HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

How Legal Marijuana Is Working in Colorado

Views:1062
@ReasonVids

Opponents of legalization predicted disaster. Did that really happen?

Subscribe: goo.gl/NqjoWI

"There’s this idea that marijuana just appeared on January 1, 2014 and all of a sudden everyone is going to be using marijuana and not going to work," says Christian Sederberg, a Denver-based attorney at Vicente Sederberg LLC and one of the key members of Colorado’s Amendment 64 campaign to legalize cannabis. "These are adults. They make decisions. They’ve been using marijuana for a long time and now they’re buying it from a taxed and regulated store."

It’s been over 18 months since Colorado became one of the first states to legalize marijuana. Though opponents of the measure predicted doom and gloom scenarios, the end of pot prohibition has not resulted in apocalyptic disaster.

In fact, the legalization of cannabis has been a boon to Colorado financially with an expected one billion in sales by 2016 and $40 million in excise taxes to be placed in state coffers.

"No taxes or anything are going to be a panacea. But what it is though is $60 to $100 million at the state level. That’s real money," states Sederberg.

That’s not to say that legalization hasn’t come with it’s challenges.

One of the unforeseen areas where Colorado faced problems was with edibles—an issue illustrated in Maureen Dowd’s now famous (and highly mockable) editorial where she recounts her bad trip on edibles. The New York Times also reported that just after five months of legal sales, Colorado hospitals reported an increase in the number of children and adults becoming sick from eating edibles (the same article also notes the lack of hard data on the topic).

"The biggest challenge with edibles is not the marijuana," says Sederberg. "The onset takes time and so people will consume what they are told is a serving…and then it doesn’t work for a while. So then they’ll take another one…and they end up overconsuming."

The state has responded to such incidents by clarifying regulations on serving sizes and packaging. Colorado now requires that each edible serving size contain no more than 10 milligrams of active THC. The amount of active THC must also be clearly marked on the product and individual edibles must be easily separated into single serving sizes.

Sederberg notes that one of the main reasons for the popularity of edibles is due to the fact that there are no legal spaces to consume marijuana publicly.

"There’s no place to use in a social environment," says Sederberg. "We really need to make a space for people to consume in a public environment and to be social just like you are with alcohol."

Sederberg and other legalization advocates are pushing for a November state ballot measure that would create public environments where people could use cannabis socially.

As Colorado refines their regulations, a handful of other states—including California, Nevada, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Maine—could legalize marijuana in 2016. What can they learn from the Colorado experience?

Sederberg stresses the importance of collaboration in the policy making process. "The Colorado model is the work group. It’s the collaboration," says Sederberg. "You have to listen to all sides. We’ve gotten some very good ideas from people that were our opponents who are not our opponents anymore because they saw that we are working at making it better."

Approximately 6 minutes.

Produced by Alexis Garcia & Alex Manning. Camera by Manning. Music by Jason Shaw. Additional b-roll from the Drug Policy Alliance.

Click http://reason.com/reasontv/2015/08/25/how-legal-marijuana-working-colorado for downloadable versions of this video. Subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel for daily content like this.

