Supreme court rejects states' efforts to overturn Colorado marijuana law

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

The supreme court on Monday rejected an effort by Nebraska and Oklahoma to have Colorado’s pot legalisation declared unconstitutional.

The justices did not comment about their dismissal of the lawsuit that the states filed directly against their neighbour.

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Nebraska and Oklahoma argued that Colorado’s law allowing recreational marijuana use by adults ran foul of federal anti-drug laws. The states also said that legalised pot in Colorado was spilling across the borders, complicating their own anti-drug efforts and draining state resources.

The Obama administration sided with Colorado, despite its opposition to making marijuana use legal.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/21/supreme-court-rejects-colorado-pot-law-overturn-efforts

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Associated Press in Washington
Monday 21 March 2016 14.33 GMT

[MichaelSoE]

1. K & R

[geomon666]

2. Colorado sure isn't complaining.

Too busy counting all the cash.

[lark]

26. Too busy with lots of things.

Building schools, lots of new schools
giving computers to kids in school
building roads
rebuilding bridges
giving the citizens of CO tax rebates

I'm sure there's lots more, but that's what I remember from a conversation with someone who just moved from there due to a better job here.

[Turn CO Blue]

35. Forgot we're also busy with hospitals here using CBD oil to control epileptic seizures, often

limiting them from 6-7 seizures a day down to one or none per day. I consider it to be a crime that other hospitals in the nation can't provide this life-changing treatment that is absolutely PROVEN to work with certain types of seizures and to work very well.

My son is a chemical engineer who was involved with developing some new extracts for other treatments coming up.

Also forgot that Colorado now has quite a few farmers planning hemp crops, which is a highly sustainable and low-water crop (uses 14 times LESS water than cotton crops) that can be used for clothing, hemp oil, fuel, plastics, etc.


Thank you

[eridani]

40. You are way ahead of WA State here

Though we did just get a bill passed for industrial hemp. I have gotten a couple of state legislators about how this could be linked to a CBD industry. Have gotten sympathetic replies, but it wasn't included this year.

[Scuba]

3. Time for nation-wide legalization.

[TeamPooka]

11. This

[Orrex]

13. Nope, it's only safe in Colorado

Everywhere else it leads to wild dancing and piano playing, as shown in this acclaimed documentary:

[Scuba]

14. Dear Hillary, please save us from piano playing.

[backscatter712]

22. Play faster! PLAY FASTER! n/t

[William Seger]

4. Wheeeew! I was worried about that

Hint for Nebraska and Oklahoma: There's a simple and obvious way to prevent this flow of "illegal" drugs...

[Dont call me Shirley]

5. Good. Nationwide legalization!

[Akamai]

6. Here in Oregon legalization of pot has been going ahead without problems. Thom Hartmann said on

Friday that Oregon collected tax revenues of over 3 million dollars on pot last year. This is more than expected for the 4 or 5 months that pot was legalized before 2016.

Go Bernie!

[Bluenorthwest]

8. That's 3.5 million in taxes on the first month of recreational sales. Not year. Month.

January was the first month for recreational cannabis sales in Oregon and the tax revenues were 3.5 million. Medical Marijuana is not taxed, just the recreational. The sum is more than was expected, and the funds will be put to good use....

[Akamai]

38. thanks for correcting my numbers ! I was listening to the Thom Hartmann podcasts in my car!

It is great that they are ending criminalizing people for smoking dope. Nixon himself was aware of the great harm he was perpetrating on African-Americans by his war on drugs.

[backscatter712]

24. Yeah. Same in Colorado.

Crime's down, the state's raking in the tax bucks, all the dire predictions of the end of the world have not come to pass.

About the only side effect was the large number of pot shops that sprung up and drove up real-estate prices...

[Moostache]

29. Good point about dire consequences...

I can't remember if civilization was going to end first because of legal pot, gay marriage or women's right to control their own bodies...seems like the GOP is wrong on every cause of the end of the world predicting the fake ones will matter and insisting the REAL ONE (anthropomorphic climate change) is no big deal.

