Transcripts For CSPAN3 Legal Marijuana In Colorado One Year Later 20150901

One book . Thats all you get. You mentioned one earlier, but the meditations of marcus coming up later today, well bring you a hearing looking at how federal policies can improve Higher Education. Outline recommendations for improving Graduation Rates and academic performance. The senate is in the process of reauthorizing the Higher Education act that expired at the end of 2013. It gets underway at 3 00 p. M. Eastern today on cspan. And afterwards, well open the phone lines to get your take. It starts at 4 30. The cspan cities tour visits literary and Historic Sites across the nation to hear from local historians, authors and civic leaders. Every other weekend on cspan 2s book tv and on American History tv on cspan 3. And this month with congress on the summer recess, the citys tour is on cspan every day at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Today, topeka, kansas. Also, books on kansas role in the leadup to the civil war. All starts at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Tonight, programs on the atomic bombs dropped on the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki in 1945. Starting at 8 00 p. M. , the moment in time, the manhattan project. A documentary detailing the project to create a nuclear bomb. The library of congress and Los Alamos National laboratory coproduction features interviews and oral histories with many of the key project scientists. At 9 00 p. M. , first person accounts by two atomic bomb survivors. And at 10 00, japans decision to surrender. Remarks by u. S. Army command and general Staff College professor ft. Levinworth. When Congress Returns from the august recess, one of the first items of business will be a resolution of disapproval on the Obama Administrations Nuclear Agreement with iran and other world powers. Starting tonight at 8 00 p. M. On cspan, well bring you key statements and hearings. Including a speech in early august by president obama at american university. House and Senate Hearings with negotiators. And statements for and against the agreement by senate leaders. Heres some of the highlights. Because the sanctions wont produce the results the critics want. We have to be honest, congressional rejection of this deal leaves any u. S. Administration that is absolutely committed to preventing iran from getting a Nuclear Weapon with one option. Another war in the middle east. I say this not to be provocative, i am stating a fact. Without this deal, iran will be in a position, however tough our rhetoric may be to steadily advance its capabilities. Its breakout time, which is already fairly small, could shrink to near zero. Does anyone really doubt that the same voice is now raised against this deal . Well be demanding that whoever is president bombed those Nuclear Facilities . And as someone who does firmly believe iran must not get a Nuclear Weapon and wrestled with this issue since the beginning of my presidency, i can tell you that alternatives to military action will have been exhausted once we reject a hard one diplomatic solution that the world almost unanimously supports. The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy or some form of war. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not three months from now. But soon. When i was in college, i wasnt a particularly good student. First part of college, i was interested in sports. The latter part i was interested in working. I learned one thing. The Critical Path method and ended up building buildings all over our country. And i learned, you start with Something Like this and you lay out a vision and build it out. And you put first things first. Its sort of the Critical Path. And what ive seen our secretary do is, i know hes developed a tremendous wavrmt with irans foreign minister. And he talks about it often. What youve done is codify a perfectly assigned pathway. For iran to get a Nuclear Weapon by abiding by this agreement. I look at the things they need to do the way its laid out and i dont think you could more perfectly lay it out. From my perspective, mr. Secretary, im sorry. Not unlike a hotel guest that leaves only with a Hotel Bathrobe on his back. I believe youve been fleeced. Congress has until september 17th to vote on the agreement. All of the president s remarks and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. You can watch house floor debate when they gavel back in. In january 2014, the First Retail Marijuana Stores opened in california after landmark legislation making colorado the first state in the country to legalize Recreational Marijuana use. Next, a panel that looked at the local, state and National Impact of decriminalizing Recreational Marijuana. Thank you all for being here. I startle myself with my voice coming through. So forgive me. Let me set a couple of ground rules, tell you what were going to do tonight. First thing, if i can ask everybody to put cell phones on off or vibrate or some other thing that wont disturb others, that would be appreciated. What well do is introduce the speakers and well go in order. Theyll each give a 15minute presentation. Well open it up to the audience for q a. I have a number of questions that if you guys arent active enough, ill launch into. But if youre active, ill step aside and let you ask your questions. The one thing i do ask of everyone here is this is a hot topic and a controversial topic, notwithstanding the amendment thats been passed. And so if everybody will kindly be courteous in their questions and try and ask questions rather than pontificate, that would be appreciated, as well. And with that, let me get out of your way and introduce brian. Thank you, its a pleasure to be here and ill be using this microphone. Can you hear me . Its a real pleasure to be here. I am an attorney and ive been working for the past ten years fulltime on marijuana issues in colorado. A lot of what you see today, i was definitely a large part of the effort to make that happen. For about 80 years or so, marijuana was illegal. Of course, we all lived through, you know, the war on drugs and, you know, the reagan administration, sort of this is your brain on drugs and everything in between. Marijuanas been legal in colorado for two years. But weve only had recreational sales for a year. Ill be talking about what weve learned in the last couple of years. Having said that, were only a year or two in, right . We can sort of try to look into the future, talk about whats happened the past year or so. But its certainly an interesting landmark, moment that were in. As such, i think theres sort of a confluence of two things, right . We have this long standing policy of marijuana being illegal. 10 margin said, no. We are going to make marijuana legal. That is a large change in how, you know, our criminal Justice System is set up. And, of course, the ramifications for the, you know, approximately 900,000 people that are arrested every year in this country. You know, colorado, at least and now several other states have adopted a different policy. Didnt criminalize those people. Thats one piece. But the other piece, we have and a confluence. We didnt just legalize marijuana. We also essentially created an opportunity for commerce. Right . What colorado did legalize marijuana and set up a tightly regulated system that allows certain types of businesses to sell. A shift in times and policy that has been set up in that way. As such, you know, i feel its incumbent upon our state to get this right. An interesting moment in time. Before i kind of launch into the Recreational Marijuana and the Retail Marijuana side of it, certainly worth dwelling on medical marijuana for a minute. A lot of the groundwork that we see and the basis for our system in colorado is the fact that weve had medical marijuana here since the year 2000. And i think that helps sort of influence voters, right . When you are brought up and taught that marijuana is bad, is evil substance, but then all of a sudden this law passes and people have cancer, aids, pain, what have you, are allowed access. You start to question. Does this policy make sense . Should it really is it really that bad . And after about, you know, 12 years or so and we had regulated store fronts for sick patients, that influenced voters. And the movement weve seen on marijuana reform, particularly medical marijuana, i think the only kind of comparable policy topic out there would probably be gay marriage. If you think about where attitudes have shifted in the past 10, 15, 20 years, massive shift on gay marriage. Talk to anyone under 40, anyone under 30. Theyre like, shocked that anyone would consider it to that gay marriage immoral or anything. And the movement state by state by state. Same thing with medical marijuana. We now have 23 states with medical marijuana. Also, washington, d. C. Four states fully legalized marijuana for adults 21 and over, including colorado. So, again, large shifts. And if you look at the polling, particularly among, you know, again, younger voters. Marijuana and gay marriage really track together. When you talk to younger voters, theyre sort of like, of course, you should tax this product. Of course, you shouldnt arrest people and put them in jail. Its sort of silly. Interesting sort of movement there. So what happened in november 2012 in colorado . I mean, basically, again, by about a 10 margin, the voters voted to do really three things. Right . And, again, never been done in history. Kind of colorados leading the way. And the first one was they voted to set up this regulated system of marijuana sales, production, and growth. And i could talk a bit more about that. The second piece is they allowed adults 21 and over. So, again, not people younger than 21 to possess and also to cultivate small amounts of marijuana. And the final piece, we also actually legalized hemp production. And hemp is sort of the same plant as marijuana, but it has none of or very small amounts of thc, the psycho active component that makes you inebriated. It can be used for fuel and fiber and things like that. Those are the three things that kind of went on in colorado that were pretty landmark. So then we had, you know, a year or so where we worked very closely with the state, with the Governors Office, with the legislature, with the department of revenue, to set up the rules for this new system. All right . And i would applaud, i think, the governor and his staff in that he opposed this measure, you know, and all the way through, you know, the entire campaign, which i was the codirector of. Once the voters voted and passed this in, he really said, all right, this is the law. And the same thing with the attorney general. They said, this is the law. If this is the way its going to be, were going to make sure this is done in thoughtful, responsible way, and i think theyve continued to do that. So, what has it looked like in the past year . I would argue to you that i think its been an unqualified success. Colorados experiment, colorados foray into regulating marijuana. But its important to know this isnt just my viewpoint, right . As one of the two authors and the guy that ran the campaign. Every major thought leader that has looked at the data, that has been out here, anywhere from on the left in New York Times to the right, the rand institute, the