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By Trevor Hughes, USA Today
Source: USA Today
Aspen, Colo. -- More than a year after Colorado legalized marijuana sales, there's a pot shop just a few steps away from the Prada, Ralph Lauren, Sotheby's and Burberry stores in this toniest of tony ski towns.
Tourists from around the world step into the Green Dragon cannabis store to buy small amounts of legal — and heavily taxed — marijuana. It goes on day after day after day with virtually no muss or fuss. Welcome to my reality.
More than a year ago, the editors at USA TODAY asked me to join their team as the Rocky Mountain correspondent to tell stories from across the West, from wildfires to wild weather, politics and guns. But marijuana coverage quickly became a top priority, as the world watches the legalization experiments taking place here as well as in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia. Pot, or cannabis as some of the fans prefer to call it these days, has been legal here since Jan. 1, 2014.
More often than not, I find myself telling those editors, "No, no, it's not like that. Colorado doesn't smell like pot all of the time. No, not everyone is stoned all of the time. And no, there isn't blood running in the streets as a result of legalization." We haven't seen the explosion in crime or car crashes that critics direly predicted, or the invasion of Mexican cartels.
In other words, legalizing pot doesn't seem to have ended Western civilization as we know it, bolstering critics who say marijuana should never have been demonized by America's War on Drugs.
We the people chose to legalize pot. It wasn't a decision foisted upon us by a federal court or a mandate from some far-off government bureaucrat. The voters wanted the law changed to reflect reality — the reality that lots of people already were using marijuana safely and responsibly.
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Source: USA Today
Tourists from around the world step into the Green Dragon cannabis store to buy small amounts of legal — and heavily taxed — marijuana. It goes on day after day after day with virtually no muss or fuss. Welcome to my reality.
More than a year ago, the editors at USA TODAY asked me to join their team as the Rocky Mountain correspondent to tell stories from across the West, from wildfires to wild weather, politics and guns. But marijuana coverage quickly became a top priority, as the world watches the legalization experiments taking place here as well as in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia. Pot, or cannabis as some of the fans prefer to call it these days, has been legal here since Jan. 1, 2014.
More often than not, I find myself telling those editors, "No, no, it's not like that. Colorado doesn't smell like pot all of the time. No, not everyone is stoned all of the time. And no, there isn't blood running in the streets as a result of legalization." We haven't seen the explosion in crime or car crashes that critics direly predicted, or the invasion of Mexican cartels.
In other words, legalizing pot doesn't seem to have ended Western civilization as we know it, bolstering critics who say marijuana should never have been demonized by America's War on Drugs.
We the people chose to legalize pot. It wasn't a decision foisted upon us by a federal court or a mandate from some far-off government bureaucrat. The voters wanted the law changed to reflect reality — the reality that lots of people already were using marijuana safely and responsibly.
Snipped:
Complete Article: