In Boulder County, commissioners have placed a number of restrictions on where medical marijuana dispensaries and grow operations can locate, limiting them mainly to retail or industrial areas, of which there aren’t many in unincorporated areas. Commissioner Ben Pearlman sees the unanimous action as a way to comply with the…
With all the media attention being devoted to medical marijuana these days, it’s surprising that a Colorado Court of Appeals decision last week that medical marijuana use doesn’t necessarily constitute child endangerment failed to capture more headlines. After all, the ruling could have a major impact on medical marijuana users…
Yesterday, with as little fanfare as possible, Governor Bill Ritter signed two bills, HB 1284 and SB 109, designed to regulate Colorado’s medical marijuana industry. MMJ advocates like Matt Brown hail the legislation. But Sensible Colorado’s Brian Vicente sees them as flawed landmarks that will likely doom 40 percent of…
Governor Bill Ritter has finally signed HB 1284 and SB 109, the two medical marijuana bills that wended their way through the Colorado legislature this year. How did this former district attorney explain his reasons for backing legislation that many law-enforcement officials around the state absolutely loathe? By arguing that…
This week’s medical marijuana dispensary review — William Breathes’ critique of Arvada’s Special Kinds — will take you on a trip to the days when purchasing brick weed from a stranger’s house was the only game in town. But today, there are options aplenty, and our newly updated dispensary directory…
This dispensary has closed. As Colorado’s medical-marijuana industry grows, marijuana dispensaries of all types and sizes are proliferating around the state. Some resemble swanky bars or sterile dentist offices; others feel like a dope dealer’s college dorm room. To help keep them all straight, Westword is offering a no-holds-barred look…
The court case People v. Clendenin has already proved troublesome to Colorado’s medical marijuana community — and those problems could soon start growing again. Last October, the Court of Appeals upheld the drug conviction of Longmont resident Stacy Clendenin even though she argued she was a medical marijuana caregiver. Rob…
Last month, Greenway University CEO and founder Gus Escamilla was frustrated. He was ready to build the “premier worldwide medical marijuana training facility,” but he couldn’t find a landlord willing to work with him. But those problems are over. According to Escamilla, Greenway’s finally got a home — and it’s…
When Ken Gorman, Denver’s loudest pot advocate, was shot and killed in February 2007 (a story told in the Westword feature “High Times”), the pool of suspects seemed endless. But one rumor topped all other conjecture. Thomas Lawrence, Gorman’s former business partner, was somehow involved in the murder. But Lawrence…
It’s not often that a representative of NORML salutes beer. But that’s precisely what executive director Allen St. Pierre does, sort of, in a piece celebrating Denver’s own Wynkoop Brewery for an ad that makes the watering hole seem like a medical marijuana center via a very green advertisement boasting…
Marijuana advocate Mason Tvert was pleased that a Saturday protest at Town Center of Aurora over the mall’s banning of John Gailey over a “Yes We Cannabis” T-shirt was harassment-free. Jessica Corry, Gailey’s co-counsel, agrees that the mall’s response represented “a step in the right direction.” But she stresses that…
On Friday, SAFER’s Mason Tvert announced that he would lead a march at Town Center of Aurora to protest the treatment of John Gailey a week earlier. Back then, Gailey was cited for trespassing and banned from the mall for a year because he wore a “Yes We Cannabis” T-shirt,…
Yesterday, we told you the story of John Gailey, who was cited for trespassing and banned from the Town Center of Aurora mall for a year because he refused to take off a “Yes We Cannabis” T-shirt. No word yet about whether the mall has apologized and approved the wearing…
The Colorado Medical Marijuana Festival, taking place on Sunday, May 30, at Longmont’s Radisson Hotel (click here for details), has several unusual attributes. For one thing, says event organizer Sean Bookman, the get-together will feature an on-site “medicinal garden” at which five Longmont-area dispensaries will be able to serve MMJ…
With dispensaries on every street corner, legislators having rolled out the first regulatory system for statewide marijuana distribution in the country and activists seriously considering an initiative to legalize pot this November, it might seem like Colorado has always been a marijuana Mecca. But just a few years ago, the…
Each week, one of our medical marijuana reviewers critiques a local dispensary. The latest to get this treatment? Boulder’s High Grade Alternatives, which earns good marks from The Wildflower Seed. But it’s hardly the only game in town, as our newly updated dispensary directory proves. To begin exploring it, click…
This dispensary has closed. As Colorado’s medical-marijuana industry grows, marijuana dispensaries of all types and sizes are proliferating around the state. Some resemble swanky bars or sterile dentist offices; others feel like a dope dealer’s college dorm room. To help keep them all straight, Westword is offering a no-holds-barred look…
The Spencer’s Gifts outlet in the Town Center at Aurora mall sells a cap with a marijuana leaf on it. But if you buy it and wear it out of the store, cops could immediately evict you from the shopping center and order you not to return until 2011. That’s…
In February, we told you about a fight between the City of Windsor and MediGrow, a dispensary owned by Lazarus Pino. Windsor passed a moratorium that grandfathered in two dispensaries, In Harmony Wellness and A New Dawn Wellness Clinic but excluded MediGrow — because, said Mayor John Vazquez, Pino’s operation…
Representative Jared Polis has spent a lot of his legislative capital of late defending the medical marijuana industry in Colorado from possible interference by the federal government. In February, for example, he sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder expressing concern about saber-rattling statements made by DEA special agent…
Among the more controversial elements of the state’s pending overhaul of the medical marijuana industry, is a requirement that those operating dispensaries be Colorado residents — a provision that at first sounds like it could be a cash cow for local business. But HB 1284 and SB 109, which Governor…
The Colorado Supreme Court has played host to some odd hearings over its history — but few have been more unusual than the May 14 proceeding involving Kurt Riggin. Riggin, who identifies himself as a tribal chief and judge of the Kikiallus nation, based in Washington state, was present to…
