Taxing medical marijuana sales is an idea worth considering, not because it is a potential cash cow for fiscally constrained governments, but because it could raise revenue needed to cover the services the flourishing businesses will require.
But caution is in order. There are some dominoes that need to fall first.
The topic came up again last week, as Denver City Council members Chris Nevitt and Charlie Brown publicly expressed support for imposing a city sales tax on medical marijuana sales. "We've got to tax this damn thing at the city rate, which is 3.62 percent," Brown told us. "We're talking millions of dollars here."
And that may be. But some questions about legality of taxation and the future of medical marijuana have to be answered first. And we think that overall, cities such as Denver ought not look to the emerging industry as a windfall that could close budget gaps.
First, the legality of taxing the commodity is up in the air.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is researching the issue, and his decision will turn on whether the substance is deemed a prescription or something more like an herbal remedy.
The latter seems more likely, since marijuana isn't a drug that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And herbal remedies are already taxed.
Second, we don't think governments ought to take advantage of the medical marijuana laws in the way that so-called "ganjapreneurs" have been doing.
Meaning, governments would be just as wrong to reap great wads of cash from back-door legalization efforts as are the mass dispensaries, some of which are just barely pretending to be serving the most infirm among us.
Amendment 20, which passed in 2000, did not approve the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, despite the wishful thinking of some.
Furthermore, legislators are poised to address the medical marijuana issue in the upcoming session, which begins in January, and their decisions could seriously affect how medical marijuana is delivered in Colorado. (See Alicia Caldwell's article from today's Perspective section.)
If their decisions shrink the number and reach of distributors, then a basic sales tax should be enough.
But if lawmakers create a structure that encourages a broader distribution model — with attendant regulatory and service requirements — then other fees and taxes would be worth contemplating.
It would seem prudent, we think, to wait until the shape of medical marijuana is more clearly defined before settling on a taxing structure.
It's smart to get ahead of the game and contemplate the tax and revenue-generating alternatives. But we hope governments will exhibit some foresight and restraint before they make decisions they might have to revise once the medical marijuana landscape is clearly defined.
The Colorado ski town of Breckenridge has voted overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana.
Early returns Tuesday night showed the proposal winning with 72 percent of the vote. The measure would allow adults over 21 to have up to 1 ounce of marijuana.
he skiing town of Breckenridge voted Tuesday night by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 to legalize the adult possession of marijuana.
Breckenridge voters passed Measure 2F, which removes criminal penalties from the town code for the private possession of up to one ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older. The ordinance also removes criminal penalties for the possession of bongs, pipes and other drug paraphernalia.
It passed 73 percent to 27 percent.
"This votes demonstrates that Breckenridge citizens overwhelmingly believe that adults should not be punished for making the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol," said Sean McAllister, a Breckenridge attorney who proposed the ordinance.
The measure's victory is considered symbolic because it conflicts with state and federal laws. However, supporters of the measure say it inches the whole state closer to full legalization.
Other cities around the country have taken similar action in recent years, including a measure in Denver that decriminalized possession of marijuana up to one ounce.
Advocates say the Breckenridge proposal goes further than others because it allows paraphernalia as well. Drug paraphernalia possession in Colorado is considered a petty offense. Though "head shops" selling bongs and pipes are common in Colorado, the wares are ostensibly for smoking tobacco.
Paraphernalia charges are usually only filed along with possession charges. Both are misdemeanors punishable by a $100 fine and court fees.
The penalties aren't serious, but about 100 people a year in Breckenridge are cited for possession of either marijuana or paraphernalia, often both. Supporters of the effort say it's not right to leave small-time pot smokers with a criminal record.
The Breckenridge campaign, which had no formal opposition, received endorsements from Breckenridge Town Councilman Jeffrey Bergeron, Fmr. Colorado State Rep. and Breckenridge resident, Gary Lindstrom, and the Summit Daily News.
Measure 2F was placed on the ballot when more than 1,400 people signed a petition supporting it. It only needed 495 signatures to get on the ballot. The ordinance change will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2010.
Several Breckenridge residents heartily backed the local marijuana effort.
"People think it's a waste of time for the police to be prosecuting these people," said Elisabeth Lawrence, 30. Smoking pot, she said, is "not the worst thing in the world to be doing."
Nancy Skaj, a clerk at a Breckenridge grocery store, said the measure could be a boon for ski tourists who don't have clearance for medical marijuana. "With all the injuries people get skiing up here, instead of popping pills, they should just be doing this. It's a lot more natural," she said.
One of the least-publicized aspect of the mountain pine bark beetle epidemic, which has decimated nearly 2 million acres of trees in Colorado, is the threat it poses to the region's power grid. Whole mountainsides of dead and toppling trees throughout the state raise the specter of disaster on the scale of the great Northeast Blackout of 2003.
