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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWatched Pot (follow-up to last month's Colorado raids)
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/altered_state/2013/12/colorado_marijuana_legalization_will_the_state_s_ambitious_plan_to_track.html?wpisrc=burger_barColorado has a wildly ambitious plan to track every legal marijuana plant from seed to sale. Will it work?
On a crisp late-autumn day last month, federal agents raided more than a dozen medical marijuana dispensaries and grow facilities in Denver and Boulder, Colo. Armed Drug Enforcement Administration officers wearing camouflaged fatigues and black balaclavas smashed store windows, stacked crates of evidence in U-Haul trucks, and confiscated so many pot plants that the piles of foliage had to be removed by front-loader. It was the largest federal medical marijuana bust in Colorado historyand it occurred less than two months before the state is set to launch the worlds first legalized pot system on Jan. 1. How did Colorados marijuana industry react to the raids? If anything, with approval.
Really, I see enforcement actions happening as a sign our industry is maturing and this program is working, Mike Elliott, executive director of the Colorado-based Medical Marijuana Industry Group, told the Denver Post the day of the bust. Even Mason Tvert, the celebrated firebrand of the local marijuana movement, was unusually circumspect. If a business is suspected of violating state laws, they will likely face increased scrutiny, and if they are found to be in violation, they will likely face consequences, he told the Post.
Why the calm reaction? Mainly it was because the busts did not appear to be an attack on the states medical marijuana system, as has been the case with DEA raids in other states, but a targeted action against a few bad apples who were apparently flouting Colorados medical marijuana regulationsallegedly selling pot out of state, hiding profits, and working with Columbian drug cartels. In other words, the raids reinforced Colorados medical marijuana rules rather than undermining them. This was good news, since Colorados medical regulations form the basis of the recreational pot rules that will go into effect on Jan. 1.
The busts, in fact, were exactly the sort of enforcement Colorado policymakers and marijuana stakeholders should want right now. Its not easy obeying Colorados complicated, time-consuming, and expensive marijuana rules, so those who jump through all the states hoops want to be sure that the competition does, too. If someone is cheating, they can cut into everyone elses profits. Thats why nearly everyone in the industry wants the cheaters busted, since it suggests the regulatory system is working and it rewards those in compliance. (Hence the tip line posted on Colorados marijuana enforcement website that folks can use to report on scofflaws and keep our industry legitimate.) Its why marijuana policy expert Mark Kleiman predicts legalization wont stop pot busts anytime soon. [T]he implication of a legal commercial market is not that you need less enforcement, he told Patrick Radden Keefe of The New Yorker. In the long run, there shouldnt be much of an illegal business In the short run, though, the answer is just the opposite.
On a crisp late-autumn day last month, federal agents raided more than a dozen medical marijuana dispensaries and grow facilities in Denver and Boulder, Colo. Armed Drug Enforcement Administration officers wearing camouflaged fatigues and black balaclavas smashed store windows, stacked crates of evidence in U-Haul trucks, and confiscated so many pot plants that the piles of foliage had to be removed by front-loader. It was the largest federal medical marijuana bust in Colorado historyand it occurred less than two months before the state is set to launch the worlds first legalized pot system on Jan. 1. How did Colorados marijuana industry react to the raids? If anything, with approval.
Really, I see enforcement actions happening as a sign our industry is maturing and this program is working, Mike Elliott, executive director of the Colorado-based Medical Marijuana Industry Group, told the Denver Post the day of the bust. Even Mason Tvert, the celebrated firebrand of the local marijuana movement, was unusually circumspect. If a business is suspected of violating state laws, they will likely face increased scrutiny, and if they are found to be in violation, they will likely face consequences, he told the Post.
Why the calm reaction? Mainly it was because the busts did not appear to be an attack on the states medical marijuana system, as has been the case with DEA raids in other states, but a targeted action against a few bad apples who were apparently flouting Colorados medical marijuana regulationsallegedly selling pot out of state, hiding profits, and working with Columbian drug cartels. In other words, the raids reinforced Colorados medical marijuana rules rather than undermining them. This was good news, since Colorados medical regulations form the basis of the recreational pot rules that will go into effect on Jan. 1.
The busts, in fact, were exactly the sort of enforcement Colorado policymakers and marijuana stakeholders should want right now. Its not easy obeying Colorados complicated, time-consuming, and expensive marijuana rules, so those who jump through all the states hoops want to be sure that the competition does, too. If someone is cheating, they can cut into everyone elses profits. Thats why nearly everyone in the industry wants the cheaters busted, since it suggests the regulatory system is working and it rewards those in compliance. (Hence the tip line posted on Colorados marijuana enforcement website that folks can use to report on scofflaws and keep our industry legitimate.) Its why marijuana policy expert Mark Kleiman predicts legalization wont stop pot busts anytime soon. [T]he implication of a legal commercial market is not that you need less enforcement, he told Patrick Radden Keefe of The New Yorker. In the long run, there shouldnt be much of an illegal business In the short run, though, the answer is just the opposite.
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Watched Pot (follow-up to last month's Colorado raids) (Original Post)
Scuba
Dec 2013
OP
RainDog
(28,784 posts)1. thanks for the post
It's interesting to watch this process unfold.
Colorado has been held up as an example of what to do for other states looking at changes in their laws.