Coloradans Light Up 2014: Sale of marijuana for personal use legalised

High up in the Rockies, the good people of the State of Colorado are taking a bold, freedom-orientated step – a step that will also start to reduce the individual, familial, community and wider social harms done by making drugs illegal. For today, just over 80 years after the Repeal of Prohibition – the disastrous government policy that tried to outlaw alcohol but which ended up doing lasting social harm to America, including nurtured organised crime – another equally disastrous policy, that of the failed “War on Drugs” will start to go up in smoke… as Coloradans light up their marijuana cigarettes, eat cookies or otherwise partake.

As this post goes to pixel, so the first legal sale in Colorado will have happened around 1 hour ago; the world hasn’t ended, the sky hasn’t fallen.  If anything, the opposite has happened; by legalising the sale and personal use of marijuana, Colorado is showing that there is an alternative to the disaster that is prohibition for policy makers when it comes to drugs.  An hour ago, Colorado’s experiment with freedom and personal responsibility when it comes to drugs began to light the way for other voters and other politicians looking to end the failed “War on Drugs” and to sensibly reform drug policy across America and the rest of the world.

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This is a press release from the Marijuana Policy Project (www.mpp.org or www.marijuanapolicy.org) that has helped drive through the legislative changes:

The first legal adult marijuana sales will begin Wednesday, January 1 in Colorado. Leaders of the initiative that made marijuana legal, Amendment 64, will hold a news conference at 7:30 a.m. MT at 3D Cannabis Center in Denver — a licensed marijuana retail store with on-site cultivation facility — followed by the first sale at 8 a.m. MT. The licensed marijuana retail store is 3D Cannabis Center,located at 4305 Brighton Blvd. in Denver.

The first customer will be Sean Azzariti, a Denver-based Iraq war veteran who can now legally use marijuana to alleviate the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Azzariti appeared in a Yes on 64 campaign television ad last year in which he discussed how legalization would benefit those suffering from PTSD — a condition that is not covered under Colorado’s medical marijuana law despite repeated efforts to add it.

This is sure to be an historic event. We’ll keep you posted on news coverage as the day unfolds.

MPP’s Mason Tvert had this to say:

“Adults are using marijuana in every state across the nation. In Colorado, they will now be purchasing it from legitimate businesses instead of in the underground market,” said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project in Denver, which helped lead the legalization campaign.

– See more at: http://blog.mpp.org/tax-and-regulate/first-ever-legal-adult-marijuana-sales-to-begin-tomorrow-in-colorado/12312013/#sthash.vQBXaXO6.dpuf