# Colorado: the beginning of the end of Prohibition (recreational cannabis use)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 2, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703 "2014-01-02T15:33:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/81 "2014-01-03T19:28:50Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I didn’t know that - but you still have to dry and process it and all that. I wouldn’t grow my own tobacco even if my yard was already full of the stuff. Drying and curing is very difficult to do in a secretive way. Otherwise just hang the plant upside-down in the kitchen, like any other herb. Few days later, bag it up. It’s not like tobacco at all, marijuana smokes fine straight off the vine. But it stinks to high heaven … like probably cause at the sidewalk stink. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/82 "2014-01-03T19:52:41Z")
This is an interesting series of pictures from a person who bought legal pot on the first day: [What you get when you buy legally in Colorado - Album on Imgur](http://imgur.com/a/3yDfg) ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/83 "2014-01-03T20:05:00Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Sensimilla. Close- it’s sinsemilla. Edit: [cite](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sinsemilla) ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/84 "2014-01-03T20:06:17Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > Close- it’s sinsemilla. Both spellings are accepted. [sensimilla - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sensimilla) ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/85 "2014-01-03T20:11:02Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Both spellings are accepted. [sensimilla - Wiktionary, the free dictionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sensimilla) Simul-cite! Yeah , I saw that about both spellings after I posted. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/86 "2014-01-03T20:17:35Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > It seems that by law, the sellers have to grow all of their product themselves. Only currently, and it’s not really growing themselves. It’s more like a tiered organization where one grower is allowed to only sell to one shop. But sometime later this year that requirement will be dismantled and recreational dispensaries will be able to buy from any licensed growers. > [@hajario](#): > > This is an interesting series of pictures from a person who bought legal pot on the first day: [What you get when you buy legally in Colorado - Album on Imgur](http://imgur.com/a/3yDfg) Sour Diesel is pretty good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/87 "2014-01-03T20:55:45Z")
> [@FlyingDragonFan](#): > > Sour Diesel is pretty good stuff. Whoever named it must be a marketing genius (total sarcasm here). It sounds like one of those joke ale names, like Fat Tire. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/88 "2014-01-03T21:42:28Z")
> [@BrokenBriton](#): > > Does the gay marriage example lend itself in any way … One of my Fundamentalist relatives was bemoaning the new marriage and pot laws. I told her Colorado was simply following Leviticus to the letter: “… if a man lies with another man, they shall be stoned.” ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/89 "2014-01-03T21:43:57Z")
They were probably doing some work on quality control when it was named. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/90 "2014-01-03T21:45:02Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > One of my Fundamentalist relatives was bemoaning the new marriage and pot laws. I told her Colorado was simply following Leviticus to the letter: “… if a man lies with another man, they shall be stoned.” > ::d&r:: ouch! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/91 "2014-01-03T22:19:15Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > This is an interesting series of pictures from a person who bought legal pot on the first day: [What you get when you buy legally in Colorado - Album on Imgur](http://imgur.com/a/3yDfg) Awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/92 "2014-01-04T03:24:43Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > The pigs (by which I mean, law enforcement agencies that profit from drug busts) will squeal like hell all the way down the road, as marijuana is a cheap and easy source of revenue to them. The for-profit prison pigs will do the same. Look for some major malarkey as both groups have plenty of money and contacts with the state legislatures. > > Honest police wouldn’t care to be profiting from marijuana sales, we’ll find out just how many of them there are. Do you have a cite for how much police pull in from MJ drug busts? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/93 "2014-01-04T04:50:13Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > Do you have a cite for how much police pull in from MJ drug busts? Not marijuana specifically offhand, but I found a total for the sum total of siezed assets in [this NPR story,](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91490480) which has a lot of very helpful background information. The relevant figures: > [@](#): > > As a result, the amount of drug dollars flowing into local police budgets is staggering. Justice Department figures show that in the past four years alone, the amount of assets seized by local law enforcement agencies across the nation enrolled in the federal program—the vast majority of it cash—has tripled, from $567 million to $1.6 billion. And that doesn’t include tens of millions more the agencies got from state asset forfeiture programs. