County Fair Nixes Pot Pavilion

Corn on the cob, frozen bananas on sticks, butter sculptures – all delicacies found at your local county fair. But one thing will be missing from that list when the next Denver County Fair rolls into town later this summer: weed.

Organizers behind the event announced in June that they have canceled the Pot Pavilion attraction, which first appeared at the 2014 fair. The controversial booth became the subject of a lawsuit filed by fair attendees who complained vendors were illegally handing out cannabis edibles.

The suit was recently settled out of court, but fair organizer Dana Cain said it was time to retire the attraction anyway. The decision came about not because of the controversy, she said, but because interest in the pavilion is low.

Many new cannabis events in Denver

Denver already has a glut of marijuana expos and events, Cain said. The Pot Pavilion simply wasn’t a popular attraction – though the controversy certainly didn’t help.

“In the first year, we got tons of vendor support, waves of international attention, tons of sponsor support, and everybody was all about it,” she said. “But fast-forward a year later, and it’s completely old hat. There’s a complete overload of marijuana events in this town right now.”

Marijuana is legal for recreational use in Colorado. The Pot Pavilion was an attempt to update the stodgy county fair and give it a younger edge. The booth featured joint-rolling contests, a pot-baking competition, and paraphernalia displays, among other highlights.

Public consumption is a misdemeaner

Even though possession of cannabis is legal, public consumption of the drug remains a misdemeanor in Colorado. The Denver County Fair is considered a public event, so organizers were forced to prohibit any consumption at the booth.

Instead, the contests were held at an off-site facility licensed to allow marijuana use. This limited the appeal of the pavilion, Cain said, though some fairgoers complained in the lawsuit that they were given edibles despite the prohibition.

Cain said she and her fellow organizers simply concluded that pot isn’t a good fit for the fair. They never intended to break into the cannabis business, she said.

“We never wanted to be the Cannabis Cup,” Cain said. “We’re the Denver County Fair, so we’re celebrating everything that’s unique about Denver, and last year that was definitely marijuana. We just didn’t want to overdose on marijuana.”

Colorado, like California, is already home to countless weed events, including the annual High Times Cannabis Cup competition. Pot expos were already common before Colorado voters legalized recreational sale and use of the drug in 2012.

Cain said organizers plan to replace the Pot Pavilion with a cultural exhibit about cats. It’s already drawing widespread attention, she said, and should be a better fit for the families and children who attend the fair.

“We couldn’t follow up that amazing pavilion with something substandard,” she said.

County Fair Nixes Pot Pavilion

Maine Lawmakers Vote Not to Legalize

Lawmakers in Maine have passed up the chance to legalize marijuana by way of legislation.

The state’s House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in late June to defeat a bill that would have allowed legal cultivation, sale, and possession of cannabis. If it had passed, Maine would have become the first state to legalize by legislation.

House members voted 98-45 to kill LD 1380, a bill that would have put legalization up for a public vote. State Rep. Diane Russell, a longtime proponent of legalization, sponsored that bill. The state Senate must now consider it, but its prospect there is grim at best. Senators unanimously voted down a separate legalization bill, LD 1401, which was sponsored by Rep. Mark Dion.

Maine is widely seen as one of the next battlegrounds over legal marijuana. Support for the idea is strong, the drug is already decriminalized, and medical cannabis is legal.

Reform movement maintains momentum

Reform is by no means dead in Maine, even after the bills were shot down. Two groups are currently competing to gather signatures for a push to put legalization on the statewide ballot in 2016.

Odds that voters would accept legal cannabis are thought to be high. Maine is viewed as the most marijuana-friendly environment on the East Coast, with the possible exception of Rhode Island.

So far, legalization has been achieved only in the American West, in Colorado, Washington State, Oregon, and Alaska. Washington, D.C., has also legalized recreational marijuana, but the effects of that law are more limited.

Advocates had hoped to introduce reform as fast as possible, using legislatures. The only alternative, a public referendum, must wait until the next statewide election. By that time, in November 2016, several states will be considering similar votes.

Only a matter of time

The lawmakers behind the failed bills said legalization is coming, it’s only a matter of when and how. The public will likely vote for comprehensive reform, Russell and Dion said, and the more the legislature does now to prepare, the easier the transition will be.