brookings institute, the denver post. All of these, you know, thought leaders, policy leaders are saying, this appears to be working. It appears to be functioning in a way that may make colorado a better place. Lets talk about some of the positive steps forward and what weve seen. Although, before id launch into that. I did want to note. I talked about the Governors Office and, you know, all these stores you see. There are some in the surrounding areas and the grows and so forth are regulated by the department of revenue, right . In order to have one of these businesses, you have to comply with hundreds of pages of code, regulation. You have regulators knocking on your doors. You have to have cameras on every inch of the property. Anyone who owns the businesses must be a twoyear resident of colorado, passed certain felony background checks, et cetera, et cetera. Its a very tightly regulated system. And i think that is part of the reason why colorados sort of serving as a model, right . For other states as they look to see, do we want to keep incarcerating and arresting people for marijuana . Or do we want to try Something Different . Of course, a couple other states have done the exact same thing were doing. We have this structure that maintains this. And the department of revenue is the same entity that oversees alcohol, casinos, they know how to regulate things. And they took this on and said this is a product and were going to regulate it. And thus far, seems to be working well. We can look at the fact theyve begun to do sting operations, right . Were familiar with those and the alcohol context where the police will send in someone who is 20 and Law Enforcement agent and try to buy alcohol. And often, theyll get like 6 of 10 of the Liquor Stores will sell to this person. Theyve had a very difficult time getting any of these businesses to sell to someone under 21. For a long time, i think there were zero of these actual undercover successful. I think the idea this is funneling out to youth, you know, it simply isnt happening from the store fronts. That much is clear. So as i stated, as i was campaigning for this measure, there are many dire predictions. If colorado legalizes marijuana, the skys going to fall and blood running in the streets and cartels are going to take over. No one will come here to ski again because itll be a bad place. And im happy to announce none of those negative predictions have come through. To kind of tick through those. Crime. Weve had a decrease in a post legalization in crime across the board in colorado, particularly in denver where you have several hundred of these, you know, stores particularly. Traffic fatalities are at record low. Theres a lot of concern, and rightfully so. Weve legalized the substance. Are people going to drive while impaired . How is that going to look . And its worth noting that traffic fatalities are down in the state since this has happened. The dire predictions, again, did not come true there. Teens, right . Thats a hot topic. Many people in here, parents. Im a parent. It matters, right . How are teens going to have access when colorado legalized marijuana . And, you know, theres certainly folks like myself that thought and argued along the way. What we do know, its the last 30 or 40 years, teens, or maybe longer, teens have had what we consider universal access to marijuana, right . When you go to any high school, teens can tell you, they can get it if they want to get it, right . To me, thats a sign of a policy failure. If were doing this to protect teens and they have universal access, maybe its time to think of a different policy. Our argument was, listen, teens are buying this on street corners or from parks, people that dont ask for i. D. We need to move this market. We need to move the market away from street corners, put it under camera, like a liquor store. And as such, teens will have a more difficult time accessing it. And what we do know is theres been no statistically significant change. A lot of people said thered be a massive spike and tons of teens would be using marijuana for the First Time Ever and it would be terrible. And in fact, weve seen no statistically cig chant change. Its worth noting that in other states, and this comes from state and federal data, that have not legalized marijuana. Theyve seen spikes in marijuana use. So its hard to say exactly where this is going to go. But certainly in the last year or two has not been a spike. And in fact, have seem to have been flat lining. Additionally, Colorado High School Graduation Rates are higher than ever. And dropout rates are going down the last several years. So, again, is there a direct relationship here . Yeah. Maybe thats a bit of a stretch. But for people that are saying there was absolutely this would be the worst thing for teens ever. We just simply have not seen that. And colorado seems to be Getting Better and better every year. Couple other issues that i think speak to how things are going here. The economy. The last 50, 75 years, people have been buying marijuana illegally pretty much everywhere else. Our dollars have been lining the pockets of the underground market and cartels. And what colorado did was bold. We said were going to take the market, regulate it, put the product behind the counter and make sure people who have passed background checks and will pay taxes are going to be selling this product. And as such, colorado stands to gain about 60 million this year, new tax revenue. Allocated specifically for schools, school construction, and we predict this will grow over time. Its been, you know, thats about what weve estimated it would be. But the same time, its been sort of a slow rollout where certain communities wouldnt allow medical Marijuana Stores to switch it over to retail and recreational stores. Medical marijuanas not taxed. Its been kind of an issue. But at the end of the day, we do know were capturing significant revenue in the state. And really, there was a lot of discussion that if colorado were to legalize marijuana, will no longer be an attractive place for business. And the last year has been stunning. The denver area, we have google, moving a 1,500person headquarters there. Business insider voted colorado, acknowledged colorado to be the Fastest Growing economy in the country. Its really pretty phenomenal. It doesnt seem to be scaring people away from locating their from locating businesses here. And in the face of google and other things and this is an in sentive for businesses to want to move here and not have their staff be criminalized. If you look at steve jobs and others that admit to using marijuana and maybe they would have gotten arrested for it ant not as gone as far in life. Tourism is a big issue. People said if we legalize marijuana nobody will come ski in vail. And this is a great around the year for tourism. Not the best snow year. But groups are not scared away from coming here and tourist numbers are as high as theyve been. One interesting piece is of what happened in the last year, is weve had 10,000 direct jobs in this industry, right. That is not a small number in what is considered a down economy. President obama in his state of the union, were clawing our way out of the recession and may we turn the corner. But in the last several years it has not been a positive economic climate in this country and we have 10,000 new jobs directly in this industry. And a lot of the jobs, coming out of the university of denver, are jobs that start at 17 an hour, that is the average wage. Much better than what you might get at any other entrylevel jobs. So i think that is meaningful. And i would say too, there is ancillary jobs that have risen up around this. My law firm, we employ 25 people. And all we do is represent marijuana work and represent marijuana businesses and the industry. Construction, those in the construction businesses around warehouses and many are renting out that have been vacant and are now being built out and tenant improvements and that is Economic Growth directly from this industry. Public health right. One of the interesting pieces about again taxing marijuana for the First Time Ever, previously cartels and underground people could get away without paying taxes and now Everyone Needs to pay taxes and we are collecting that money. And a significant amount is being used around Public Education around marijuana. And 9 million is being used for the First Time Ever to study medical marijuana. To see if it is if its useful for certain conditions. That is profound. We have 23 states with medical marijuana laws but the federal government has blocked funding and studies of the marijuana for decades and decades. I think we can agree that studying when they are passing the laws, at least studying. And colorado stepped up 9 million 2 million went to a study if veterans with ptsd would benefit. So very meaningful stuff. So obviously a positive net benefit out of this. And other Public Health issues. And again, were only 12 months into the regulated sales so it is hard to say exactly what will go on. But i think there is some substitution effect. People are drinking less. People are using more marijuana and there is a substitution. And at the end of the day, alcohol kills people. Marijuana has not killed anyone in history. Im not saying i would push that upon people to use, but at the same time, if there is a substitution, it is worth pondering. Im being told i only have a minute left. So just to wind down, obviously this is not on area without challenge. Marijuana continues to by illegal federally but the government has given clear guidance to colorado and other states. Issuing memos saying if you follow this strict state rules this is not an area were going to come down and prosecute people necessarily. But at the same time, i believe what colorado has done and since weve, in fact, passed the laws, three other states have legalized marijuana for Recreational Purposes and another five will be the end of 2016 and i can talk more about who that will be during the q a if people like. I think weve set a model on how this product should be regulated, how it should be taxed and the fact it should only be sold to individuals 21 and other. And so with that, ill turn things over to the next speaker. