Colorado poised to be the first state to regulate pot sales

[Source: Greg Campbell, http://dailycaller.com]

Against what looked like long odds at the beginning of the week, the Colorado state legislature passed several historic marijuana bills with time to spare on the last day of the lawmaking session Wednesday.

If signed into law by Gov. John Hickenlooper — as expected, although he has voiced his reservations about legalized pot in the past — Colorado will be the first state to officially regulate sales of the federally prohibited drug.

Among the new measures is a bill passed Tuesday that sets a stoned-driving limit of 5 nanograms of active THC per milliliter of blood, arguably the most contentious of the pot bills heard this year.

Lawmakers have tried six times over three years — including three times this year — to pass such a law. Opponents have said the limit is both arbitrary and a poor indicator of impairment, since marijuana affects people differently and chronic users can have elevated levels of THC even when they are perfectly sober.

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