colorado
,
marijuana
,
legalization
,
christian sederberg
,
weed
,
pot
,
cannabis (drug)
,
medical cannabis (industry)
,
marijuana (ep)
,
reason (magazine)
,
reason.com
,
reasontv
,
reason tv
,
taxes
,
denver
    Thumbnail for Jim Grant: The Fed Turned the Stock Market Into a 'Hall of Mirrors'7:01
    Jim Grant: The Fed Turned the Stock Market Into a 'Hall of Mirrors'
    ReasonVids
    752 views
    Thumbnail for Can I pet that dawg?0:08
    Can I pet that dawg?
    bestofupgoat
    571 views
    Thumbnail for Can Burning Man Survive Grover Norquist?1:57
    Can Burning Man Survive Grover Norquist?
    ReasonVids
    874 views
    Thumbnail for Katie Couric Responds to Deceptive Editing Charges in Gun Documentary0:31
    Katie Couric Responds to Deceptive Editing Charges in Gun Documentary
    ReasonVids
    862 views
    Thumbnail for "Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender & the End of Normal": A Chat with Jack Halberstam and Thaddeus Russell24:15
    "Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender & the End of Normal": A Chat with Jack Halberstam and Thaddeus Russell
    ReasonVids
    912 views
    Thumbnail for Countdown to Disappointment: Don't expect the new Congress to cut spending1:22
    Countdown to Disappointment: Don't expect the new Congress to cut spending
    ReasonVids
    880 views
    Thumbnail for Is South by Southwest Too Popular for Startups?4:28
    Is South by Southwest Too Popular for Startups?
    ReasonVids
    995 views
    Thumbnail for From Poverty to Prosperity: Arnold Kling, Nick Schulz & Economics 2.09:56
    From Poverty to Prosperity: Arnold Kling, Nick Schulz & Economics 2.0
    ReasonVids
    921 views
    Thumbnail for Ai Weiwei's Hirshhorn Show Has Everything but the Dissident Artist Himself5:48
    Ai Weiwei's Hirshhorn Show Has Everything but the Dissident Artist Himself
    ReasonVids
    895 views
    Thumbnail for 3 Reasons Health Care Reform Won't Cut The Deficit By One Thin Dime.2:20
    3 Reasons Health Care Reform Won't Cut The Deficit By One Thin Dime.
    ReasonVids
    936 views
    Thumbnail for Reason.tv's Radicals for Capitalism: Celebrating the Enduring Legacy of Ayn Rand1:01
    Reason.tv's Radicals for Capitalism: Celebrating the Enduring Legacy of Ayn Rand
    ReasonVids
    904 views
    Thumbnail for Don't Fear the Refugees9:19
    Don't Fear the Refugees
    ReasonVids
    1071 views
    Thumbnail for Take Back Our Future2:45
    Take Back Our Future
    bestofupgoat
    98 views
    Thumbnail for Remy: The Longest Time (TSA Billy Joel Parody)2:32
    Remy: The Longest Time (TSA Billy Joel Parody)
    ReasonVids
    992 views
    Thumbnail for House Hearings on White Natio ... er ... Censorship15:27
    House Hearings on White Natio ... er ... Censorship
    AmericanRenaissance
    1538 views
    Thumbnail for California's High-Speed Rail Disaster Is a 'Shot Across the Bow for the Green New Deal'4:20
    California's High-Speed Rail Disaster Is a 'Shot Across the Bow for the Green New Deal'
    ReasonVids
    893 views
    Thumbnail for If We Do Nothing: The Ways of Our People41:23
    If We Do Nothing: The Ways of Our People
    AmericanRenaissance
    825 views
    Thumbnail for Annie Duke: 'What Life Lessons Can Poker Teach Us? All of Them.'42:34
    Annie Duke: 'What Life Lessons Can Poker Teach Us? All of Them.'
    ReasonVids
    856 views
    Thumbnail for The Juggalos March on Washington5:13
    The Juggalos March on Washington
    ReasonVids
    979 views
    Thumbnail for Well That's Not Good - Solar Storm Shocking Impacts | S0 News Mar.28.2023 | Suspicious0bservers2:50
    Well That's Not Good - Solar Storm Shocking Impacts | S0 News Mar.28.2023 | Suspicious0bservers
    AOUisgay
    657 views
    Thumbnail for "jewess wants mixing for Whites but in-group solidarity for her own tribe. Starting to see a pattern here?  These sweaty jew rats are trying to eliminate ethnic competition to clear the path for tribal victory."3:14
    "jewess wants mixing for Whites but in-group solidarity for her own tribe. Starting to see a pattern here? These sweaty jew rats are trying to eliminate ethnic competition to clear the path for tribal victory."
    AOUisgay
    531 views
    Thumbnail for A Ukrainian soldier in a protective suit carries an IED / Molotov cocktail to the children's playground. Then he sets it up, and the picture moves away. He then sends the photo to the authorities, which is then published with the story of "Russians mining playgrounds".0:45
    A Ukrainian soldier in a protective suit carries an IED / Molotov cocktail to the children's playground. Then he sets it up, and the picture moves away. He then sends the photo to the authorities, which is then published with the story of "Russians mining playgrounds".
    AOU
    1230 views
    Thumbnail for Death to waifu1:06
    Death to waifu
    Lilchowmein
    4049 views
    Thumbnail for iGrow Medical Marijuana: A California Growth Industry6:27
    iGrow Medical Marijuana: A California Growth Industry
    ReasonVids
    935 views
    Thumbnail for Why Aren't The Rich Paying 50% in Taxes?2:13
    Why Aren't The Rich Paying 50% in Taxes?
    ReasonVids
    906 views

points

Permalink
Reply
colorado
,
marijuana
,
legalization
,
christian sederberg
,
weed
,
pot
,
cannabis (drug)
,
medical cannabis (industry)
,
marijuana (ep)
,
reason (magazine)
,
reason.com
,
reasontv
,
reason tv
,
taxes
,
denver
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle