XPost: alt.politics.republicans, co.politics, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: falling@from.trees   
      
   Other states look to Colorado as the pot pioneer. If properly informed,   
   they will run from proposals to replicate this mess. They will discard the   
   misrepresentations of politicians who claim victory for going where no   
   state had gone before.   
      
   “Congress should follow Colorado’s lead and bring our nation’s marijuana   
   laws into the 21st century,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., in a May 2   
   statement about his support for nationwide legalization.   
      
   “Colorado set the standard for legalizing cannabis. The results have been   
   overwhelmingly positive, and now Congress must follow suit by removing   
   cannabis from Schedule I classification,” says Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-   
   Colo., on his Senate website.   
      
    EDITORIAL: Save the future by fixing our soul   
   Hickenlooper supported his “overwhelmingly positive” assessment by   
   writing, “The cannabis industry is spurring economic growth for Colorado   
   and other states that have legal marijuana.”   
      
   An article in Politico published Sunday begs to differ.   
      
   “Colorado’s weed market is coming down hard and making other states   
   nervous,” says the headline.   
      
   They should be nervous, for insidious reasons far worse than failed   
   business plans. They include:   
      
   • A crime-rate surge from 2012 to 2022, up 21.6%, as eight neighboring   
   states saw crime rates plateau or decrease.   
      
   • Traffic fatalities increased 57% over the past decade.   
      
   • A decadelong increase in marijuana-related hospitalizations, emergency   
   room visits, poison control calls and fatal crashes involving drivers   
   impaired by THC, based on data from the Colorado Division of Criminal   
   Justice.   
      
   • Suicides increased by 23% since legalization.   
      
   • Suicides among Colorado adolescents ages 15-19 have nearly doubled since   
   legalization.   
      
   One cannot blame all this squarely on marijuana, but the correlation   
   should raise red flags. And that’s only what statistics can measure.   
      
    EDITORIAL: Minding the mental health of Colorado’s kids   
   No one can tally the number of children who choose pot over athletics or   
   other extracurricular activities. We cannot count the lost opportunities   
   resulting from people choosing a drug for recreation, as opposed to   
   Colorado’s countless options for constructive activities.   
      
   Politico focused on the industry, which is down in the dumps. It tells of   
   3D Cannabis, which gained national attention as the first store in the   
   United States to make a legal recreational marijuana sale.   
      
   “The windows and doors on the side of the building have been boarded up,”   
   the article explains. “Plastic bags, discarded coffee cups and other trash   
   collect in the corners of the abandoned parking lot.”   
      
   A makeshift sign reads, “temporarily closed.”   
      
   “The dismal state of the historic site is a fitting symbol of the plight   
   of Colorado’s cannabis market,” Politico says.   
      
   “What once was a success story has now left a trail of failed businesses   
   and cash-strapped entrepreneurs in its wake.”   
      
   A market worth $2.2 billion four years ago fell last year to $1.5 billion.   
   Last year’s tax revenues were 30% lower than in 2021.   
      
   “Colorado’s trailblazing cannabis market is now a cautionary tale,”   
   Politico concludes.   
      
   In just the past year, the number of Colorado cannabis business licenses   
   dropped 16% along with the number of cannabis jobs. Maggie’s Farm, a   
   pillar of the southern Colorado pot sector, this year shut down five of   
   eight dispensaries. Another major pot chain, Native Roots in Denver, cut   
   production in half last year.   
      
   Colorado’s pot bonanza will go down as a danger to public health, and a   
   pig in a poke for investors and entrepreneurs.   
      
   Given the layoffs, bankruptcies and broken hearts, the business side works   
   like the drug itself. It provides a counterfeit high until the buzz wears   
   off and reality beckons.   
      
   The Gazette Editorial board   
      
   https://gazette.com/denver-gazette/editorial-pot-leaves-users-and-dealers-   
   high-and-dry/article_85c9cca6-2851-11ef-ba5e-bf531ae340d8.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)