The largest power outage in North American history left more than 50 million people in the Midwest and Northeastern United States, as well as parts of Canada, without electricity for up to two days beginning on Aug. 14, 2003. It's estimated the blackout cost up to $6 billion and at least 11 lives.
And it all started with untrimmed trees coming into contact with a power line in rural Ohio.
Every sperm and every egg, fertilized or not, is a living, breathing person, endowed by its Creator with certain inalienable rights. At least, that’s what the proposed 2010 personhood amendment to the Colorado state constitution implies. No, it doesn’t say that literally, but thanks to the vague wording of the amendment, that’s one possible interpretation.
It’s also clear from an article in The Colorado Independent that this is only half of what the amendment’s authors intended.
“It’s intended to account for human beings who may be created through asexual reproduction in laboratories and used as raw material for research, organs, or stem cells. Fertilization would not have properly applied to asexually reproduced humans, but even asexually reproduced human beings have a definite biological beginning,” [Gualberto Garcia] Jones explained. (Jones heads the organization that initiated this year’s amendment)
That this law could be interpreted to include sperm is an ironic example of the law of unintended consequences.
More at the link.Every sperm and every egg, fertilized or not, is a living, breathing person, endowed... more
For nearly a decade, naked pumpkin runners did their thing unmolested, stampeding through the frigid dark past crowds of admirers who hooted, hollered and tossed candy. But last year the run attracted more than 150 participants, and Police Chief Mark Beckner fears things are getting out of hand. "It's a free-for-all," he says.
Voters in this Rocky Mountain resort town will decide next week whether to legalize pot for all adults at a time when the movement to allow medical marijuana is gaining steam around the country.
A measure before Breckenridge voters in Tuesday's municipal election would legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana along with bongs, pipes and other pot paraphernalia. Supporters of the measure say it would inch the whole state closer to full legalization.
Other cities around the country have taken similar action in recent years, including a measure in Denver that decriminalized possession.
Help us assemble the ultimate Colorado Halloween guide! We've included some of our favorite Halloween events and parties in the slide show below, but we want to know yours. Vote for the best events that we've included, and click the PARTICIPATE button below to add your own. Once you send us your event and photo we'll add it to the slide show for everyone to see and vote on.
Colorado U.S. Sen. Mark Udall Wednesday took his boldest step yet on the road to a national nuclear renaissance as part of a program designed to combat global warming. He introduced the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative Improvement Act of 2009 in a lengthy speech on the Senate floor in which he acknowledged he was likely stepping on an environmental landmine.
"For some, news that a Udall is speaking favorably about nuclear power will come as a stark - and perhaps unpleasant - surprise. But I also believe public and expert opinion on the risks and benefits of nuclear power has changed," Udall said, referencing the 1979 Three Mile Island power plant meltdown and the industry's struggle to improve its public image in the ensuing three decades.
Organizers of last Saturday's annual Zombie Mall Crawl are being forced by the Downtown Denver Partnership to pay $1,000 to clean up the fake blood that was left on store fronts, banners and buses this weekend.
The event's organizer, Daniel Newman, told Westword Wednesday that the Downtown Denver Partnership considered the residual fake blood to be akin to graffiti:
"Basically, the Downtown Denver Partnership, the guys who manage the mall, without e-mailing us or asking us if we could help clean up, considered all the fake blood to be the same as graffiti and handed it to that department," Newman says. "So we got a little over $1,000 worth of reimbursement charges for graffiti cleanup."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/29/denver-zombie-mall-crawl_n_338570.html... more
Via the Boulder Daily Camera: attendees at this year's Zombie Mall Crawl were a little more active than your average undead. Not satisfied with typical zombie routine of wandering around and repeating the word "brains," this year's zombies broke into a well-choreographed rendition of Beyonce's "All The Single Ladies" reminiscent of the iconic Michael Jackson "Thriller" video.Via the Boulder Daily Camera: attendees at this year's Zombie Mall Crawl were a little... more
Students at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, an institution that teaches sustainable and environment practices, offer some solutions on how Americans can be more sustainable in their food disposable.Students at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, an institution that teaches... more
The creation of a sustainable future will require the development of conservation practitioners with a strong foundation in science, leadership, and management. In addition, these practitioners will need to engage in cross-disciplinary problem solving, to understand cross-cultural and cross-boundary issues, and to be comfortable operating adaptively in an environment of increasing complexity and uncertainty.
Through the Conservation Leadership through Learning (CLTL) initiative, we are pioneering a new model for graduate education that will prepare the next generation of conservation leaders. CLTL merges transdisciplinary University education with real-world action to create on-the-ground benefits for conservation and communities. The result is a highly integrated learning experience developed by Colorado State University’s Warner College of Natural Resources and the School of Global Environmental Sustainability in partnership with El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Mexico.
