted as saying, “because we have been confident from the beginning that there are more than enough Coloradans out there who believe it’s time to end prohibition and begin regulating marijuana like alcohol.”

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A tale of two medical marijuana cities

Greg Campbell — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:33:55 +0000

Boulder City Council voted to enact a nine-month moratorium on new medical marijuana businesses, but it might not be as bad for MMJ proponents as it sounds. It’s at least more positive than the chaos that has gripped Fort Collins over such businesses, where a lawsuit, a looming ban and a stupefied City Council have caused a train wreck of uncertainty.

Boulder’s moratorium only affects new applicants and, if the City Attorney, as quoted in the Daily Camera, is to be believed, it’s for the dual sakes of allowing his office to catch up on the work the marijuana industry has generated and to consider tweaking codes to allow the city to collect more from the businesses to cover its costs.

Businesses that are already in operation and those that have applied for new licenses won’t be affected by the moratorium, meaning they can expand or relocate, which might be required of dispensaries located closer than 1,000 feet to a school. The U.S. Attorney’s office has issued letters of warning to such businesses, giving them until Feb. 27 to move or be taken out by the DEA.

In all, the article is peppered with positive comments from city leaders, including Councilwoman Lisa Morzel, who said she’s “not interested in destroying any businesses” and City Attorney Tom Carr who said the moratorium will give his office some breathing room “to be able to do this better.”

Surely, some dispensary owners are wary of the moratorium, especially as the city considers code modifications that could add additional layers of regulation and expense to what is already the most highly regulated industry in the state. But the situation in Boulder is a far sight better than in Fort Collins, where the future of medical marijuana businesses has been thrown into complete disarray.

In November, voters banned that city’s 20 dispensaries, utilizing one of the more controversial options of a state law adopted in 2010, the “opt-out” clause that gives municipalities the choice of banning medical marijuana businesses, either through voter initiative or governmental resolution.

Dispensaries naturally argued against the ban, warning voters that it wouldn’t eliminate medical marijuana from the community, as its proponents claimed, but move it instead into private homes, where the state has no oversight. Despite outspending their opponents, the dispensaries lost the argument and the deadline to close shop and liquidate the stock is Tuesday, Feb. 14.

But last week, a group of holdout dispensary owners filed a lawsuit in Larimer County District Court, claiming the ban is unconstitutional and asking for an injunction. The ruling on the injunction will be heard tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 9. Even if the injunction isn’t granted, the suit will go forward, meaning that if the ban is overturned, dispensaries will have to start from scratch to open again. It would also create a legal precedent that could be used to overturn all bans in communities across Colorado.

Confusing matters further, the City Council on Tuesday gave initial approval to a measure that would eliminate city codes that deal with licensing medical marijuana businesses, an ordinance described by the Fort Collins Coloradoan as a housekeeping measure that anticipates the ban on dispensaries going forward. But some councilmembers are apparently worried about the very thing dispensary owners warned about before the November vote—marijuana operations moving into neighborhoods where they’re beyond the reach of state regulators.

“This, of course, is not what I want in my neighborhood,” Councilman Ben Manvel is quoted as saying. “Do we want to do something which is driving the grows into the neighborhoods?”

The council discussed allowing grow operations in industrial areas, but that would require a change in zoning regulations and take up to six months to implement.

The result of all this is a giant question mark about the future of medical marijuana in Fort Collins. Boulder, at least for now, has managed to avoid the quicksand that its neighbors—in particular, its voters—have found themselves sucked into.

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Marijuana raid in North Metro area nets 16 arrests

Greg Campbell — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:34:29 +0000

The Californication of Colorado took a big step forward on Wednesday, at least in terms of law enforcement actions aimed at marijuana growers. A coordinated raid by the North Metro Drug Task Force on 25 homes, including several in Adams County and one in Erie, netted 16 arrests on charges of racketeering, distribution of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and money laundering. About 10 more arrests are expected in the coming days.

Several news outlets have quoted task force officials as saying that the busts had nothing to do with medical marijuana, but who also hinted that those arrested used the medical marijuana law to cover their illegal activities.

