Gov. Jared Polis is reducing the sentence of a truck driver whose semi-truck caused a fiery chain-reaction crash on Interstate 70 that killed four people in 2019. The governor said Thursday he would reduce the sentence for Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to 10 years, from the 110 years handed down by a judge earlier this month that […]
marijuana crime
Posted inBusiness, Crime and Courts, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado just released a big report on how cannabis legalization is going. Here’s what it found.
More than seven years since Colorado became the first state to allow cannabis to be sold at stores for recreational use, pot arrests are down, marijuana-impaired driving cases are up and school expulsions are both up and down. Those numbers — and a whole lot more — come from a new report released Monday by […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Coloradans convicted of marijuana possession could easily get their record sealed under new bill
Colorado lawmakers are on track to give more people convicted of marijuana possession offenses the opportunity to easily seal their criminal record, by requiring courts to seal convictions for possession up to two ounces for people who haven’t committed a crime since. House Bill 1090 would also expand Colorado’s recreational marijuana possession limit to two […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s top federal prosecutor says banks working with marijuana industry have “no carve out” from prosecutions
Colorado’s top federal prosecutor says that he would never tell banks working with legal marijuana businesses in the state that they are devoid of criminal liability. “As federal prosecutors,” Jason Dunn told The Colorado Sun on Tuesday, “we will never tell them that what they are doing is lawful under federal law. There’s always a […]
Posted inBusiness, Crime and Courts, News
Congress is weighing whether to give marijuana businesses access to banks. In Colorado, that’s already happening.
Colorado’s cannabis industry has had a chief request since marijuana was legalized: Give us access to banks. But it turns out that hundreds of the state’s pot businesses are already working with financial institutions under the close watch of federal regulators, even though marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. As many as 35 banks […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Education, News
Colorado teens are switching from smoking marijuana to eating it, study shows
By Kathleen Foody, The Associated Press Some teenagers in Colorado, where marijuana is legal for adults, are shifting away from smoking in favor of edible cannabis products, a study released Monday shows. About 78% of the Colorado high school students who reported consuming marijuana in 2017 said they usually smoked it, down from 87% two […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: I worked for Gov. Hickenlooper. Is America ready for his version of progressive leadership?
I have debated whether to write this column since I stood in Denver’s Civic Park on a brisk winter night listening to my former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper announce his candidacy for president of the United States. As a staffer in the governor’s office for the majority of the governor’s second term, I was and […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Polis signs into law bills on marijuana delivery, social use and investment that will change the pot industry
Laws signed by Colorado’s governor could bring big changes to the state’s marijuana industry, including the creation of businesses where people can consume cannabis and companies that deliver marijuana products. The changes don’t take effect immediately. Voters in a city or county must first approve of allowing both new varieties of marijuana businesses. State regulators […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
Authorities raid 247 Colorado homes, seize more than 80,000 marijuana plants in years-long operation targeting black market pot
By Dan Elliott, The Associated Press Authorities said Friday they raided hundreds of black market marijuana operations in Colorado that flouted the state’s cannabis law by growing tens of thousands of plants in Denver-area homes and selling the drugs out of state. The case is the largest involving black market marijuana in Colorado history, the […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Q&A: Jason Dunn, Colorado’s new top federal prosecutor, on marijuana, battling the opioid epidemic and how to stop violent crime
Colorado’s U.S. attorney holds one of the most powerful law enforcement jobs in the state, overseeing the direction of the regional offices of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. And that’s just to name a few. Jason Dunn, the latest person to hold the job, was appointed […]