Legal Marijuana in Colorado! Oh My!

So weed is going to be available in Colorado next year for recreational use and I say Big F***ing Deal! Marijuana has been legal with a “Red Card” for medical use in Colorado ever since Amendment 20 passed on November 7, 2000, the law took effect on June 1, 2001. So Mary Jane has been legal here for awhile.

As I understand it because I don’t use weed, that since then the pot in Colorado has gotten cheaper and “better”. Great news I guess if you are a stoner. It would be kind of like finding more powerful and cheaper booze for me when I was drinking.

People I know and have talked to, that have a red card and use ganja on a regular basis legally, really enjoy their choices. As explained to me, there is so much variety in marijuana that it has turned into a veritable borgasmord of choices.

There is wake and bake weed to get you going in the morning that replaces that bad-for-you-coffee, there is afternoon pot for a little boost to get through your day of internet gaming, there is getting-off-work-from-7-11 smoke to help you ease back into your off work schedule of Super Mario, then there is getting ready for dinner 4/20, getting ready for bed Gravity Bong Rips and so on.

This is taken directly from the chat board on GrassCity.com

oldskool7142 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 126

Re: Name Brand Weed Theres usually no reason to change the name of a strain with the exception of a few noted popular strains being basically just OG Kush, Kush, Blueberry, Strawberry Cough an such. But if you get L.A Confidential, Nebula, Lemon Freeze, Schrom and such and it smokes good chances are its really that strain. Plus smoking the same strain from different batches will get your senses more acclimated for the different phenos and you can easily distinguish large calyx'd, tower center bud gland skunky/kush smelling trainwreck strain from a similar looking fat calaxy'd swollen budded sweet/sugary smelling sweettooth.

Notice this is from 2008, seven years after the passing of Amendment 20 and five years ago, so I’m sure there has been some huge jumps in technology and weed naming since then, after all once under the influence what better thing to do than think up names for weed.

Seriously though I do know many that weed has really helped. People that suffer from chronic pain (that’s a joke if you’re a stoner) and do not want to take readily available narcotics that are much more dangerous, doctors hand out Vicodin and Oxy scripts with ease but watch that pot use. For people that suffer horrid nausea from cancer treatments and can’t eat, I’ve heard ganja can work miracles.

I have referenced marijuana before in this space and my interactions with users of the Kush as a paramedic, which was almost never. As I have said in the past as a firefighter/paramedic I can’t recall a single call in 31 years where the use of pot was the source of the emergency. No car crashes, no domestic violence, no gun play etc., can’t say the same for liquor; booze on the other hand was a job protector.

Drunks kept us in business and still do, but stoners, not so much. So now there is a tremendous debate in Colorado about being able to test stoners and see if there is a dope equivalent to a drunks blood alcohol levels. So that even more revenue for the state can be generated off of weed.

Revenue for the state? How so you might ask, well let me explain. Medical pot has been paying off in huge tax revenue for both Colorado and Washington. Washington is looking to collect $1.9 billion over the five year period following legalization, Colorado is looking at millions too.

Here’s the rub on a test to determine excessive levels of THC in a person’s blood. Heavy users like heavy drinkers for the most part don’t really show signs of being under the influence at these very low levels. Daily smokers like daily drinkers have acquired a tolerance to their product of choice.

So when a stoner gets pulled over and tested for whatever reason and registers an over the legal limit for THC guess what? Into the system they will go, they will pay fines, court costs, lawyers, higher insurance rates, and lord only knows what else, but there will be more costs for getting caught, and that will mean more money.

I’m sure there will be a whole new cottage industry that will spring up around the being stoned while driving just like there is for DUI’s. There will be mandatory classes, mandatory counseling, and the list will grow, and everyone involved in the system will get a payday.

In the end I believe like all sin taxes the government will become addicted to the tax revenue just like they have for cigarettes and booze. There will be much harrumphing about the dangers of getting stoned and add campaigns on TV and radio to discourage the children from using whacky-tabacky and many politicians will make many speeches about dope around election time and blah-blah-blah.

So do I care about people that use weed? Not a lick, after all in all the years I have known stoners, going all the way back to childhood, I have never known a single consumer of weed that hasn’t has it when they needed it. Never!