Agencies involved in the operation, code named Sweet Leaf, came from sheriff’s departments in nearly every county north of Denver and included agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS and even the Postal Service. The suspects are believed to have grown the marijuana for distribution to other states, including by mailing it. There were also arrests in Breckenridge.

KMGH reports that the raids resembled paramilitary operations at some locations, including at a house in Northglenn where officers used armored cars and flash-bang grenades while executing a search warrant. The cul-de-sac near West 104th Avenue and Melody Drive was shut down early Wednesday morning with about 20 emergency vehicles, including police cars, ambulances and fire trucks, the station reported on its website.

Despite the very high profile of marijuana in Colorado, equally high-profile crackdowns are less frequent than in California, where in some years such raids are a monthly occurrence. The Colorado honeymoon may well be over; U.S. Attorney John Walsh sent letters of warning earlier this month to Colorado dispensaries within 1,000 feet of elementary schools that the hammer will soon fall if they don’t relocate. Distribution of controlled substances within 1,000 feet of a school is a sentencing enhancement that can double penalties upon conviction.

He described the pending legal action as a “first wave” of more to come, but marijuana growers—medical or otherwise—may be seeing the first ripples come ashore.

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Colorado medical marijuana businesses brace for federal crackdown

Greg Campbell — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:44:06 +0000

Ever since the Great Green Rush of 2009, which saw an unprecedented surge of medical marijuana ganjapreneurialism in Colorado, dispensary owners and commercial cannabis growers have only had to contend with state and local officials to remain in business. But now there is a far more daunting opponent on the horizon—the federal government.

While Drug Enforcement Administration raids of MMJ businesses have made headlines in Colorado from time to time, the state hasn’t seen the sort of militaristic crackdown that’s been more common in California. But, with letters of warning having been issued to 23 dispensaries across the state operating within 1,000 feet of schools, it’s on the way.

“Those 23 are just our first wave,” U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Jeff Dorschner is quoted as saying in the Daily Camera. “There are many more, and after we complete the first wave, there will be a second wave and then possibly a third and a fourth.”

It’s unlikely that many medical marijuana business owners are surprised at the threat. It’s well-known that even though medical marijuana is sanctioned by the state constitution—and heavily regulated by state and local ordinances—any use, distribution or possession of pot is just as illegal under federal laws as ever. Defendants in federal drug cases are rarely (if ever) allowed to invoke a medical defense when fighting marijuana cultivation and distribution charges, meaning the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence and the loss of personal property to federal asset seizure laws is a real possibility no matter how closely one hews to the state rules.

Dispensaries near schools likely represent the lowest-hanging fruit for federal agents. Sentencing enhancements for distributing or manufacturing controlled substances within 1,000 feet of schools call for twice the maximum penalty and fine upon conviction. The letter from the U.S. Attorney gives the 23 business- and property owners 45 days to move or face the music. Some dispensary owners are taking the threat seriously; the Camera reports that the Headquarters Emporium and Dispensary in Lyons is moving to a new location farther from Lyons Elementary School.

But even those that manage to get out of the crosshairs have no guarantee that they’ll be left alone. In fact, if California is any example, they can simply expect further harassment in the months and years to come. DEA raids have been a part of the cannabis culture in California since it became the first state to allow for the medical use of marijuana in 1996, capped most recently by a crackdown that began with letters of warning, just as in Colorado. Such raids don’t always result in arrests. One trend that has emerged over the years is that federal agents will simply loot medical marijuana businesses, confiscating or destroying marijuana, and seizing the cash and other assets. That leaves the owners at the bottom of a steep financial hill if they want to start over, and their patients without a legitimate source of medicine.

Even without interference from the feds, dispensary owners in Colorado have their hands full on the local level. One of the more onerous aspects of a state law adopted to regulate the industry in 2010 is a provision that allows local municipalities to ban the businesses entirely. That happened recently in Fort Collins, where citizens petitioned a measure onto November’s ballot to close down that city’s 20-some dispensaries, which had already navigated a complex framework of compliance put into place by the City Council. The measure passed and the businesses have until Feb. 14 to close shop, although there may be a legal challenge in the works. Forty-four cities and 30 counties in Colorado have banned such businesses, either through vote or ordinance.

Still, there are more than 700 dispensaries in Colorado and more than 30 in Boulder alone. Erie, Superior and Longmont have all prohibited such businesses.

