DEBATE: How has marijuana changed Colorado's image?

[poledriver]

DEBATE: How has marijuana changed Colorado's image?

DENVER - A new NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll finds a majority of Americans support legislative efforts to legalize marijuana.

Fifty-five percent say they would support laws in which adults 21 and older are allowed to buy limited amounts of marijuana for personal use.

About a quarter would not approve of legalizing marijuana, but they wouldn't actively oppose it either. Nineteen percent would actively work to oppose and overturn any legalization efforts.

There is no question that marijuana has changed Colorado's image. Whether that's for the better or worse is still up for debate.

"To the extent that the cannabis industry has changed Colorado. I think Colorado has even more changed the image of cannabis industry. We are showing the world that there is a sensitive alternative to the underground black market for marijuana by taking it off the streets, out of the underground and putting it behind a highly regulated counter," Taylor West of the National Cannabis Industry Association said.

Bob Doyle is with the group Colorado SAM, which stands for Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

"It's bad for Colorado. Underneath the celebration from the marijuana industry and all the money that they are going to make, unfortunately what we have is high youth use rates and higher rates of use among our 18-24 year olds, already problems with public health and safety, so the brain impairment that comes with marijuana use is very real, so the damage to our state is already happening and unfortunately it is the joke of many people," Doyle said.

With a 2 and a half minute video and comments at -

http://www.9news.com/news/politics/375356/166/DEBATE-How-has-marijuana-changed-Colos-image

 

[Nicholai]

Who cares? People were getting stoned anyway. At worst all it will do is decrease the rate of binge drinking(which is VERY high here). Downside? None, really.

 

[angeleyes]

It's all about moderation.

I don't want to read in 20 years time about all the people who abused it and as a result their mental health is out the window!

If people can take responsibility and not just be "420 blaze it" then this could be a great move.

 

[Bardeaux]

I think it's going to take some time to properly assess the social effects of this new law. I predict a surge of tourism, as with what happened to Amsterdam, Canada and other places that experimented with marijuana legalization or public normalization. In 5 years, hopefully, Colorado's image will revert to the one we've always know. A giant ski resort for yuppies, South Park and the Denver Broncos. I say hopefully, because hopefully by then there will be a handful of other states that adopt similar laws, making Colorado's marijuana venture in particular less scrutinized.

 

[spini4]

"unfortunately what we have is high youth use rates"

Damn these "but what about the children" articles about legal marijuana are starting to get old.

 

[neversickanymore]

Well I dont think they will ever be called a sheep to propaganda and hysteria.

The thing about Colorado is that it is so much more than the place that fixed the laws of a demonized drug.

It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
It is also filed with some of the nicest, healthiest people, highest educated, and happiest people.

Anyone who has wanted to has been blazing down legally for well over a decade. The negative results have been hard to find. Colorado's an amazing place that has just decided for itself to end laws that were unjust.

Sure this has caused a whole bunch of stir with the world.. but other than an influx of tourists and baring any bullshit behavior they bring, its just going to be another sunny day in the mountains, on the front range, and over the western slope.

What the rest of the world keeps a close eye to see is something we already know.. with ten years of liberal medicinal use, where the use of grass was permitted by people for which it provided positive effects, and was not hampered by law enforcement as long as the reasonable laws about its use where followed.

So with the results of the experiment were already tallied by Coloradans long before the world took notice of this grand experiment. That's why these intelligent responsible people voted it so.

Did the doomsday grass propaganda come true.. not at all. So the intelligent, caring people of Colorado voted to do what was right after running its own experiment for over ten years.

And as the people of Colorado are some of the kindest fun loving people on earth I dont think they care much about what the image they hold for the rest of the world are.

Pretty sure that when the sun breaks over rado and lights the snow capped winter mountains a golden hue.. that all but the stringent polar extremes of this war are reading the paper, vapeing a bowl if they want or not if they dont... and possibly thinking about the super bowl.

Then its off to attack the day.. most active state in the union.. makes me think cause I thought grass was supposed to make you lazy.. one of the most educated.. makes me wonder as grass is claimed to hurt your mind and kill your motivation.. but its not like every one smokes.. but it also like every one doesn't. I guess they I would say most people have have realized that the use of grass just isn't the big deal.

So just another day in rado where the ranchers and the farmers, the professionals and the hippies, are doing their best to get along and everyone but the self riotous extremist are thinking and talking about everything except for grass.

Guess the rest of the world can think what it wants... rado must think so, cause she has a tendency to think for herself.