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you, brian. Next we have gina carbone. Be careful with your step. Should i come down here for the powerpoint. Yeah. Do you need help . No. Thanks. Can i put this here . Like this . Okay. There you go. Okay, thanks. Can you hear me okay . I dont know if i can hold both things at one time. Hi, thank you so much for coming out tonight. A cold night. I am in denver, obviously. I started this Organization Called smart colorado after the passage of amendment 64 with a couple of other women. The impetuous was for this i was appointed to the Governors Working Group for the task force and we came up with the recommendations for the regulations for this whole experiment. My background is in public affairs. I worked in d. C. And new york for over a decade. Never doing drug work like this, anything with marijuana. I got into this more out of curiosity and the fact that i am a Third Generation colorado native and i was very interested in what this was going to look like for colorado. Most importantly im a mother of four boys though and raising kids in this environment is extremely challenging. So that is a little bit about smart colorado. But we are an all volunteer citizenled organization. And what were really concerned with is the commercialization of marijuana. I want to talk a little bit more about that. Any way, so we were told during the campaign, that this could be tightly egg lated and enforced and kept out of the hands of our kids an this is a way to get rid of the black market and a huge economic windfall. I challenge those things annual see why in this presentation. So the reality, colorado citizens during the campaign were not told that we would have this mass commercialization with more pot shops than starbucks or mcdonalds, that it would be infused into candy and fruit flavored sodas. We have 300 different types of edibles with more coming down the pike all of the time. The highly potent pure thc concentrates that are widely available. And that we would colorado would become the major exporter of marijuana throughout the United States. No one really knows how much marijuana is even being produced in our state. So there are vast differences. And people went into this whole idea before this campaign of and maybe voted for amendment 64 for a variety of reasons. One is decriminalization. And legalization is different than decriminalization and finally commercialization which is different. In colorado weve done all three. So again, i talk about the mass commercialization in colorado. 866 shops. And of course that is changing all of the time. People are putting in applications for new facilities. So over 2300 licensed marijuana facilities in the state. And this is the cultivation sites, the mix facilities where edibles are made, the actual shops and then we have a few Testing Facilities too. Here they are. Denver though, that is where i live, epicenter of marijuana. 308 marijuana shops in denver. And i point out this is different than seattle. Same size, same population, where they have 21 and we have 308. Close to a thousand licensed facilities in denver alone. Again the testing, cultivation. So in amendment 64, one great thing that brian and his coworkers did is they let municipalities decide if they want to commercialize marijuana and sell it in shops. So we have the majority of cities in colorado that have said no to this. Of course the big ones, like denver, have said yes. But just to let you know, there are a lot of communities across colorado that do not want to sell in stores. Okay, so i just want to talk briefly i tell this to people my age and some of you might be a little bit older. This is not the same kind of pot from years ago. Even 10 years ago. It is extremely potent these days. It comes in a huge variety of forms. Eaten, vapes, dabbed, if you know what dabbing is. Well go into that a little bit. We have an explosion of edibles which make up half of the market, 50 of the market. Anything and everything can be a marijuanainfused product. We have the marijuana concentrate which comes in the force of hash oil, shad or wax. And again well learn more about that. 7590 pure thc. Im sure you can get up to 100 pure thc. And again, this is vaporized or smoked. Ive heard people refer to this as the crack the marijuana. It is so potent. Okay. So the youth. That is what were really concerned about. That is why we started smart colorado. And when i was on the task force with the other people, the discussion was always about how do we grow this industry, how do we allow everyone who wants to be in the business get them into the business, how do we make this as big as possible. And no one at the table was talking about what is this going to do to our kids. And in fact, there were a list of eight different priorities that the state gave us and we were to rank the priorities. What came in dead last. Concern for kids. That was the last priority. And so that is why we started smart colorado after that. So just a couple of things about youth use. We have had a resurgence of it after decades of it being lower. Average first age is 14. Marijuana is the number one reason adolescents are admitted to Substance Abuse programs. One in six use it casually become addicted versus one in nine for adults. And that is upon important point. Marijuana is different for adolescents with a developing brain. And ill go over that again. Weve had a 66 increase in the state largest detox center. And then this is interesting too. People thought, well when we legalize this well get rid of the medical market or it will shrink down. In the First Six Months of legalization, there was a 46 increase in 1820yearolds trying to get their red card. In fact, applying and getting the red cards. Because in marijuana shops, there is 18. There is no age limit, but you need parents permission if you are younger than 18. If you are 18, you can come into the shops. So weve seen a shift from people that didnt want to pay the higher taxes and recreational and they could get two ounces instead of one if they went down the medical road and so that is why weve had 18 and 20yearolds getting the medical marijuana. Okay, who uses medical marijuana. I guess this is no surprise. The biggest users, where is my pointer, as you can see, is this age group. And this is no surprise. But for a Community Like vail, that gets a lot of its workers, taking a few years off of college, i suspect a lot of people working on the mountain, shaking snow and doing that, they are kind of in that age group. And it is concerning when they could be using marijuana and working. The problem is too, the confusion about medical marijuana. And clearly there are i do believe there are some legitimate reasons or possibilities of using medical marijuana. We just havent studied it enough. What we do know, though, is there is massive abuse in the system we have in colorado. And the statistics that ive seen in the colorado and denver oughtities are that about only 5 of people are really using it for cancer, glaucoma, hiv, ms, those things. 95 are using it for general pain ands there an awful lot of 20 someyearold snowboarders out there using it to get high. We know that. So the problem is though, the message is marijuana is a wellness product and that is the message our kids are getting. It is an herb. It cant be harmful. It is a cureyall. When i talk to high schoolers, these are the reasons. They use it because of adhd, concentration, sleep issues, headaches, anxiety, depression, menstrual cramps. They see getting high as an exceptable acceptable Recreational Activity because we are legalized it. They are getting it through music, pop culture, magazines, newspapers and commercials. Marijuana is glorified and politicized and because it is sold legally in stores it is believed to be safe. So we have normalized marijuana use in denver. Our ordinance said you can smoke or use marijuana in your front yard. Out in the open for everyone to see. A lot of people thought this was going to be for adult use in the privacy of your own home, small amounts. But unfortunately in denver that is not what were seeing. Our newspaper, we have recipes, cultivation, pot events. The recent events, marijuana events, im sure youve heard about in denver. The advertisements, and then the reputation of colorado being known as the stoner state now. The trends for marijuana in schools. Leading story, back in november of 13, pot is increasing in schools. This is a recent statistic. Oops sorry about that. But a recent statistic about 89 out of 100 School Resource officials were surveyed and said absolutely there is more pot in school today. And weve seen that the trend is increasing. This trend is also increasing, that the perception of harm is going down. This is one of the number one indicators. This has been true for alcohol and tobacco. When kids do not see things as a risk, they are more willing to try it. They are more willing to use it. And this is disturbing. Because the perception has been going down. This is a very recent statistic from the National Survey on drug use and health. It just came out. It shows colorado versus the u. S. In terms of marijuana use. Starting well, over age 12, as you can see, and then it breaks it down. Clearly colorado is higher than the nation in all of those groups. So just briefly, im not a doctor but i will im sure youve heard some of this. About the impact of early and persistent use. Again, it effects adolescents differently. It studies have shown it can permanently alter and damage teen brains. It effects learning and memory an the prefrontal cortex which governed Decision Making and an analysis. It changes perception, motor skills. And i added this quote of hickenlooper. The concern we still have and i have is young people will view this legalization that marijuana is safe and every neuroscientist that i have talked to, that with kids, evening once a week, he can diminish longterm memoriy. He just said this the other day. And maybe you heard the study that heavy marijuana use again when you are young can effect your iq. This is a test that was done in new zealand. More tests need to be done. But the what weve seen so far is very troubling. Oh, is it . Okay. So okay, so did you cut this . No. It doesnt seem to be oh, geez, okay. So let me just jump to the end here. It doesnt seem to be okay. I talked about all of the edibles. Just a few pictures here. I was on the working group for the state for edibles. Weve had a couple of deaths with edibles. Weve seen an increase in hospitalizations and even certainly Young Children coming in that are sick. But also adults. Unremitting vomiting and psychosis and things not seen before and it goes back to the potency of todays marijuana. The problem of it looking like regular food, smart colorado introduced legislation to try to get the industry to stamp or somehow mark the food outside of the package to try to cut down on some of that confusion. We have been fought tooth and nail with industry. It has been a very difficult process. And i need to wrap up here. That was a billboard that we did. I guess i just want to get to this slide that says these are very discrete vaporizers. Again, industry said they are not marketing to kids but you wonder why the edibles look like candy and why the vaporizers come in asthma inhalers and Different Things like this. So employee drug use has been up. You can make a lot of comparisons to marijuana and the tobacco industry. Okay. Revenue, is it worth it . There are tremendous costs in setting up a regulatory system. I want to point out that. Enforcing it, i was just at a conference recently where one of your mountain towns, ski town, their biggest challenge and they do have Recreational Marijuana, is, in fact, resources. They do not have enough money for the staff that is going and inspecting the places. Having to enforce it and having to look at the facilities and remember, none of the food is looked at like the fda looks at other food to regulate it so someone has to be looking at edibles and kitchens and making sure there are not contaminants in it because the state is not doing it. So this is a burden on small community. They have to do that kind of thing themselves. And i know we need to so it is a mandate on small communities. There is a big string on social services, health care cost, addiction recovery. There is a ton of social costs, just like with alcohol