The post Colorado medical marijuana businesses brace for federal crackdown appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Month in Review: Dec. ’11

editor — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:46:12 +0000

A dozen camping tickets later, Boulder Occupiers linked their movement with that of homeless activists. NedFest founder Michael “Michigan Mike” Torpie died, a ranger shot Boulder Creek Path’s cyclist-chasing coyote, and St. Vrain Valley School District fired a 24-year-old janitor after he allegedly told police he’d had sex with a 13-year-old girl. Broomfield’s Emerald Elementary School principal resigned without explanation, and Longmont’s Kaitlyn Sims, 22, was killed when she jumped into the path of a tractor-trailer on Highway 66. A 72-year-old man stands accused of poisoning two Firestone dogs, Longmont police are investigating low-tech $10, $20 and $100 counterfeit bills, and Boulder County’s Land Use Code may soon include classifications for community gardens, farms and farm-based restaurants. A former Lafayette dispensary owner was arrested for allegedly trying to sell 10 pounds of marijuana, Boulder Hockey Club coach Zachary Meints was arrested on suspicion of Internet child exploitation, and Superior Medical Supply Inc. is again under fire for allegedly price gouging short-supply hospital drugs. Biodesix Inc. will move its headquarters to Boulder, ConocoPhillips nixed its proposed Louisville research center, Target announced plans to close its Broomfield store Jan. 28, and a man robbed a 91-year-old former Marine on Veterans Day.

Small Talk

“One of the things we’re trying to do is coexist with these animals.”

—Erie Police Chief John Hall on the city’s policy allowing residents to shoot coyotes with plastic pellets and BBs.

“We’re very excited. It’s been a long process to figure out a replacement, but I think we’ve got a great program that we’ll be able to roll out that I think people are really going to love.”

—County Commissioner Will Toor on the EnergySmart loan program created to replace ClimateSmart Loan Program shot down by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“It’s been sitting in our storage room scaring everyone who sees an amputated arm.”

—Animalhouse Veterinary technician Rachel Petro on Louisville’s iconic wooden bear’s broken-off arm. Wild Wood Studio repaired the arm and will carve a new bear for free.

“We have some really good contacts with international coaches and we want to bring players from other countries to use the center as a high-altitude training facility.”

—Kendall Chitamber, the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center’s director of tennis, on what would be the state’s largest tennis club if it’s approved by the city. The Louisville club would feature more than 25 indoor and outdoor courts.

“I make no profit from this. It is a grant to a nonprofit, and benefits the town with no extra town expenditures of funds.”

—Superior Trustee Lisa Skumatz said of a grant to her firm to research the city’s new food-waste recovery program she helped launch.

Sources: Daily Camera, Times-Call, Colorado Daily

3,300

Homes to receive energy from Front Range Landfill’s gas-to-energy project

Boulder dispensaries among the 26 state-licensed facilities

362,645

The dollar amount of Lafayette’s final inducement payment to Wal-Mart

115

Jobs to be lost when Louisville’s LEGO Play Well Studios closes in January

8,400

OSHA fine against SJ Ward Landscape after its ditch collapsed, killing a Longmont man

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Growing Pains

editor — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 19:48:15 +0000

When Dan Pope gets up each morning, he grabs his vaporizer, packs it with high-grade marijuana and inhales a few times. His intoxicating routine is a necessary part of getting him up on the right side of the bed, so to speak. At three other times during the day he repeats his regimented pot use. Yet Pope isn’t exactly your typical pothead. Far from it, actually. The unassuming Longmont resident suffers from muscular dystrophy, and three years ago, his doctor recommended he start using medical marijuana.

Since that day, Pope says his life has improved dramatically. If you catch him in the morning, you’ll run into a happy-go-lucky guy leisurely sipping coffee at the local java joint.

He’s a regular at Ziggy’s on Main Street, a typical 42-year-old who will talk your ear off about the day’s news and give a friendly hello to a few of the other regulars as he sips on a big cup of Joe.

He can thank the marijuana, which offers him a natural way to loosen his muscles and relieve pain, something he battles regularly as part of his condition. Otherwise, he’d be relegated to heavy pharmaceuticals such as Vicodin to make the pain bearable.

