Colorado’s monthly marijuana use is 72 percent greater than the U.S. total among people aged 12 and older according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released last week by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Past-month use in Colorado increased 22 percent from 10.41 percent to 12.7 percent between 2012 and 2013, one year after the state legalized recreational marijuana in November 2012 but one year before recreational pot shops opened for business in January 2014. Colorado legalized medical marijuana in 2000 when 7.8 percent of its citizens used the drug monthly compared to 12.7 percent thirteen years later. The legislature authorized commercial marijuana growing and sales through dispensaries in 2009. Three years later, more than 500 dispensaries were operating across the state and more than 108,000 residents held medical marijuana cards. Past-month alcohol and pain-reliever use also increased in Colorado in 2013.
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| Meanwhile, The Denver Post’s weblog, The Cannabist, recounts the “Best of 2014,” including “Our top [marijuana] infused recipes, from pot brownies to mac and cheese“ (pictured here). The blog’s chef created brownies and penne pasta recipes infused with Killer Queen to treat her back pain. “Honestly, I was too high to know if anything hurt. Yikes,” she comments. |
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| The Cannabist reviews “12 vape pens that caught our attention in 2014.” Vape pens are to marijuana what e-cigarettes are to nicotine, “portable, pen-like vaporizers that are discreet and ubiquitous.” This one, the “O.Pen,” is an e-cigarette whose “bottom half is a battery that screws onto a cartomizer–a heating element and a tube of hash oil.” |
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| Among the “15 most intriguing questionsour readers asked this year,” says The Cannabist, is: “My dog gets carsick even on short trips . . . so I’m wondering whether giving him a small amount of pot butter before we go in the car might be a good idea.” “Don’t,” The Cannabist warns, because “at the moment there is zero data.” |
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| Some 30 percent of homeless people in one Denver shelter came to Colorado for pot, finds a survey of more than 500 people there. “It’s having an impact on all of our social services across the state,” says state Rep. Ted Harvey, “an unintended consequence I never thought of.” |
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| Colorado marijuana STILL not tested for contaminants. Washington has required contaminant testing for six months and is finding 13 percent of pot and THC-infused products contain mold, salmonella, and E. coli. Colorado was supposed to begin such testing last summer but has yet to even spell out testing criteria. Buyer, beware. |
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| CNBC will air Harry Smith’s “Marijuana Country: The Cannabis Boom” on January 5. “Smith covers pot as a treatment for seizures in children (‘Charlotte’s Web’), the trouble with dosing edibles, the problem of enforcing zero tolerance in the workplace, the black market, the big businesses hoping to franchise, and sales stats in general–all with a critical eye.” |
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