Inside a wild week in weed for Colorado Springs
Its been a busy week for marijuana in Colorado Springs.
Colorados second-largest city is in the national spotlight this week following a closed-door meeting between city leaders and federal officials about marijuana, a drug bust at a head shop business, a district attorneys statements connecting marijuana and murder, and the emergence of an organization touting the revenue potential of recreational pot.
Heres what you need to know:
On Wednesday, July 19, local news station 11 News (KKTV) sniffed out that an undisclosed meeting took place between Colorado Springs city leaders and federal agents about marijuana regulations.
The meeting addressed views of local officials and law enforcement toward the states marijuana regulatory program, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told KKTV 11 and The Gazette.
Some discussions centered on what Suthers classified as a huge black market and sensitive case investigations, The Gazette reported. The representatives from the Justice Department and other federal agencies also heard from medical and education officials, who previously expressed concern about cannabis legalization, according to The Gazette.
KKTV 11 News later obtained slides from the PowerPoint presentation made in the meeting. It was titled, D.C. Presentation, and some slides were named The Legalization of Marijuana and the Unintended Consequences, and The New Meth House. The slides included pictures of grow facilities, listed hazards cited by first responders and outlined negative community effects, according to 11 News.
Public information officials representing Colorado Springs government could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday by The Cannabist.
A day earlier in Denver, five federal officials met with 20 representatives from a variety of Colorado agencies that handle some aspect of marijuana regulations, The Cannabist reported.
Mark Bolton, marijuana advisor to Gov. John Hickenlooper, classified the talks as innocuous. The topic of current or future federal enforcement actions against the regulated marijuana industry was not were not focused on any current or future enforcement was not discussed, he told The Cannabist.
The Denver-based Marijuana Industry Group called for productive discussion involving cannabis regulations and requested that a variety of stakeholders be invited to participate in future meetings.
On Tuesday, Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman traveled to the Springs to announce a 13-person indictment related to the bust of an enterprise that allegedly illegally ferried 200 pounds of cannabis through two head shops called Hoppz Cropz.
The business model consisted of selling low-cost items at prices far above their worth such as a lighter for $15 and packing that with a free giveaway of marijuana, Coffman said in a news release.
The Hoppz Cropz home page touted free flower and shatter gifts with all purchases, according to a screenshot taken Tuesday by The Cannabist. As of Thursday, the webpage still includes that promotion.
At the Hoppz Cropz indictment press conference, 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May said marijuana was the gateway drug to homicide in our community and across our state, the Gazette reported.
May claimed marijuana was connected to eight of 22 homicides in Colorado Springs last year, according to KKTV 11 News:
A query to Mays office Thursday by The Cannabist was not immediately returned.
Meanwhile, Colorado Springs newspaper of record decided to take the temperature on city leaders attitudes toward recreational marijuana.
The majority of Colorado Springs City Council members think voters should decide on whether their city allows recreational marijuana, according to The Gazette, which conducted an informal poll of council members last week.
Six of nine council members told The Gazette they would favor a recreational marijuana ballot measure going before voters.
We need to have a big community discussion, City Council President Richard Skorman told The Gazette. The majority of the voters here did support it.
In November 2012, Colorado Springs-area ...