It’s his way of life, but you’d never suspect that he was a regular pot smoker by the looks of it. He doesn’t wear tie-dye nor does talk with a stoners’ drawl. And you’d likely not guess he has a debilitating disease unless you watch him particularly closely as he walks away. Again, he thanks his “medicine” for helping him live an almost regular life.

“Medical marijuana patients don’t fit the stereotypes of the typical marijuana user,” he says.

Of late, Pope’s become somewhat of an activist for medical marijuana, something he plans to continue until he is literally no longer able to stand on his soapbox. There are plenty of issues with the system in Colorado to keep Pope busy so long as he’s able.

When the people took the medical marijuana initiative to voters in the fall of 2000, they wrote the law on the conservative side to help usher the controversial legalizing of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Seven years later, patients are left with well-intentioned policy that often falls significantly short of expectations.

“It’s not a bad law, but it’s clearly imperfect,” says Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado, a group that supports medical marijuana use.

Under the law, patients with chronic diseases such as cancer, AIDS and glaucoma can apply for a permit, which is good for one year. If approved, they are allowed to hold two ounces of marijuana or grow up to six plants. Patients can assign a caregiver to grow or get their pot under the same guidelines.

But the state gives limited resources for information beyond that. And the emphasis really is on limited. Colorado officials can tell you what the law says and where you can find the required documents needed to apply for a medical marijuana permit. If you’re lucky, they may even hand over a Bic to fill out the paperwork—the law prohibits them from doing more.

Details such as which doctors are willing to recommend pot as medicine—it’s technically not a prescription—and how to safely find safe medical-grade marijuana are extremely difficult to track down.

“How can they access it safely?” Vicente says. “It’s hard for them to find it. It’s not easy to grow. There are no classes.”
ope had been an occasional pot smoker prior to his MD diagnosis, so it wasn’t necessarily a difficult endeavor to find someone to get him his “medicine.”

Others aren’t so lucky. The worst-case scenario is a chronically disabled person forced to troll seedy neighborhoods in search of some pot that may end up being “dirt weed” with little medicinal value.

“The last thing sick people need is to feel like they are breaking the law,” Pope says.

But because of gray areas between federal and state jurisdiction, all parties involved in medical marijuana transactions face possible legal retaliation.

“Federally, it’s not recognized,” says Steve Prentup, commander of the Boulder County Drug Task Force. “You basically have a contradiction.”

Boulder County drug officials follow state mandate, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues. Since the medical marijuana registry is confidential, local drug agents have no idea that drug sellers, growers and users they stake out are acting within the law until after a drug bust has happened and a permit is flashed.

When these busts go down, plants can be destroyed, and expensive legal battles can follow. While the law allows for six plants, there’s wording in it that says if you can prove you need more, that’s fine, too. That kind of judgment doesn’t come out until court, however.

Vicente hears all about this and other issues. He says his organization gets 10 or so calls a week from people with concerns and questions about the policy. He even receives regular inquiries from the elderly asking how to get a hold of their medicine. There’s no easy answer.

“Lil’ old ladies call from Steamboat, their doctor recommends (medical marijuana), what are they going to do?” says Vicente, an attorney who spends half his time fighting for medical marijuana reform, the rest of his time working for U.S. drug policy changes.

Most will tell you the best way to solve this access problem in Colorado is to encourage legal marijuana dispensaries. These businesses can carry and grow the legal amount of medical marijuana for patients who deem them their caregiver. (If 100 patients have assigned a dispensary as their caregiver, it can grow 600 plants or hold two ounces per patient.)

Paying taxes and registering with the government as a legal business becomes a catch 22 situation, says Warren Edson, an attorney who represents CT LLC, a Colorado Springs dispensary. Federal law doesn’t recognize state medical marijuana rules. So it’s legal in Colorado, but that doesn’t mean legitimate marijuana vendors are safe from Drug Enforcement Agency prosecution. In California, raids on medical marijuana dispensaries are frequent.

“There’s a lot of things we could do if we felt safer about the Feds not kicking in our door,” Edson says. “The more legitimate you become, the more you’re out there.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll get somebody in the White House that sees how stupid this is.”