and tobacco. And that does need to be factored in. So the 60 million that brian talked about that weve made annually this year in tax revenue is a drop in the bucket when you consider all of the other costs of regulating it and setting up this whole new structure. It is about less than 1 of our overall cost for the state. And the collateral costs. These things, if you can read these, came actually from the department of revenue at this conference. This was our own regulator saying that notice it has not been as great as people have said. Weve had a lot of problems. The black market, employment issues, litigation, strain on social services, adversely effecting our state. I didnt even get into the Butane Hash Oil extractions in blowing up the houses that is going on. But obviously the edible problems increase in e. R. And Motor Vehicle accidents and i show we have increased in those. And urgent need for more data. We dont have all of the data and we definitely need more. I will close by this is a quote again at this conference i was at with regulators an people from our state. Our Deputy Attorney general admitted, and i quote, it is not working. In spite of regulations, marijuana is everywhere. It is publicly kmumed, widely advertised and the police have their hands tied in Enforcement Actions by constitutional provisi provisions that few if any understood when they voted for amendment 20 which was nor medical marijuana and amendment 64. Any way, thank you very much. [ applause ] so i notice both of our speakers already suffer from what all speakers suffer from, myself included when i speak, and that is you think ive got 15 minutes, how am i possibly going to fill that and then you get 12 minutes in and think how am i possibly going to cover what i wanted to cover. But everybody makes the same error. Thank you, gina. Our next speaker is sanho tree. Thank you very much. Ive been asked to give kind of a big picture. Im from washington, d. C. I work for the institute of policy studies, progressive think tank and ive worked on drug policy issues for the past 18 years or so. And here is where i agree with some of the critics of the current policy Marijuana Policy. I do believe marijuana is a gateway drug. It is a gateway to the oval office. Every president since 1993 has violated our drug laws. Sometimes in very serious ways that would trigger mandatory minimum sentences in some cases. And the very slam legislators. It is hard to find elected officials who can run for office and claim theyve been drug free their entire lives. And it is not just the algoers or the al frankens but newt gingrich, Rick Santorum and theyve all used marijuana. Im not saying this to embarrass them but this is legitimacy. These are people voting on our laws an the question has to be asked would a good tough sentence or a arrest record helped them in their lives and careers. If not, then why is it so good for everyone else. And it is a question of justice and fairness comes into play. The voters of colorado, i think, sent a very important message, not only to the rest of the nation, but to the world. And dont know if people appreciate how how profound those reverberations were. It sent our state department into a bit of a frenzy because they were beinged asked by allies in this em is fear and many are critical of the war on drugs and saying not that your own citizens are turning the backs on wars are you going to rethink your policies on our countries, that you impose on us that we are required to carry out and the state department didnt know what to say because the Obama Administration hadnt come up with their Marijuana Policy yet. So they put pressure on the Justice Department and they were sent scrambling. What are we going to do about this. This r we going to prosecute, experimentation, et cetera. And so it opened up a lot of political space, both in the nation, within the federal government and internationally. What you voters did here in colorado, youve moved a bolder, the bolder of the federal drug war bureaucracy. This moves for no person. And suddenly they were sent scrambling. So that is a very profound accomplishment. Other countries and states have also taken a cue from colorado. Uruguay in december of 2013 voted to legalize nationally marijuana and to regulate it and to tax it. And they became the first nation in the world to do this. And so people think the dutch did, but all they did was depenalize it and so they didnt go and out right legalize it. Andure a guy is a good example, because they never had criminalization or simple possession for personal use. They codified this in the mid70s so you could not get arrested for simple possession of any drug. So for people saying the sky will fall because we dont have tough drug laws, when is the last time you read an article about the drug play hell scape that is uruguay. It doesnt exist. And what they did, because it was permitted to use for several decades now, what they did was legalize marijuana so it can be taxed and regulated and controlled. And so what they essentially did is have more control to push out the black market and the criminal organizations and take that revenue and use it for prevention and regulation and to keep it out of the hands of minors. And they are about to roll that out. Andure a guy is setting a price target of 1 a gram. Whether they can meet that, i dont know. But it is important to keep in mind, what were talking about, when we talk about the war on drugs an the different drugs, whether it is cocaine or heroin or marijuana, these are commoditiys that cost little to produce, the pennies per dose and prohibition that builds price support for drug traffickers. We make the drugs move valuable than they ought to be and that drives the violence and push for new markets and what not. It sent the federal but the International Drug war bureaucracy into a tissy because the control board, which is the u. N. Agency that enforced or tries to enforce International Drug treaties toldure a guy, you must not do that, roll it back to the status quo before. And think about what they are saying. These are drug warriors saying you may not control and legalize marijuana, you must give it back to the criminal market. These are Law Enforcement people saying this. This is how badly they are scrambling to protect thur jobs and budgets. And so again the sky did not fall. Other countries are now following that lead. Jamaica, just this week, indicated their going to go ahead with small possession and cultivation of recreational and medical marijuana. Other countries, guatemala is clamoring for an end to the war on drug. Columbia is pushing hard against the drug war as well. And so there is a lot of change happening. Domestically, this year, or this past election, three more jurisdictions voted for Marijuana Legalization. So we have oregon, alaska and my home of washington, d. C. Washington, d. C. Is important to note here. Because in the voters of washington, d. C. Voted by a 70 margin in favor of legalization of marijuana. In washington, d. C. , there are 143 precincts. Do you know how many precincts voted in favor of legalization. 142. Only one voted against this and this was in the upper Northwest Quadrant and the whitest affluent regions of d. C. And in that jurisdiction and precinct is lost by only nine votes. Nine votes away from a complete complete landslide. And politicians need to take note of that. And the republicans of course tried to stop this. Saying so they put an amendment in the omnibus appropriations rider that just passed saying washington, d. C. May not spend a penny to tax or regulate this. And what theyve done and this was done by a Tea Party Republican from maryland named andy harris who wanted to make a name for himself so he inserted an amendment in the back room deal because he didnt have the votes in open debate and got that into the appropriations budget. But the initiative was selfenacted. So on the fourth when they voted for this, marijuana became legal to possess and to grow up to four plants and to have simple possession that became legal. Republicans prevented us from regulating it now. So this is a really a extreme libertarian dream of having extreme mosh and not marijuana and not regulating it. I want more control over the substances and not less and keep them out of the hands of children to have good zoning policies, et cetera, et cetera. Now we have were probabling go to end up with a bit of anarchy. A bit of what . A bit of anarchy. And d. C. Is important. Because the voters passed this overwhelmingly according to exit polls as racial and social justice. The aclu did, who gets arrested for marijuana, 91 were africanamerican and if you know about washington, d. C. , marijuana use is widespread across all racial groups, et cetera, et cetera. And according to the governments own surveys, the number one state in terms of marijuana use in population density, it is not colorado. It is road island. Number two, washington, d. C. In terms of density. And everybody knew that all races and backgrounds use marijuana in washington and only africanamericans who were just being singled out in a horrible way. So much so that the city Council Voted in favor of this, and they are still trying to implement the regulation against the will of congress and this will end up in the courts i believe. But the city council was so behind this that even before the referendum passed they were Holding Hearings on how to tax and regulate marijuana. So this is broad support within washington, d. C. And in many ways, the reversal of drug war politics in this country is a result of demographics. Demographics is destiny with regard to this issue. The modern drug war as weve lived it or my generation has lived it is part of the modern culture wars. And our cultural wars stem from the division thatten golf our country in the 1960s. Particularly with regard to the vietnam war that divided and particularly with the schism, whether you were for or against it, understand where you stood on other social issues, on interracial marriage, on sexuality and rock and roll and Counter Culture and the bitter divisions have been exploitable for decades. Think about the 2004 elections. The things that cost john kerry his election, one of them was not his stance on the iraq war, which he opposed, but his allege stance on the vietnam war, he was swift voted. He got smeared because of something that happened in the 60s. And another big thing that influenced the marriage was gay marriage so karl rove and others were allowed to get 12 states to vote against gay marriage to make it the to block it in those states, including ohio and other swing states that drew out the votes. So the social and wedge issues have been useful politically, especially exploited by the right. But they are losing their traction because demographically the baby boomers, of which i am. Born in the last six days of the baby boom, are fading out, politically and demographically and the next generation is coming online in terms of voting and politics. And so a lot of that baggage, the kinds of cultural war issues dont resonate with younger generations. Gay marriage, they could not care less, quite frankly. Marijuana also falls in into that category. And so these formerly reliable wedge issues that were used politically to attack liberals and others as being soft