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/94 "2014-01-04T05:05:25Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > What you see growing as a weed is basically industrial grade Hemp. Useful for ropes, but little else. The THC content is too low. > > The high quality stuff needs light, warmth, fertile soil (or lots of fertilizer) just to grow. Then once it is harvested, it needs to be dried/cured (but not too dry!) and trimmed. That’s the part where the labor comes in. Then it needs to be carefully handled and stored. This is only partially true. Like everything else, be it cattle or petunias, what you need to get good results is good gene stock. Start with good genes of a potent stock and you get potent weed. Not a lot different from growing tomatoes. Most of the pot grown now is from very high powered strains that have been cross-bred and developed for certain characteristics. It isn’t in the gardening, it is in the genes. You can produce a 12 foot tall plant of poor quality weed and treat it with loving care, and all you get is a huge Christmas tree and a lot of poor quality product. People who remember smoking a joint in college will be unable to even operate the TV remove after 3 or 4 hits of the current product. On a different note, and I am more familiar with the up-coming Washington laws, is that each stage of production and sale must be by separate entities. The grower cannot be the processor, the processor cannot be the retailer. There are three separate businesses involved; grower, trimmer/processor, and the final retail seller, and none of these can be the same business. And there is a tracking system that follows the plant through the process, like is required with other agricultural products, so that if there is a quality or health issue it can be traced back to the point of origin. What this 3 stage operation does is allow for taxation at each exchange of product. When the grower sells to the trimmer, tax, trimmer to retailer, tax, retailer to end user, tax. So the initial costs must be keep low enough that the end product sold to the customer is still at a reasonable cost, while providing the tax income to the state. Across the river in Oregon I know a couple of former illegal growers that have just turned off their lights. There is little market for the illegally grow pot because there is so much legal stuff grown for the legal medical marijuana stores. If you are a chronic pot smoker you just get a medical card. Your back hurts sometimes doesn’t it? Well doesn’t it? Of course it does. Pot helps? Here is your card. Problem solved. Lost your connection away across town? No problem, your connection is now downtown at the medical pot dispensary. The formerly illegal growers that I know have never been in any legal trouble so they got licensed to be medical pot providers. You know what?, there is still so much legal pot that their grow rooms are still empty. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/95 "2014-01-04T05:41:38Z")
It was interesting listening to the radio (rock/alternative/college type) this afternoon. The DJ’s were making unsolicited and unfunded public service announcements about people trying to take weed out of state and another that most ski areas are on leased federal land, so don’t take your legally purchased weed on the slopes this weekend. Things are really weird in Colorado right now. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/96 "2014-01-04T09:00:42Z")
Arguably, things are weird everywhere but Colordao. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/97 "2014-01-04T12:06:35Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > This is an interesting series of pictures from a person who bought legal pot on the first day: [What you get when you buy legally in Colorado - Album on Imgur](http://imgur.com/a/3yDfg) The “Mile High City” slogan amuses me in this context. ---
**Author:** ![Farin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e79b87/32.png) [@Farin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/98 "2014-01-04T13:09:17Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > The “Mile High City” slogan amuses me in this context. As a Colorado resident, I’m no longer passively apathetic about that slogan. I now hate it with the passion of 1,000 burning suns. For me, it was mildly amusing when they passed the law and cracked the joke. A year later, I want the slogan changed to anything else. Every joke, every pun - all done to death. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/99 "2014-01-04T13:20:04Z")
It sorta makes the late John Denver seem awfully prophetic. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703/100 "2014-01-04T14:42:34Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Most of the pot grown now is from very high powered strains that have been cross-bred and developed for certain characteristics. It isn’t in the gardening, it is in the genes. You can produce a 12 foot tall plant of poor quality weed and treat it with loving care, and all you get is a huge Christmas tree and a lot of poor quality product. People who remember smoking a joint in college will be unable to even operate the TV remove after 3 or 4 hits of the current product. Not sure I ever bought into that. There are strains that are stronger than others, but I don’t really trust the story that there has been a steady march towards a modern super bud. And if a guy hadn’t had a drink since college, I bet 2 or 3 shots of today’s current Vodka would give him trouble with theTV remote. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colorado-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-prohibition-recreational-cannabis-use/677703.md?page=6)