Cannabis flower is on display at Denver Relief. The pot shop purports to be the oldest marijuana dispensary in Denver, opening their doors in 2009. The shop is open to both Colorado red card holding medical marijuana patients and adult use recreational cannabis sales. (Vince Chandler, The Denver Post)
Being the first state to open recreational cannabis stores to the public made Colorado the flagship state for the spread of recreational cannabis. Adults in Denver may walk into a cannabis store and purchase it, but can t consume it in their car, in public, in many rental homes, most apartment buildings, or in any retail location. This is a huge problem for our burgeoning cannabis tourism industry as well, as hotels and rental car companies also don t allow smoking. It s a confusing, mixed message we send to tourists and residents, inviting them to buy cannabis but providing nowhere for them to legally consume it. We need laws like the Responsible Use Denver initiative, proposed by Denver NORML, that would allow for legal public consumption in approved licensed locations. If we can do it for alcohol, we can do it for cannabis.
Alexa Hartford, Englewood
This letter was published in the May 4 edition.
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