or whatever, has now become a boomerang and it is coming back to the gop and splitting that party right down the middle between the libertarian republicans and the social conservatives so there is a civil war going on within the gop and that will play out in interesting ways running into 2016. And historically, this has been a third rail issue in politics. The people know what third rail refers to. It comes with a subway system. Third rail refers to two rails that carry the train, two are high voltage and if you touch it you are dead. And so third rail is issues like gun control, raising taxes, Climate Change is now a third rail issue or soft on drugs, soft on crime, that sort of thing. These are defensive issues that politicians run away with or runaway from because no matter which position they take they will anger a good part of the electorate so they would rather not deal with these issues. But the polarization of the third rail like gay marriage and marijuana are flipping very rapidly now. But what has kept it locked in place for so long is that the solutions to these problems are counter intuitive. If drugs are bad, why not have a war on drugs. The way i explain it, one of my favorite popular philosophers, simpson, bartholomew. From the simpsons, and he begins his campaign by attacking the opponent. He said there are no easy answers, he is not looking hard enough. That is the problem with washington and politics today. People want easy answers and it plays well on things like fox news. It is an easy sound bite. An it is counter intuitive to explain why being tough is not the same as being effective. That you cannot regulate that which you deliberately drive underground and give the market over to criminals. They are the ones that selfregulate. And so it is counter intuitive. What do i mean . This is a prop i use when i talk to legislators. This is count erin tewive problem solving. You probably played with these as kids. The knee jurs solution is the pull. But the harder you pull the stucker you get. It is counter intuitive to think that maybe relaxing a bit and pushing in just a little bit, that is the way you extract yourself from a difficult problem. And so the war on drugs is one of the things that has counter intuitive solutions. And so what do we do about this . If you do support what is happening in colorado and Washington State and washington, d. C. And other states, how do we operationalize, and how do we tell you about the nature of problems but how do you solve them and get more reform in other states trying to do the similar things. And i think one of the ways to do that, again, it is very counter intuitive, is that there is too much accountability for politicians. Before you freak out and think im crazy, let me give you an example. Oscar wild said if you want someone to tell you the truth, give them a mask. If i if you all were with the u. S. Congress, say ten years ago, and i asked for a show of hands, how many believe we should regulate and tax marijuana much like alcohol, that is time we did that. Maybe few would raise your hands. Maybe count on one hand those that raised their hands. And if you did that today, maybe a few more hands would come up. Maybe two or three hands would count the number. But what if i said, put your heads down on your table like in grade school and then raise your hand if you believe this and support this. Completely different result. A vastly different result. And i think that is the way if you give politicians a temporary veil of anonymity to have a nonbinding straw poll, i dont believe laws should be made in secret, there needs to be accountability in the end but as an ice breaker and you can do this in your churches or associations or labor unions, have a anonymous straw poll. Because you find people in the room agrees with you, it changes the nature of the conversation to jump start the conversation. If you are able to do a survey in Congress Today and it turned out that say twothirds wanted to tax and regulate cannabis, and if you release the aggregate number, the result of that, no names attached, just in aggregate, twothirds of congress believes this, then that gives some political cover for politicians to stand up and do the right thing, the courageous thing. They can say im being courageous by saying publicly what all of my colleagues believe privately, it is time to change our policies on this issue. And i think that is a way to solve a lot of third rail issues in washington and were running out of time, both me and congress, are running out of time to deal with very serious issues. Things like Climate Change and sensible gun control or other issues that are controversial and politicians cannot deal with and are pearlized because they are paralyzed because they are pinned down by gotchavotes. And in 1973, when the house of representatives instituted electronic voting. It made the process easier. You could push a button and register your vote. Who could be against that. But again the law of unintended consequences. It became easier to get recorded votes and the number started rising. Before this they didnt go through a roll call. They did voice votes, teller votes and count heads and parties but not names. And in that kind of a climate we can have practical politics and people can cross over the party line and my party wants to support these interests or polluter but i have children and grandchildren and i care about what kind of world theyre going to inherit and im going to Cross Party Lines and vote against my partys wishes and if you give this temporary veil of conscious, veil, not vail, the honest true feelings of what is in the best interest of the nation as a whole rather than the political party. Why should we be against more honesty in politics. Again they have to have a formal vote on this but you can have a ice breaker that begins to take the sting out of the third rail and the gotcha politics were trapping in today because right now washington is fundamentally broken. It has never been this bad and ive lived in washington since 1987 and i grew up in the suburbs. So with that, i wish you luck and i want to thank the voters for colorado for getting the ball rolling. [ applause ] so we have learned that sanho is a christmas baby, based on his statement that hes in the last six days of the baby boom. Ive also learned and he answered my question why there was a chinese finger trip sitting on the dice when he was speaking. I want to make just two very quick observations. One is article one of the United States constitution defeats your utopian idea of congressional anonymity so that would require a constitutional amendment but it is a fascinating idea and i think you are right. From a bidding straw poll, not an actual vote. Right. Also, i think whether or not your pro or antimarijuana or the legalization, there is a delicious irony to the Federal District of columbia having legalized marijuana. Ben cort is next. [ applause ] dont clap yet. You havent heard me. So getting back to weed. Im going to be quick. Because ive got a lot of stuff here and i think i have a kind of unique advantage point on this. So quick run through this and then ill hang out afterwards if you want to keep talking. Politics, the election is over. Ive spoken on the ground. Ill show you how. I work at the university of colorado hospital, not the development director, a little typos happen and im onsite. It is widely recognized as the thought leader in the field treating chemical dependency nationwide. So we are a hospital based Treatment Program for adults only. We would never dream of taking anybody mandated. That is my world. I myself, sober since june 16th, 1996, happened in the District Of Columbia where i got popped for possession with intent, weed related. And im on the board of project sam. Which is smart approaches to marijuana. Which has emerged as the opposing legalization voice. In reality, and here is the charter, i would like you to look at, to inform Public Policy with the science of marijuana, to have an honest conversation which is tough. Which is why i love being here. I was proud to be at the Aspen Institute this year and thoughtful venues where we can have discussions like this as opposed to the back and forth pinger pointing special interest nonsense. And to prevent the establishment of big marijuana. That is a huge one for me. And ill spend more time on that in my 20 minutes than anything else. And we advocate and sam does, and i do personally, to promote research of the marijuana medicinal properties. I think it is silly that the university of mississippi put a blockade on it and i think there needs to be more research because there is more interesting anecdotal evidence about what you can get from the components of the plant. Ive seen a lot of that for whole plant smoked. We need to study it. And so long as somebody is doing real science. Im behind it 100 of the way. Let those guys lead it. What we are not going to talk about tonight, and me and when you ask questions, ill punt best case scenario, i dont care about casual adult use. Zero. Get high. Dont drive, dont let the kids see you. I dont care. As a drug addict myself, card carrying drug addict, living a life of sobriety, right now, the last guy in the room who gets to throw a stone at somebody who chooses to do this is me. Ive chosen sobriety. It is who i am. But im not going to demonize anybody who doesnt. I dont care about casual adult use. And there is implications that people want to bring up that are past my pay grade. Im not a doctor. Ive never played one on tv. But before we do this, im a dad. I got three kids in Public School in colorado, boulder country. So there is a lot of this that comes from that. I dont want to do this. I love my day job. I love it. I get to work with drug addicts all day. That is my passion. I left a campaign because i was so concerned about this specific language to stay in a treatment after working for vail resorts for a little bit. But my kids in Public School here, it is one of the things that compels me to do it because the idea oh, well get to it. Okay, yes. Who cares. You know this, 1 in 6 teens. Ill give you resources for the slides if you want real science. All of the science anyone talks to you about, keep in mind two things. When they tell you about addiction rates involving marijuana, when they talk about anything that has to do with it, keep in mind this thc content. That they were all done and ill show you a chart with the after thc content that is below 12 and ill show you a graph in a second. And keep in mind that longitudinal studies by definition take some time. And while we have snippets and fairly small ends in some of the studies were getting, real science is needed. And ill talk about that at the end. But there is also some good real science. And a couple of studies. And any study, any research, any data that is presented to me that hasnt been published in a Peer Reviewed journal doesnt exist. And i would encourage you to consider that same thing. It is Peer Reviewed and published or it is not real. Okay. Nida, the National Institute of drug abuse, say what they say. The dsm 5, the manual clinitians look in, we included cannabis withdrawal as a real diagnosis. And it is not because were finally noticing it. It is because it is getting more and more intense. And it is getting more and more intense because weed is getting more and more intense. This is a really simple equation. You have what is naturally occurring in cannabis. Ive been told a couple of Different Things. Naturally occurring thc in a grown cannabis plant. What is the percentage . 