The two pointed to the state’s medical marijuana program, adopted in 1999. In the time since, the law has been amended several times to fix problems. Dion said that’s because lawmakers failed to plan ahead.

“Each and every Legislature that has sat in this chamber since then has been confronted with innumerable bills to play catchup,” Dion said. “When we have to play catchup, citizens are at risk. Their conduct is called into question, and the government enacts a high price on error.”

This isn’t the first time the Maine Legislature has considered legalization. The House killed a reform bill in 2013 by just four votes. Opponents of legalization claim the votes prove legal cannabis is a losing proposition.

“Momentum for marijuana legalization has clearly begun to wane,” said Scott Gagnon, executive director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an anti-cannabis group. “We will take this momentum with us as we hit the road to continue to speak out about the public health and public safety threats posed by commercialized marijuana.”

Legalization proponents, however, disputed that observation, saying the public desire for change is palpable. Maine is just a vote away from legal marijuana, they say.

“The legislatures failure to act should not be mistaken for waning public interest in marijuana policy reform,” said David Boyer of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, one of the groups behind the referendum effort. “Elected officials have always followed the citizens’ lead on this issue. Maine voters will still have the final say, and we expect they will say it’s time to end marijuana prohibition.”

Maine Lawmakers Vote Not to Legalize

Weed Is Getting Cheaper in Colorado

Advocates who push for the legalization of marijuana regularly make the point that legal cannabis will draw users away from the criminals of the black market and put their money into a legitimate industry.

If the current price of marijuana in Colorado is any indication, those advocates appear to be right. A new study shows that costs have dropped substantially since the first cannabis stores opened in January 2014.

Over the last 18 months, the price of a high-quality eighth of marijuana sold for as much as $70, far above the value set by the black market. The prices were initially described as the inevitable result of the novelty of legalization, and that presumption appears to hold up. The same eighth of an ounce now sells for between $30 and $50, down from $50 to $70 in June 2014.

An ounce, meanwhile, now costs between $250 and $300, compared to a cost of $300 to $400 a year ago. These prices are roughly in line with the cost of cannabis on the black market, at least in the American West.

Increasing customer numbers

Still, the number of customers continues to grow in the Centennial State, meaning the industry stands to make more money despite the drop in retail prices. That, in turn, will mean a substantial tax haul for the state.

It’s not especially surprising that marijuana prices are on the decline in states where the drug is legal. The legal cannabis industry has exploded in Colorado since 2014, and new stores continue to open. With each new shop come new customers and increased revenues.

Even so, customers are spending less per person, the survey found. That reflects the fact that the novelty has worn off legal marijuana, at least for Colorado locals. But the number of customers is still growing, and that in turn means more stores – which mean more customers.

On top of that factor, there are more cultivation sites, and increased production leads to lower prices. It’s a finely tuned balance of demand and supply, in other words, and the industry still has a lot of room for growth.

Natural result of maturing industry

Nicholas Coilas, an executive who works in the marijuana industry, called dropping prices “a natural result for any maturing industry as dispensaries try to find the market’s equilibrium price.”

Lawmakers are trying to help cannabis prices reach that sweet spot. Later this year the state will have a one-day holiday on the 10 percent marijuana sales tax, which will subsequently drop to 8 percent. The idea: to make prices low enough that customers have no reason to turn to the black market.

Legal price tags are now close to prices on the black market, so Colorado may not have much further to go. The rapidly equalizing cost of marijuana there suggests illegal dealers may soon be undercut.

Overall, the cannabis industry remains very healthy. It drew in about $44 million in revenue in April, producing $4.4 million in sales tax money. That’s a 98 percent increase from April 2014, and total revenues for 2015 should be 50 percent higher than last year’s haul.

Weed Is Getting Cheaper in Colorado

Hemp Stages Quiet Comeback in Colorado

Hemp is the redheaded stepchild of the marijuana plant. It has huge potential in agriculture and industry, but it’s not the kind of cannabis you smoke, and that has kept it off the front burner of American politics.

That’s starting to change. In Colorado, hemp is staging a quiet revolution, fueled by profit and industrial needs.

In 2014, the second full year of legal marijuana in Colorado, several farmers harvested hemp crops. The yields weren’t impressive, but hemp’s potential is clearly huge. This year, some of that potential became reality as hemp found its way into industry, academia, and the retail market.