Accepting Applications Now - Start Date August 23, 2010Conservation at a Crossroads -
The creation of a sustainable future will require... more
Real estate brokers say that Colorado's medical-marijuana law has sparked a land rush, as entrepreneurs lured by a growing number of licensed users search for properties for growing or selling pot.
In a down real estate market, landlords who might otherwise wait for more conventional tenants are snapping at the opportunity presented by medical-marijuana dispensaries, said Darrin Revious, a broker with Shames Makovsky Realty.Real estate brokers say that Colorado's medical-marijuana law has sparked a land rush,... more
Local conservationist and pilot Bruce Gordon gave up on politicians when former Speaker of the House Tom Foley fell asleep in his co-pilot seat.
Gordon had been giving the congressman a bird’s-eye tour of tree stands killed by mountain pine beetles when he nodded off.
“This big fat guy fell asleep right in the airplane,” Gordon said Monday.
So the longtime Aspenite has since turned his attention — and his six-seater Cessna — to a younger, more engaged crowd. On Monday morning, Gordon and two other volunteer pilots took to the sky with 50-some local teenagers, flying above beetle-killed lodgepole pines on the flanks of Mount Sopris.
The sky tours kicked off the fifth annual “Flight Across America” for EcoFlight, a local non-profit conservation tour outfit. It included students from the Colorado Rocky Mountain School along with Basalt, Bridges and Glenwood Springs high schools. This morning, EcoFlight is flying four students to Jackson, Wyo. to tour the forests there infested with the white bark pine beetle.
“There is a debate going on in my plane every day,” Gordon said as he navigated his jet several thousand feet above Thompson Creek.
--excerptLocal conservationist and pilot Bruce Gordon gave up on politicians when former... more
Demand for medical marijuana in Colorado has grown so fast in the past few months that it has outstripped the production of legal "grow" operations and is now probably being supplied by international drug cartels, say some local sheriffs and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
And as dispensaries proliferate throughout the state, police and lawyers say they are worried about the peripheral crime rising around the shops intended to function as pharmacies, selling medical marijuana prescribed to people who suffer one of eight conditions, ranging from chronic pain to glaucomaDemand for medical marijuana in Colorado has grown so fast in the past few months that... more
The medical marijuana review business is booming as states like Colorado and California have seen an explosion in the number of pot shops.The medical marijuana review business is booming as states like Colorado and... more
The parents of a two-year-old girl in Colorado are unable to attain health insurance for their daughter because the insurer, United Healthcare Golden Rule, claims she is too small. In a letter sent to the family of the child, Aislin Bates, United Healthcare Golden Rule writes, "we are unable to provide coverage for Aislin because her height and weight do not meet our company standards." According to a Colorado news station, Aislin weighed six pounds, six ounces at birth, and now weighs 22 pounds.
When Robert Bates, the girl's father, left his former job to start his own business, he was forced to seek out his own health insurance, and enrolled his family in an insurance plan with United Healthcare Golden Rule. "It took me by surprise," Bates told ABC 7 in Denver. "I didn't think that her size was that abnormal and that it was something that you'd consider to be unhealthy." As ABC 7 reports:
A spokeswoman for United Healthcare Golden Rule said 89 percent of the people who apply for insurance get it. Ellen Laden, the company's public relations director, told the station that most insurers have their own propriety height and weight guidelines.
"Ours are based on several medical sources, including the Centers for Disease Control, and are well within industry standards," she said.
Laden said she couldn't talk about specific cases like the Bates's.
Robert Bates, however, isn't satisfied. "What we want to see is that insurance companies have legitimate reasons for denying coverage," he said.
The Bates family is hoping for a similar change in policy. In the meantime, Aislin Bates remains uninsured.The parents of a two-year-old girl in Colorado are unable to attain health insurance... more
An investigation into possible criminal charges for a Colorado couple who told authorities their son floated off in a balloon shaped like a flying saucer has spread to those who worked with them.
Robert Thomas told sheriff's investigators about what he observed between amateur storm chasers Richard and Mayumi Heene when he helped record the husband's ideas earlier this year, Thomas' attorney, Linda Lee, said. Thomas earlier sold his story to the Web site Gawker.com.
Lee said Richard Heene was "obsessed" with trying to land a TV show and become famous.
"Heene believes the world is going to end in 2012," she said. "Because of that, he wanted to make money quickly, become rich enough to build a bunker or something underground, where he can be safe from the sun exploding."
Thomas told the "Today" show on NBC on Tuesday that he had nothing to do with the hoax and didn't know about the balloon being launched until he saw it on television. When asked whether he should be profiting by selling his story, Thomas, who described himself as an entrepreneur and a college student, said he was told that people sell their stories to the media and that he was paid "way less than most people think."An investigation into possible criminal charges for a Colorado couple who told... more