5 or. 6. You will not detox from that. When George Washington wrote about that, he wont detox off of that. Those people initiating on concentrates, smoked marijuana that is a 30 thc, it changes your biology here and here. Outcomes, the more weed you smoke, it is a cool interesting 30 year study. While people end up in the oval office, a lot end up in my rehab as well. So i want to [ applause ] so when we say that we have the tendency to take these things and take an example here, some weird oneoff freak thing that happened and say that must apply to everyone now, here, guys, Public Policy has to look at the big picture and look at all of us. And one of the things that just kills me is how often this debate is done at the theoretical level. And now were here. Were living this. This is happening. This experiment, i kind of recent the term because experiment has controls and 100 willing participants and somebody is watching to see what happens. But the idea that well, well get to that in just a second. Sorry. Lets go to a64 because that is what you asked us to talk about. And so 15 minutes for it. Allow Law Enforcement to focus on more serious crimes. Public safety, duid. Eliminate the black market. Keep weed away from kids by putting it behind the counter. Humor me at the slides coming up, i suck at powerpoint. Free up Law Enforcement time. Note who this is. The chief of police in the town of erie. But he was the former chief investigativor for the medical Marijuana Enforcement Division from the inception and prior to that he was the deputy chief of defer police department. So he has a platform. He gets it. Because of the available in colorado, Law Enforcement is faces with increases resources in dealing with marijuana issues. Including the need for training officers on marijuana code, blah, blah, blah, repurposing drug dogs. Im not a cop. Im also not in the industry or someone on the outskirts of this industry getting paid from it. Ask a cop. Weve got somebody in uniform here tonight. Find a cop and ask him, has this made it easier or harder. Has learning the new codes, what are you seeing and ask them because what were getting is coming through a lobby in a special interest. The vast majority of the time, ask the people on the ground, and see what they tell you. Colorado association of chiefs of police gave a nice big statement, here it is, but here is a quick sound bite from it. Early indicators point to an increased use of marijuana by youth, increasing used of driving while intoxicated and increasing in emergency room visits. So the little bit of data around how were hopping cops out doesnt look so hot. So this is 2013 and here is 2014. Public consumption citations in denver alone, we have not freed up all of these cops time. Some for possession. Keep in mind, this is all of 2013. This is the first nine months of 2014. And here is duids. Driving under the influence. I have to hit this one quick. I took this picture on i25 during work the other day. Traffic fatalities in colorado are down, thank god. Cars are getting safer. Were cracking down on cell phone use, big, big issues. Traffic fatalities where the operator tested positive for marijuana are strikingly up. Strikingly up. When i i tried to first make this grab where i showed the oun ones but it is ho sigh, how many people die in Car Accidents that the graph looked funny. But this is again, this is the rubber meeting the road stuff. This isnt theoretical. This isnt what happen this is a significant increase in people dying on our roads because some guy was high and got behind the wheel. Remember what i said at the beginning. I dont care if you get high. I dont. Dont drive, dont let the kids see you. Unfortunately, the majority of the world are not they are not paying attention to stuff like this. So teen drivers, 34 of them say that when you smoke weed it makes you a better driver. Teen drivers are scary enough to begin with, right. It is a great survey. Liberty mutual sad survey. The state of colorado duid program, they just initiated last year. Showed in the First Six Months of 2014, 77 of the duids involved marijuana. Yep. Were going to take money away from the cartels. I couldnt put all of this here and if i could put videos on i would get more play time im sure in the world. Look at these articles. Mr. Tree, apologize for the Oreilly Factor mentioned there because you just shared your politics with us so intimately. If you want to look at the Oreilly Factor, look at this, inside of colorados segregation with pot and with the wholesale price are falling and mexican heroin is flooding north america. Npr, the cartel is pushing more cocaine and meth did we think they would go get jobs at taco bell . No. Cartels sell drugs. They are going to make money and switch it out. We want to solve this problem. Look at it internationally, or consider reducing the culture of in tox case that we have here. Because it is demand that drives that. Eliminate the black market. The hida report, ive give you this resort at the end. By legalizing in marijuana in colorado, weve become it. We are also the black market for those under 21. These are great. I dont want to read them all because i want to skip through to a couple of things. But colorado has the best weed on earth. On earth. Which is good for those of you using it responsibly in the privacy of your own home, not driving and letting kids see you. What it means is that the ounce that i can buy with a coupon for 120 in denver, or 79 i just found, ill show you in in a second. If i get to that florida, i can make 950. And so you sell a little bit of drugs and that is not how it works back then. Ill tell you how it works in just a second. Ill tell you how it works. This is straight off of the campaign, the yes on 64 campaign. So if we do this, well put it behind the counter and make it harder for kids to get. No one in their right mind is going to sell marijuana to a kid overthecounter. Boom, livelihood, gone. It would be ridiculous. If we catch ten people in the next 15 years in stings, it is ridiculous. But that is not how it works. Because we have 5500 pounds of marijuana changing hands every week that we know of in colorado and that is probably about a 40 estimate of total. There is so much weed in our state, it is super easy for the kids to get. Theyll never get it from behind the counter. Trust me because i work in a rehab. You dont have to trust me because i work in a rehab. But trust me because this is what i see. So the idea that were going to keep people from trying harder drugs and i was told this in the campaign. Well, ben, youll keep kids away from the corner where theyll get offered harder drugs because theyll go to the weed shop. That is not how it works. You have a weed guy and a guy for every other drug. You dont give the secret knock and go past the uzi and he said im running a special on amphetamine, and no, you cut your weed guy and sell the eights and you smoke a quarter for free. It is how it works. Your weed guy is your weed guy. Now, your weed guy gives you free dabs and buy one get one free whipits. This is bacardi selling open vape. That is cocontamination. The birth of a shameless and unregulated marketing machine. This is the biggest beef ive got with the whole thing. Ive been a supporter of decriminalization and ive given money to organizations that advocate decriminalization because i dont think you should go to jail for low levels of possession but as soon as you commercialize and play catchup to build the Regulatory Infrastructure, youre screwed. You have want to do this right and want to commercialize, you build a solid, air tight, Regulatory Infrastructure first and then bring it up. You dont try to play catch up with an industry that is one step ahead of you because there is money to be made in it. Well get to got things. I have too. This is great. Amanda said, i really see the future of the Marijuana Industry being way more like wine than beer. Regardless of how were told how great the Regulatory Infrastructure is, what is happening on the street is so different than what is on paper. And a lot of it is being left to the industry to regulate themselves. Responsible, winelike, not beer. Responsible, classy. 20 off with a student i. D. Sign twirler, santa slinging dope. Freaking hilarious unless you have 5yearolds. Baby jesus, came in the value pack to my house. Dollar joint, 25 eighths with it. An the cartoons are everywhere. This is the scariest thing. The happy white people. They will get you every time. We have infused oils with thc. And we eenl have massages on colfax with infused oils. Because you never catch the industry. 10 milligrams is the limit and here is hot cocoa with 100 milligrams and here is the thc for the last 40 years, increments of two and here is the last four years in colorado. That is what happens when youin dust rallize. You get herojuana and green crack. Here is a good one to end on. That is how cheap it is going now. 79 ounces with coupons. I wish i had more time for showing you this. This is the real science. Ill leave that up. Rocky mountain hida reports, that the head of nida published in the new england journal of medicine, a few months ago, fantastic, overarching and check it out. And then there is another one for you. Thanks. [ applause ] so the way were going to do this is if people have questions, we have a creative way of dealing this wp but if you allow anthony here with a boom mic to get over to you before you ask your question and let me repeat it to the audience and well let the panelists answer. Lets start back here with this gentleman. The two presenters, i appreciate that. Thats what i came for. By my daughter took her life. She was an adduct. Those of us who have had some experience in this area understand part of the conundrum. Its a naive population. This is a serious issue. Its not being addressed and i really do respect the facts and data presented and im looking forward to getting hard copies. Thank you. This gentleman. Lst his daughter to addiction. E we sympathize with your loss, but if i can focus on questions from the audience. I have a question. To the panel z as well. The question stems from the u. S. Government has classified marijuana as a schedule one drug. Its heroin, exta city. It also has no medicinal qualities. So the fda sent a memo to the dea looking at reclassifying marijuana to another schedule. So they are not prosecuting in 32 states on a federal level any of the Marijuana Prosecutions so can you comment on that as well. This gentleman has two questions. Both directed to mr. Tree. One is marijuana is scheduled by the federal government as is classified as a federal one drug, a drug with no redeeming medical value. Fda said something to the dea asking to categorize it into a different schedule. The government has said they will stop prosecuting or defund federal prosecution of marijuana fences again. He had a saying. Its difficult to get. A man to understand the nature of a problem when his salary depends on him not understanding it. And this is the problem when you send a letter to the