It's good to know that on the national level that party may splinter in 3 months.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

30. Sales of Doritos also up by wide margins. nt

[Brother_Love]

31. LOL

[mountain grammy]

7. Good!

[SCantiGOP]

9. serious warning

My sister lives in Colorado, so I have been there several times. Do not drive from Colorado into Kansas with anything in your car. They are fanatical, and will stop cars that either have CO tags or are rental cars on a flimsy pretext and walk up with the drug sniffing dogs. Better to let FedEx or the Post Office be the delivery system.

I do have to admit it was a very strange experience to walk into a shop near Denver and have a fully uniformed cop ask "Sir, are you here for medical or recreational?" Only difference is no waiting if you are a medical client, and I think they pay a lower tax.
And cops are needed there since banks and credit card companies won't deal with the shops, so all they have on premises is piles of cash and high-grade weed.

When I was in college in the early 70s we all thought this would happen in 10 years, but then the draft ended and most of the hippies became Republicans. Legalization is way overdue.

[randr]

41. So sad to see two states that the Republicans have bankrupted

spending their last dollars on busting hippies. If I lived in either of these states I would try to change things.

[GoneFishin]

10. Good. Don't let the stupid in Nebraska and Oklahoma rub off on Colorado.

[TeamPooka]

12. Prohibition is a failed public policy, again. nt

[Scuba]

16. You're not seeing the big picture ...

v

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. It's a WINNING policy if you make money locking people up.

[Ed Suspicious]

25. Now that's ROI, baby! Imagine if you own a drug warrior supporting business!

[Fritz Walter]

15. I guess the Okies from Muscogee are still in charge

"We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don't take no trips on LSD
We don't burn no draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin' right, and bein' free.

"I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all"
Merle Haggard, 1969

So, all you "squares" can continue paying income, property and sales taxes while your neighbors to the northwest balance their state budget with weed sales.

OK?

[Sunlei]

17. Some States want to team-up with the Feds and go after Americans. We need to vote those Rs OUT.

[SHRED]

18. You should post this in the Cannabis Group also

[Cryptoad]

19. Just getting rid of that ahole Scallia

is making a big difference.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. What's next? Some governor is going to roll tanks from the National Guard over the border?

[lame54]

23. so much for states rights

[lark]

27. Are you kidding me?

KS and OK suit wasn't about states' rights, it's the total opposite of that. It's about their snit because the neighbor is getting richer while they are getting more poor due to their puritanical adherence to drug laws. They are trying to remove CO's choice because it doesn't fit their rw religious fervor. They could moderate their laws to ease the impacts, but not they don't want to do that. They want CO punished, pure and simple.

[lame54]

34. I am not sure if you are aware of this...

But we are agreeing on this

The rights Mantra is states rights but now they want to punish Colorado for practicing that

[lark]

36. Glad to see that.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

[riderinthestorm]

28. Good! nt

[TowneshipRebellion]

32. Good.

I wonder what the "evolver-in-chief" Secretary Clinton has to say about this ruling...

[fasttense]

33. Now, now, baby steps, baby steps

You can't walk like adults yet. We have to let everyone around do the heavy lifting before the federal government bothers with it.

Unless we have a revolution.

[GOLGO 13]

37. Colorado keep looking better & better

For retirement.

[liberalhistorian]

39. Since when does one state have the right

to tell another state what to do about its laws? And aren't these particular states all about "state's rights"? Unless it's against what THEY want, that is.

[LanternWaste]

42. Out of curiosity, has anyone on DU been to a grass shop in CO?

Out of curiosity, has anyone on DU been to a grass shop in CO? Are prices lower, the same or higher than street prices? How much for example, would an ounce of middle-of-the-road weed cost? Are residents legally allowed to smoke it publicly or is smoking limited to residence?

I've been toying with the idea of a weekend road-trip from TX to CO.