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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Colorado measure to halt marijuana sales dies

[Source: By John Ingold, The Denver Post]


Marijuana advocates late Monday fought back an effort that could have halted Colorado's plans for legal marijuana shops, ending a debate that swept through the state Capitol like a dust devil for a little more than three hours.

The proposal, Senate Concurrent Resolution 3, would have put two separate constitutional measures before the voters in November. The first would have asked voters to approve special sales and excise taxes on recreational marijuana. If that measure failed, a second measure would have asked voters whether they wanted to suspend recreational marijuana sales.

The resolution was introduced at about 6 p.m. on the third-to-last day of the legislative session — the absolute last moment it could have been formally proposed. It was sponsored by two dozen senators, including Senate President John Morse. And it cleared a Senate committee less than an hour after it was introduced.

READ MORE: Colorado measure to halt marijuana sales dies - The Denver Post

House Resolution 1635 - the National Commission on Federal Marijuana Policy Act of 2013

[Source: Jennifer Huizen, Marijuanadoctors411.com]

Congressmen last week introduced House Resolution 1635 - the National Commission on Federal Marijuana Policy Act of 2013 – which lays out terms for a 13-member committee consisting of ‘weed experts’ who will work together with government aid to review “the state and efficacy of current policies of the Federal Government toward marijuana.” Among other topics, the committee will focus their time on exploring how federal policy should act in conjunction with State law, the cost of prohibiting marijuana versus the potential tax benefits of legalization, the health impacts of marijuana, and the role of the current legal system in furthering improper or excessive marijuana prosecution. The committee will also rework the Controlled Substances Act, recommending “appropriate placement of marijuana in the schedule of the [federal] Controlled Substances Act,” in hopes of redefining marijuana from the same classification as heroin.

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