dea asking them to reschedule marijuana from schedule 1 to another schedule. Their bread and butter and many ways the cornerstone of the war on drugs domestically. About half of them are simple marijuana suspensions. So certainly the nypd were reluctant to give up stop and frisk because of this. This is a cash issue. And a lot of them will fight, as any organization would. If you work for a university f your budget was on the line youd fight tooth and nail to keep it and preserve it. So the dea, it may come other ways. In terms of prosecutions, that was a bipartisan measure and sponsored by a republican from california. Fairly conservative guy. This whats happening, there are states who believe in states rights saying the federal government. Should not be doing this. And for a long time it habit been in terms of minor prosecutions. Its a waste of prosecutorial resources. Jimmy carter almost came close to decriminalizing marijuana in the 70s. He had a very good maximum. The penalties for drug use should not cause more harm to the individuals than the drugs themselves. Thats to be the base line for our policies. I dont want to lean left here. Is there a question from the right side . I just have a question about i think marijuana is here to stay. The question is how are we going to make the system better . I agree we need science, maybe we need big pharma, maybe we need. Better control of edibles, which the bioavailability is really very unscientific. Thats where people were get tig into trouble and i wondered where colorado has anything going on in terms of trying to fix this problem and the second part of my question is as far as Law Enforcement is concerned, what sort of tests do they do to see if somebody is ushd the influence of marijuana . Is that a urine test, which obviously they are not going to have back for days or is there some sort of breathalyzer that can be done . So two questions in a nutshell. One is how to make the system in colorado better and the second question is how is levels of marijuana in the blood tested by Law Enforcement. Ill take a shot at those. So colorado is certainly under the microscope. Were the first state to jump into this, but our timeline has been quicker here than Washington State. Oregon and alaska are now doing it as well. But its certainly incumbent upon us to do it responsibly. Our government did something smart at the beginning which is convened a series of stake holders. People in the industry, Law Enforcement, district attorneys, judges, everyone got together and developed policies around this. And the governor has been pretty consistent about continuing with those working panels. Theres room for citizens. This is an issue you find important, certainly you can petition to be on those panels and we think its crucial to do so to get. That input. Theres a a lot of voices that matter. In terms of the dui issue, this is sort of a complicated one in that how is marijuana typically found in the system. In the driving context, its not breath like alcohol. Its usually blood or urine. Its difficult for policymakers to address this because marijuana in. The system, and this is where i would take issue with the statistics about duid, is often those tests just show the existence of marijuana in the system. Marijuana in a nonactive form can remain in the users system for days, sometimes weeks. So when people get in car wrecks and they have marijuana in their system doesnt mean they are impaired. It means they may have used it in the last week, two weeks, but there are tests that boil down and can figure that out, but currently they are not in as widespread use as they should be. I dont know how realistic it is, but what i would do is on these panels that we have, i would give the industry incredibly limited seating. Give them two spots or a nonvote. I would let them weigh in, but i think that we have to decide do we care more about promoting the profits of an industry or building an infrastructure because thats what this comes down to a lot of the time. How are we going to keep these people working . How are we going to get as much weed sold as we can . I dont care about that, because i dont see that as their right. I see it as a byproduct of this whole thing. What i would like to see give them a year, put scientists and doctors in it and see what happens there. Actually smart colorado has been working on the policy level from the local level to the state level and trying to tighten down some of these regulations. Our biggest stumbling block is how powerful this industry has already become. The amount of money and influence already that we have seen and its just getting stronger and stronger and it is very difficult as average citizens to weigh in and have an effect. And a perfect example is these edibles. I was on the state working group to try and put some more regulations around these edibles and we were just met with a blockade of industry folks that said it was too expensive to mark the products. Mind you legislation was passed. They are going to try to unwind it in this next session. In fact, there are about 30 bills from. The Marijuana Industry on the docket for next session that were going to have to deal with that are, in fact, unwinding some of these very things. Whether its the twoyear stipulation that you have to be in colorado, they are trying to undo that. The hours that the shops can be open and available, they are trying to undo that. They are usinining and fight an its going to be up to citizens to tell their legislators that we want to make sure this is regulated. I think itst fair to say we need to look at regulations. But for what other industries do we try to shut out industry from the table. Would you try to regulate coal without having companies present . What other industries do we do this to . I find myself at odds. If its not causing harm to it others, if you dont believe in prohibition and you dont like whats happening now, we can agree that somewhere along that line we can slide it to the left and to the right. To go back to the old drug war. How does that affect the for profit prison system and the three strikes youre out. The legalization is going to affect that and how many of our last five president s have smoked marijuana illegally that might not have been president if they were incarcerated for that. We have three questions. One is how legalization will affect the forprofit prison system, the second is how many president s, im taking these out of order, how many recent president s would not have been elected and how will legalization affect those state s which have three strike youre out programs. We have about 100 million american that have tried marijuana. And then we have about 800,000 that are arrested every year for this. But the truth is not a lot of those people end up in. Prison for marijuana possession. The individuals you see in prison for marijuana, theres not tons, it would be distribution or large scale cultivation. Certainly in certain states there will be more people in state prison. But at least at the federal level were not seeing tons of people locked up for marijuana. Not to say theres not a large impact on the criminal Justice System in terms of Police Priorities and spending their time doing. Even if they are not going to prison, they cant get a job because they have drug conviction. Its not a giant driver for prison populations. Although, you see a lot of people revoked off probation because they come up with a positive urine analysis test for marijua marijuana. Theres an impact, but i wouldnt say its giant and im happy to turn things over for the other questions. In terms of the past president s, there was bill clinton who said he didnt inhall. Hitchens said thats probably true because he preferred brownies. But i think bill has basically admitted to use. George bush never edadmitted publicly but did privately to his biographers in 2000, who secretly tape recorded the thing. His last name is weed too. And cant really talk about my past drug use because people look up to meso cocaine can make you delusional. And then president obama has written very publicly about this, about his not only marijuana use but his own cocaine use. So this is something that when you go to the house of representatives or the senate. Again, it was the 2004 primaries, the democrats were lined up on stage and i think it was Anderson Cooper said raise your hand if you have never used marijuana. Joe lieberman had to be the one to sheepishly raise his hand and say i have never done that. Demographically, the culture, the 60s generation are now in power and they have a lot of experience with these things. And yet these are the people who are voting on these laws today. Then the three strikes. Dirty urine is one of those three strikes. You have someone with two strikes and they test dirty for marijuana, that could be the third strike. They could go away for life at e enormous expense to the state. Thats a lot of money to lock someone up. These zero tolerance laws, three strikes laws, they sound good for politicians because it makes them look tough, but when youre actually enacted and put in practice, they are incredibly backwards. They tie the hands of judges who know better and they are powerless to try to rectify this this. Some of the original backers are the same who led the fight against it to repeal it. The short version question would be to all of you. Since we are colorado, what would all of you come up with to help advise other states who might be about to allow marijuana to be legalized there. The longer version would be since you all come from different backgrounds and have different opinions, im sure people here do as well. Is there any one point that if you were going to from colorado, which we are in, project to other states or congress or whatever it is that passes those laws. What one point would you press for to make sure happens . So my slide editorial liezing of the question is being colorado and being first in, what have we learned that we would pass on to other states contemplatinining legalization. This was discussed at the conference i was at where we had our leaders and regulators there. And absolutely for these other states, go slowly. Do not follow colorados lead. We had extremely tight deadlines because of amendment 64 and as ben referred to before, we are playing catch up. All this stuff was r already on the ground. Medical marijuana, although it started in 2000, it wasnt truly commercialize commercialized until 2009. Thats Washington State has taken their time a little more than we have, but. I think that thats really crucial. Also to get data in order, we have so little data. I think thats really where we need to look at the situation and set up the regulations first. Let me add to what happened in 2009. Attorney general holder announced that they were going to pretiretize fences. Even though amendment legalized it in 2000, thats when the momentum started. I think its something were still doing in colorado. The idea this is a grass roots peoples movement, decriminalization might be. Legalization in colorado has become completely synonymous with commercialization. Dont underestimate the lobby in the industry and consider separating legalization from commercialization because then youre going to have a lot less guys like me jumping up and down and being angry