This fear resonates. There are exactly four legit marijuana dispensaries in Colorado for nearly 1,500 patients. One is in Colorado Springs, two in Denver and one in Fort Collins. Getting information on them is as difficult as wading through federal versus state jurisdiction issues.

For sick patients, finding the marijuana is only one part of an entirely problematic process. Though a physician has never been arrested for recommending medical marijuana, it is extremely difficult to find one willing to do so in Colorado.

The state admits such: “No physicians have experienced federal reprisals,” Colorado’s website states. “However, reluctance to participate due to the inconsistencies between state and federal marijuana laws have been expressed by doctors…” In the FAQs section, the information offered by Colorado is almost non-existent: “Can you refer me to a doctor?”

“No. It is the responsibility of the patient to work with a physician with whom he/she has a bona fide doctor-patient relationship.”

So if that patient has a relationship with a doctor not willing to go the medical pot route, which often seems the case, then it’s back to square one.

“Doctors are definitely wary,” says Brian Schreckinger of the THC Foundation in Wheat Ridge. The foundation has a doctor willing to sign the medical marijuana paperwork if legitimate documentation of a debilitating disease that qualifies under Colorado law is presented.

It seems as though until the national landscape changes, medical marijuana supporters will be hard-pressed to make huge gains toward acceptance in Colorado. Pope says it’s a simple matter of allowing significant studies to take place to prove the drug’s merit.

For more than six years, Professor Lyle Craker at the University of Massachusetts has lobbied to obtain a DEA license to manufacture marijuana exclusively for privately-funded, federally-approved research. Craker’s case is the focal point of the struggle to bring medical marijuana before the FDA to determine whether it meets the agencies standards for safety and efficacy. Earlier this year, a judge recommended approval—the DEA still has to weigh in. Pope has sent letters to Colorado’s representatives in the last two months to urge their support. He’s heard nothing back.

“What hurts in letting somebody study something?” he asks.

He is hopeful that the climate will change eventually, but in the meantime he knows first hand the benefits. The pot helps his muscles relax, which lets him get through most days with little pain. “Mornings are always my best time,” he says. “As my muscles deteriorate, it gets worse. It’s a chronic pain issue.”

There’s also some evidence that his pot regiment has slowed the MD from devastating his body, and he’s hopeful he can buck the doctors’ predictions that he’ll be wheelchair bound by his 50th birthday. An even more promising sign is the complete reversal of the symptoms of myotonia, a previously thought irreversible condition in which muscles don’t relax.

“Now it’s gone; it’s baffling my doctors,” Pope says. The medical marijuana treatment is the assumed reason for the condition leaving, and Pope’s doctor would love to begin case studies on it.

To date, 13 states have policy allowing for medicinal pot use. California’s is the widest reaching. There are literally hundreds of storefront pot shops, patients claiming anxiety can get a permit, and the area’s alternative newspapers are littered with advertisements touting doctors willing to write recommendations for a quick buck. Colorado’s law is much more restrictive, to the point that Vicente says the system is almost impossible to abuse.

“I haven’t heard of doctors doing it wrong,” he says. “The issue is not enough doctors are writing recommendations. They are afraid of getting prosecuted.”

He wants doctors and patients to feel more comfortable with the policy at hand, so he is promoting more support groups and working as an educator.

For now, it appears too risky for U.S. politicians to champion for this cause—it’s along the same lines of trumpeting gay marriage. So dozens of organizations are working at the state level to pass laws legalizing medical marijuana with the hope that it becomes such a momentous effort that the federal lawmakers will be forced into accepting it. “The public is ahead of the lawmakers,” Vicente says. “They have to catch up. In time, we’ll win this out. The Fed is the old guard; they are unwilling to bend. Once enough states adopt it, they are going to have to change.”

Until that happens, Colorado residents are essentially stuck with the program they have. The wish list of fixes include adding stipulations that would require the state give out more information, streamlining processes for permit applications, putting safeguards to ensure the safety of dispensaries, and revisiting possession limits. But since the law is a constitutional amendment, any changes would have to be put to a statewide vote, which is never an easy task.

While waiting for national reform, medical marijuana users, growers and sellers are stuck straddling that fine line between legal medical use and class four felony convictions. “As long as marijuana is illegal, I have to watch out,” Pope says.

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