Denver - Even though some marijuana consumers in Colorado legally will be hanging cannabis leaves instead of mistletoe this holiday season, concerns over the legalization “experiment” continue.
As the one-year anniversary of the first recreational pot shops opening in Colorado approaches Jan. 1, opponents continue to express fears around children consuming the drug, as well as morality issues.
A new player to emerge is the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group known for extreme ideologies, especially against gay people.
According to Westboro, marijuana amounts to “sorceries,” and “God hates your sorceries.”
“Doomed USA leads the world in your illegal trade. As if that were not bad enough, now the government sanctions that trade. You bring down the wrath of God upon you! God Almighty will get his honor in your destruction!” the group writes of Coloradans for legalizing marijuana.
Marijuana proponents are planning a proportional response, foaming at the mouth to take a bite out of the controversial church group.
Kayvan Khalatbari, the co-owner of Denver Relief, a marijuana center, and the co-founder of Sexpot Comedy, a standard bearer of the Denver comedy scene, will travel to Pueblo with a couple of comics and a writer to provide a satire demonstration in response to Westboro’s “ignorant hate.”
The trip will be documented for a video on SexPotComedy.com.
“Most people get too worked up by their actions, take them way too seriously, and end up feeding their mission and passion,” Khalatbari said. “I think making light of their ignorance and essentially discrediting them through humor is perhaps the best response, even more so than ignoring them altogether.”
Meanwhile, Smart Colorado, a group dedicated to protecting children from marijuana in Colorado, said that after a year of recreational sales, children remain “guinea pigs.”
The group acknowledged that data points won’t be available for years, pointing to statistics from before Colorado voters legalized marijuana in 2012 and recreational centers opened at the beginning of the year.
“We’ll readily acknowledge that the full picture of legalization’s impact in Colorado, as with any rigorous scientific research, will take years to fully emerge,” said Diane Carlson, a member of Smart Colorado’s leadership team.
But marijuana proponents point to two recent surveys: One by the University of Michigan released this month found that teen marijuana use dropped by 2 points nationally since the proliferation of legalization; and a separate report released in August by Colorado health officials also found a 2-point drop in teen use in Colorado since legalization.
The Durango Herald asked Smart Colorado for comment on the surveys Dec. 17 but never received a response.
“The folks who fought to keep marijuana illegal are grasping at straws to make it seem like the sky is falling in Colorado,” said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project.
Tvert on Wednesday also targeted New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who offered marijuana opponents fodder in June with a column about her terrifying “hallucinatory” experience on marijuana-infused edibles.
Cannabis advocates used Dowd’s column as an opportunity to raise awareness about consuming cannabis responsibly, installing a billboard in Denver in September warning consumers, “Don’t let a candy bar ruin your vacation.”
The billboard features a distressed red-haired woman in a dark hotel room, alluding to Dowd’s experience on edibles in her Denver hotel room, which she recalled in the column.
After the billboard made national headlines, Dowd told “Washington Whispers” in U.S. News & World Report, “I love it. I’m going to make it my Christmas card.”
Tvert and the Marijuana Policy Project went ahead and made the holiday card for Dowd, which they mailed last Friday.
The card, featuring a Christmas tree and a yule log, includes the same safety message as the billboard, but for the season it reads, “Don’t let a candy bar ruin your holiday.”
A spokeswoman for Dowd said the Pulitzer-winning columnist has been on vacation, and she had not seen the card.
“The message is just as important this holiday season as it was earlier this year,” Tvert said. “Eating too many marijuana edibles can ruin, not make for a very merry Christmas.”
News Moderator: Shandar @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: The Durango Herald | Durango's source for breaking news, weather, sports, local events and entertainment - frontpage
Author: Peter Marcus
Contact: The Durango Herald | feedback
Website: The Durango Herald 12/24/2014 | ’Tis the season for marijuana?
As the one-year anniversary of the first recreational pot shops opening in Colorado approaches Jan. 1, opponents continue to express fears around children consuming the drug, as well as morality issues.
A new player to emerge is the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group known for extreme ideologies, especially against gay people.
According to Westboro, marijuana amounts to “sorceries,” and “God hates your sorceries.”
“Doomed USA leads the world in your illegal trade. As if that were not bad enough, now the government sanctions that trade. You bring down the wrath of God upon you! God Almighty will get his honor in your destruction!” the group writes of Coloradans for legalizing marijuana.
Marijuana proponents are planning a proportional response, foaming at the mouth to take a bite out of the controversial church group.
Kayvan Khalatbari, the co-owner of Denver Relief, a marijuana center, and the co-founder of Sexpot Comedy, a standard bearer of the Denver comedy scene, will travel to Pueblo with a couple of comics and a writer to provide a satire demonstration in response to Westboro’s “ignorant hate.”
The trip will be documented for a video on SexPotComedy.com.
“Most people get too worked up by their actions, take them way too seriously, and end up feeding their mission and passion,” Khalatbari said. “I think making light of their ignorance and essentially discrediting them through humor is perhaps the best response, even more so than ignoring them altogether.”
Meanwhile, Smart Colorado, a group dedicated to protecting children from marijuana in Colorado, said that after a year of recreational sales, children remain “guinea pigs.”
The group acknowledged that data points won’t be available for years, pointing to statistics from before Colorado voters legalized marijuana in 2012 and recreational centers opened at the beginning of the year.
“We’ll readily acknowledge that the full picture of legalization’s impact in Colorado, as with any rigorous scientific research, will take years to fully emerge,” said Diane Carlson, a member of Smart Colorado’s leadership team.
But marijuana proponents point to two recent surveys: One by the University of Michigan released this month found that teen marijuana use dropped by 2 points nationally since the proliferation of legalization; and a separate report released in August by Colorado health officials also found a 2-point drop in teen use in Colorado since legalization.
The Durango Herald asked Smart Colorado for comment on the surveys Dec. 17 but never received a response.
“The folks who fought to keep marijuana illegal are grasping at straws to make it seem like the sky is falling in Colorado,” said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project.
Tvert on Wednesday also targeted New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who offered marijuana opponents fodder in June with a column about her terrifying “hallucinatory” experience on marijuana-infused edibles.
Cannabis advocates used Dowd’s column as an opportunity to raise awareness about consuming cannabis responsibly, installing a billboard in Denver in September warning consumers, “Don’t let a candy bar ruin your vacation.”
The billboard features a distressed red-haired woman in a dark hotel room, alluding to Dowd’s experience on edibles in her Denver hotel room, which she recalled in the column.
After the billboard made national headlines, Dowd told “Washington Whispers” in U.S. News & World Report, “I love it. I’m going to make it my Christmas card.”
Tvert and the Marijuana Policy Project went ahead and made the holiday card for Dowd, which they mailed last Friday.
The card, featuring a Christmas tree and a yule log, includes the same safety message as the billboard, but for the season it reads, “Don’t let a candy bar ruin your holiday.”
A spokeswoman for Dowd said the Pulitzer-winning columnist has been on vacation, and she had not seen the card.
“The message is just as important this holiday season as it was earlier this year,” Tvert said. “Eating too many marijuana edibles can ruin, not make for a very merry Christmas.”
News Moderator: Shandar @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: The Durango Herald | Durango's source for breaking news, weather, sports, local events and entertainment - frontpage
Author: Peter Marcus
Contact: The Durango Herald | feedback
Website: The Durango Herald 12/24/2014 | ’Tis the season for marijuana?