about it. We need to put our kids first and think about those policies rather than the industry and money being made in this industry. I do want to note to ben that regardless of whether or not industries involve, its a grass roots movement, isnt it . Absolutely not. I guess in addressing the original question, i think the other speakers really theres a lot of merit to what they are saying. But go slow. Marijuana has been illegal for 80 years. Millions and millions of people in our country have been arrested. Im tired of it. Our laws need to change. E these laws are fundamentally racist in their implementation. They are damaging good peoples lives. We need to stop arresting people for marijuana. States should get on board with this. Having said that, you need to be thoughtful about you you get up these regulations. I led the drafting process in colorado. It was a sixmonth process where we sat down and said were going to be the first state to legalize marijuana ever. Were going to consult every expert and come up with regulations that make sense. In order for us to crystallize this and do it in a way to convey this concept, it never. Happened before to the public. I think within that when you think about regulating marijuana, people 21 and over, thats the beginning framework i believe states should look at when considering passing these laws. I think the states were always meant to be the laboratories of democracy and other states can emulate. The one lesson to export is to learn from mistakes and mistakes will be made along the way. The first mistake that colorado rejected was prohibition. It did not work. You do not control a drug by driving it underground and giving it to the criminal market. Having said that, i would also agree that im troubled by a lot of this advertising. And the Supreme Court said you could i urge other states to exercise their powers and find out which models work best. Things with edibles, i think the race to the edibles dont think they should be banned, but im not a huge proponent of edibles. Theres lots of tweaks and lessons to be learned along the way. Other states should be free to experiment and find out which models are best. Thank you. There were some interesting statistics, as always, in a conversation like this. I think the number of marijuana establishments in the state of colorado compared to starbucks and mc. Donalds. Both of which sell substances or ingredients in their substances which are harmful to our children. I would have been more interested in hearing a statistic comparing 876 marijuana distribution facilities to alcohol distribution facilities. I think thats the comparison that we need to make. Sometimes in a a conversation like this, it sounds like the late 1800s, 1900s and the prohibition discussion, those who were against those who supported were in favor of it. Im curious because i have friends that have chose on to take that healing path and have recovered and doing well. However, my question will be statistically what percentage of your patients are there for alcohol abuse and what percentage are there for marijuana abuse . Recovery of the use of marijuana versus the recovery of alcohol . Im going to add my own two cents worst. The first question has to do with the gentleman cites compared, but he thinks a more fair comparison might be to alcohol outlet. So whats that comparison . My editorial liezing to that question and as noted when i was introduced, i represented a lot of these Retail Marijuana outlets, cultivation outlets, theres always a comparison in the ordinances you deal with that makes some sort of comparison between alcohol and marijuana. My question is that fair, first of all, but lets focus on this gentlemans question. The second question is a question that i had written down when you were speaking too. What is the percentage of marijuana rehab compared to alcohol rehab . Well have the data from the last two years at the end of this summer. The number two reason why anyone seeks treatment over 18. Under 18 its weed, but theres a good case to be made because they are adjudicated into that. The number one reason anyone seeks treatment is alcohol, number one. Number two is marijuana. We hold true with those at cedar. We also have seen an interesting uptick in the last year. But you have to go past the s surface of that statement and say it is it availability . So if you have another substance objectively speaking, alcohol is a less addictive substance that many of the things that lead people into treatment. But its much more ready available, people start using it early ler, they consume it in greater quantities. This question is not a simple booze or weed thing. We see weed and alcohol. Everyone in the country sees more. Alcohol because its more prevalent. If you have 1,000 patients, how many there for alcohol abuse and how many there for recovery from marijuana . What percentage of those being treated are alcohol and what are marijuana. Sam is a. Keeps great numbers and they will give you pretty good numbers on that. Its certainly not alcohol. But you have to ask yourself that question. Is that because of the acceptance and prevalence in society or is that substance inherently more x than the other one. They have kept amazing data on this. Lets finish with this outlet. Then well take one more question after you. I do have another slide that wasnt included that talks about pharmacies and Liquor Stores and Marijuana Stores. There are still more Marijuana Stores. I cant think of the number right off the top of my head, but we have a graph that shows that. When i speak with a lot of out of state media and talk about how its easier to get pot than a cup of coffee, mcdonalds and starbucks are everywhere, so its just a way of comparing the two that a lot of out of state people are really surprised with and kind of puts things in perspective. I just chose to put that slide in. I guess i would just add that certainly there are more liquor licenses in the state of colorado. My guess is theres ten times as many if you think about restaurants, breweries, bars, then there are marijuana shops. Its dwarfing. As a supervisor i was told at a hospital in washington, d. C. Sort of a similar place to where ben works, that any time he felt like 10 of the population would be abusing some substance. Is it a fix them game. People moving from alcohol to marijuana or is it additive . The so the question simply, is there a quantity of people who tend toward addiction and does it shift with the legalization of marijuana . So maybe there are 10 of the population with adildictive personalities. Do they shift from alcohol to marijuana . Thats a great question and you hinted a much larger conversation, which is around the way that addiction manifests inside our country. It is about 10 . 10 of folks end up like me, maybe u no matter what. Theres a lot of reasons why and we have a lot of great information about it. We have been learning so much about addiction. The other thing we have been learning a lot about are individual drugs. So you get somebody like me to differentiate the drugs and how addictive they are and who gets addicted to what, im not going to do that. What i will do is because to me its about addiction. Its not about a particular substance here and a particular substance there. But the biggest predictors, if 10 of the population is going to end up with an addictive disorder just because, anybody can become an addict. Just about anybody can. You consume enough of anything, think of your coffee, nicotine, just about anybody can get there. The biggest predictors are age of onset, so when you first use, the frequency of that use, and then the potency of the substance ta youre using. So for us who are considerably more concerned with addiction and wholeness and recovery than with any particular substance, its all about delaying that first use and making that first use be on a substance thats as mild as we can have it be and having stigma around it so they dont do it again and then frequency of use. If you can wait until the frontal lobe developed, 24 or 26, if everybody waited until they were 24 to do anything, we would bring those rates down to 5 in the country more than likely. You would not have the same issues. The problem is always on the developing brain and thats why this is such an important topic because i see this as something that contributes to that for young people, sorry to take so much time. I would just jump in and say absolutely. Thats why were so concerned with youth marijuana use right now and the messages that our kids are getting and the availability of it near schools and 18yearolds being able to buy it. There are a lot of 18yearolds in high school. But i would add one other thing. Theres been talk that were shifting substances. Those are the not the statistics i have seen. We have not decreased for other kinds of drugs as marijuana has escalated. Were seeing more people use these substances. I think my job is to make marijuana boring. Thats what i want to see. Thats what the dutch have done. Long ago they experimented with liberalizing their drug laws. They separated the hard drug market from the soft drug market. Because the dealer who dealt marijuana in the old days could also sell hard drugs. So they set up the coffee shop system. And the dutch have had this regulartively easy access. So it if we could make marijuana boring, and its a boring drug, it takes the glamour out of it. There was an article in the l. A. Times recently about some teens talking about my mother was talking about marijuana and her experiences. Its become the new facebook. It became uncool pretty quickly. Last question here. Maybe we can use this legalization to rethink alcohol. We have already rethought tobacco. To go back to washington or wherever it needs to go to to get the reforms that we need in our society because tobacco is right on television now saying we target the weakest people in your society, the youth. Theres a commercial, i saw it this morning. We know alcohol targeted youth and gun laws are so archaic they are crazy. Can we use this part of the leaguization of marijuana. Its an industry. So why would you pick on this industry and say you cant make your millions of dollars and cant do these types of advertising and things that all industries do because one of the americans said corporations are people. So you cant have it both ways. Besides the illusion to the Citizens United decision, the question is are there lessons in the Marijuana Legalization experience and debate that would foster reconsideration of other policy issues that are not good for us. Colorado has pretty serious p restrictions. You see it as a cherry picked example of the worst of the worst. Otherwise all of those ads appeared in publications that by law have to serve a population. I think its 70 over 25 or something. So these are examples picked out to basically stair you. And maybe thats important. We need to have a tough discussion about appropriate advertising. This is the dawn of a new industry. Its not like ooel people behind a curtain. I represent a lot of these people. You know some in your community. These are by and large good people looking to make a living selling this product that is legal in this state. They are not so those individu individuals that are advertising and what i feel in cartoonish ways dontqu