Cannabis in Colorado
[1] The Colorado Amendment 64, which was passed by voters on November 6, 2012, led to recreational legalization in December 2012 and state-licensed retail sales in January 2014.
[5][6][7] In 1929, the Colorado Legislature passed a law making the second offense of sale, possession and distribution of marijuana a felony by one to five years in prison.
[8] Shortly after the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act went into effect on October 1, 1937, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Denver Police Department arrested Moses Baca for possession and Samuel Caldwell for dealing.
Judge Foster Symes sentenced Baca to 18 months and Caldwell to four years in Leavenworth Penitentiary for violating the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.
[10] A contributing factor in the favor of decriminalization was the work on behalf of NORML by Pitkin County Deputy District Attorney Jay Moore, who helped win over the legislature's Republican leadership with arguments as to money wasted on needless enforcement of marijuana laws.
If it is, employers in Colorado would be effectively prohibited from discharging an employee for off-the-job use of medical marijuana, regardless of the fact that such use was in violation of federal law.On June 10, 2016, Governor John Hickenlooper signed House Bill 16–1359.
[35] According to a Quinnipiac University poll released July 21, 2014, Coloradans continued to support the state's legalization of marijuana for recreational use by a margin of 54–43 percent.
[38] By April 2018, revenue from legalized marijuana only amounted to 2% of the state's education budget, with some calling it "a drop in a bucket.
Colorado has created legislation that states it is unlawful for one to operate a vehicle when intoxicated at a blood THC level of 5 nanograms/milliliter or more.
[47] Like other states, driving while impaired by any drug is illegal in Colorado, though it took the legislature six attempts and three years to pass marijuana intoxication measures.
[50] Since the legalization of recreational Marijuana in the state of Colorado testing an individual's level of intoxication has proven to be a challenge.
[51] The annual number of teenager (13 to 21 years old) visits to emergency rooms involving a cannabis related diagnostic code or positive for marijuana from a urine drug screen more than quadrupled during the decade (2005-2014) leading to the legalization.
[52][53] A national survey conducted between 2014 and 2016 alleged that adolescent abuse of marijuana has fallen to the lowest level it has been in years after legalization.
[54] This has been attributed to both additional funding raised from taxation and law enforcement's increasing involvement in the oversight of production and sales.
The biannual Healthy Kids Colorado Survey provides data on marijuana usage and attitudes among public middle or high schools students.
[56] The 2019 survey showed that the percentage of students who had "used marijuana one or more times during the past 30 days" stayed stable, between 19.4 and 21.2 percent, from 2013 until 2019, and there was no clear trend.