Hemp is a tough, fibrous material found in the stalk of the cannabis plant. Unlike the bud and leaves of the plant, hemp contains little to no THC and is therefore not intoxicating. It has many applications: It is used to make rope, paper, and fabric, among other materials.

Hemp has a long, illustrious history, with uses dating back thousands of years. But because marijuana is illegal in most of the United States, hemp is also banned.

Industry is flourishing in Colorado

That isn’t true in Colorado, where voters approved legal cannabis in 2012. The material still can’t be shipped from state to state, as that would be considered drug trafficking under federal law – even though hemp is non-intoxicating. But hemp is undergoing a comeback within state lines.

Analysts predict a booming future for hemp, despite its negative image. As with marijuana, the hemp market is likely to see massive, rapid growth.

Colorado is staking a claim as hemp headquarters for America, a goal the state may well accomplish. The Rocky Mountain Hemp Association, based in Denver, recently changed its name to the National Hemp Association – an attempt to give the industry a nationwide presence.

Though grown mostly in Colorado, hemp is likely to be big business elsewhere, soon. It’s legal to grow hemp in at least four states, including Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. That number will only grow in coming years.

$620 million hemp market

“Hemp is currently a $620 million industry in the U.S.,” said Zev Paiss, executive director of the National Hemp Association. “Hemp can create tens of thousands of American jobs if businesses can grow, process and source their hemp in the U.S.”

One of the largest hemp farms in the United States sits on 132 acres east of Pueblo, Col. The site is used to grow tens of thousands of hemp plants, all low in THC but high in other cannabinoids.

That makes the hemp more useful as medicine, since multiple cannabinoids provide symptom relief. Alexis Korybut, the executive behind the farm, said the operation will soon include a large processing plant that should provide 30 new jobs. Korybut said he wants to make Pueblo “a center of activity” for hemp cultivation.

But he said the market is still very young, too young to deal directly with customers.

“We’ve been reluctant to pull the trigger on customer contracts,” Korybut said. “For serious customers, they need to make sure that we have quality, quantity, and consistency.”

Hemp is currently a wide-open market, but regulators caution the industry will have to behave like any other. Duane Sinning, who runs the hemp program at the Colorado Department of Agriculture, said his office tries to offer realistic advice to prospective hemp growers and sellers.

“Quit thinking of yourself as special,” Sinning said. “As soon as you consider yourself mainstream, then that’s the start of an industry.”

Last year, Colorado farmers harvested about 200 acres of hemp, despite filing paperwork for 1,811 acres. Some applicants just wanted a license as a keepsake, Sinning said. This year, however, farmers have registered for 2,830 acres plus almost 500,000 square feet indoors.

“It’s still a niche crop, but there is potential,” he said.

Hemp Stages Quiet Comeback in Colorado

New MJ Numbers Don"t Look Good for DEA

For decades, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and its predecessor, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, have devoted special resources to stamping out marijuana use. Cannabis is the plant that fuels the “war on drugs.”

But new statistics show the DEA is losing that war, badly. Not only do many Americans toke – 33 million each year, more than 10 percent – but marijuana is incredibly easy to find. According to the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 60 percent of Americans say cannabis is “fairly easy” or “very easy” to obtain.

By comparison, more than 70 percent of American adults use alcohol in any given year. Of course, marijuana is still mostly illegal while alcohol is legal and widely available. Compared to other illicit drugs, cannabis is easily the most popular – and the easiest to buy.

Just how easy depends at least in part on age. The a slight majority of the youngest age group, 12 to 17 years old, said they find it hard to get marijuana, whereas 49 percent said it’s easy to find. That’s a high number for a drug limited to adults, and a legitimate concern for the DEA.

Ineffective DEA tactics

Instead of tackling that problem, though, the federal government continues to raid farms, seize product, and jail retailers. As the new numbers make clear, that policy has had little notable effect over the years.

Even older adults said it’s relatively simple finding cannabis, legal or otherwise. Just shy of 50 percent of the over-50 group said the task is very or fairly easy.

Younger adults, meanwhile, are much better informed about where to obtain marijuana. In the 35 to 49 age group, more than 61 percent said the drug is easy to find, compared to 69 percent in the 26 to 34 age group and 75 percent in the 18 to 25 age group.

Those numbers may be shocking to some, but most cannabis users would find them underwhelming. It’s almost harder not to stumble across the drug these days, so the statistics are actually surprisingly low.

