New Marijuana Law in Colorado

This article “In Colorado, NoPlaybook for New Marijuana Law” posted in New York Times by Jack Healy talks about the wake of marijuana in Colorado. It starts with focusing on a story of a 19 –year old community college student who is struggling with criminal charges for something that is soon going to be legal across the state. There are a lot of people with misdemeanors and are in prison due to something that more than half of their state voted to be legal. 55% of the citizens in Colorado voted for Marijuana to be legal in their state for recreational use. The question is if he is really a criminal? Does he deserve to spend all this time in prison when very soon marijuana is going to be legal? The state is still waiting on final orders to start the marijuana business in the state.  

Citizens in Colorado are still going to be charged on marijuana cases and are still citing people for possession. Some town from the Denver suburbs to the Western mountains are against this marijuana becoming legal and they are voting against blocking the state-licensed retail marijuana shops from opening in their cities. Ken Buck who arrested a citizen for possession of marijuana was recently interviewed and questioned if he is wasting his time enforcing the law about marijuana. His response to the media was “ Our office has an obligation to prosecute offenses that were crimes at the time they occurred”.

The state is still waiting for the federal order about allowing citizen 21-year and old possess up to 2 ounces of Marijuana for recreational purposes.  Bring Marijuana on a legal system was never going to be simple, but 55 percent of Colorado voters supported and made a big difference.  Colorado and Washington have official plans for legalized sales, and they deliberately waiting for the federal government with their decision, which still claims anything related to marijuana as a federal crime.

A city council member Bob Nicholson stated that he doesn’t want to be in a situation where they license somebody and then have a big federal issue. In my personal opinions, I am very much in favor of legalizing marijuana, but I am a lot concerned with federal government to get the job done instead of leaving it half way and postpone it.