DEA neglected locally grown bud

The DEA has done nothing to effectively stem this easy access. The agency’s focus on Mexican brick smugglers, for example, overlooks the fact that the market for locally grown cannabis has exploded in recent years. Brick is no longer appealing to anyone but teenagers, and they clearly don’t have much trouble finding even that.

The DEA is strictly a supply-side police agency. Its goal is to strangle the cultivation, shipment, and sale of drugs banned by the Controlled Substances Act – especially marijuana. Agents are happy to round up low-level patients and users in the process, but there is no effort to provide medical care, addiction treatment, or alternatives to drug use.

In other words, the DEA doesn’t much care about the demand side of the equation. That’s a big mistake: The best way to address underage drug use of any kind is education. Marijuana may not be especially harmful to adults, but it isn’t especially good for kids, either, and most adolescents are smart enough to avoid it until they’re adults.

To be fair, the agency has been backing off on criminal enforcement, at least in terms of raw numbers. Agents arrested more than 9,000 people five years ago, yet the numbers quickly dropped to less than 7,000 per year. Marijuana seizures have also dropped in size, from more than 700,000 kilos in 2010 to roughly 270,000 in 2013 – and even less in 2014.

What all this means is that nearly 80 years of drug war strategy have provably failed, a fact even the federal government is starting to realize. Meanwhile, the DEA has done little to keep children away from marijuana, and it doesn’t seem to have any solutions up its sleeve.

New MJ Numbers Don"t Look Good for DEA

Indian Tribe Becomes First to Legalize Marijuana

Legal marijuana could soon reach a very unlikely swath of the United States. A South Dakota Indian tribe voted in June to legalize cannabis on the reservation. The drug could be available to tribe members and visitors alike by the end of the year.

The executive committee of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe voted to legalize the cultivation, possession, sale, and use of marijuana on the reservation. Adults over 21 would be allowed to buy it from a single dispensary, while the plants would be grown at another site.

The drug would be legal for any adult use, while sick children would have access to medical marijuana through doctors’ recommendations. Strict rules would make it difficult, if not impossible, to remove any amount of cannabis from the reservation.

In fact, the rules approved by the committee were aimed mostly at preventing trafficking or smuggling. Marijuana remains strictly illegal in the rest of South Dakota, even for medical use.

Sale amounts limited to one gram

Flandreau Santee President Anthony Reider said cannabis smokers would be able to buy only one gram at a time, and must consume it at the dispensary. Reider said the idea is to keep the toking on-reservation and discourage stoned driving.

The tribe is the first in the nation to adopt legalization. President Barack Obama announced early this year that Indian reservations would be allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to legalize.

Since reservations are considered semi-sovereign nations and answer only to the federal government, they can engage in any activity that doesn’t violate federal law or policy. Under Obama’s decree, that includes growing, selling, and using cannabis.

The reservation is located outside Flandreau, S.D., a conservative community near the Minnesota line. That could make it an appealing draw for marijuana users throughout the Midwest, including Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska.

Mayor: Flandreau will take biggest hit

Local officials weren’t happy about the decision. Flandreau Mayor Mark Bonrud said his city would absorb the negative consequences of legal cannabis without any of the benefits.

“We don’t see any benefits in having marijuana in one certain entity without any tax structure or anything that’s going to benefit the city, or the state of South Dakota,” Bonrud said.

Some tribe members also think the legalization vote was a bad idea. Addiction is a particular scourge of Native American communities, and some members worry cannabis use could make the problem worse.

“We have no business going into marijuana,” said Becky Red Earth-Villeda, a lifelong resident of the Flandreau Santee reservation. “I don’t care what the reason is.”

The Flandreau Santee reservation already has a casino, and the casino hotel will be available to intoxicated stoners, Reider said. Clearly the leaders of the Flandreau Santee believe they can build a Midwest entertainment center with gambling, nightlife, and now legal cannabis. Reider said the tribe wants to be on the cutting edge.

“Throughout Indian country, Flandreau’s been trail-blazers,” he said. “We were with the casino, we were the second compacted tribe in the United States, the first and largest casino in between Atlantic City and Las Vegas, so it’s something that’s not new to us. We kind of like taking the forefront on issues.”

Indian Tribe Becomes First to Legalize Marijuana