{"id":24746,"date":"2016-06-21T20:08:11","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T03:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/legal-weed-sparks-debate-why-not-allow-pot-clubs\/"},"modified":"2016-06-21T20:08:11","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T03:08:11","slug":"legal-weed-sparks-debate-why-not-allow-pot-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/legal-weed-sparks-debate-why-not-allow-pot-clubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal weed sparks debate: Why not allow pot clubs?"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER<\/strong> \u2014 Legal marijuana is giving Colorado a stinky conundrum. Visitors can buy the drug, but they can\u2019t use it in public. Or in a rental car. Or in most hotel rooms.<\/p>\n

The result is something marijuana advocates and opponents feared \u2014 people toking up on sidewalks, in city parks and in alleys behind bars and restaurants \u2014 despite laws against doing so. And they\u2019re getting dinged with public marijuana consumption tickets.<\/p>\n

From the capital city of Denver to mountain resorts like Aspen and Breckenridge, police wrote nearly 800 citations for the new crime of public consumption in 2014, the first year recreational sales began.<\/p>\n

Some legalization advocates believe they have a solution \u2014 pot clubs. Denver voters may consider a ballot measure this fall to make the city the most populous place in the nation to expressly allow pot clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need a place to go,\u201d said Teresa Wright of the Denver suburb of Lafayette. Wright was volunteering in Denver recently to gather signatures to ask voters this fall about allowing private pot clubs in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go out anywhere and see people using alcohol. To socialize, to relax. But not marijuana,\u201d Wright said. \u201cWe deserve to have a place. It\u2019s a legal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

But marijuana clubs have proven a harder sell here than legalizing the drug in the first place.<\/p>\n

The amendment that legalized marijuana doesn\u2019t give people the right to use it \u201copenly or publicly,\u201d a nod to critics who said legalization would lead to an explosion of Amsterdam-style clubs. But Colorado\u2019s constitution doesn\u2019t ban public use, either, leading to a confusing patchwork of local policies on weed clubs.<\/p>\n

Denver and Colorado Springs have existing pot clubs, but the clubs operate somewhat underground with occasional police busts.<\/p>\n

The small northern Colorado town of Nederland regulates a club that advertises, \u201cout of state, out of country, and of course locals are welcome.\u201d In southern Colorado, Pueblo County allows clubs but has none.<\/p>\n

Things get even more complicated in the Denver suburb of Englewood, where city council members were apparently taken by surprise that the city had licensed a pot club. They then voted 7-0 this month to allow no more clubs.<\/p>\n

No other states with legal recreational pot have licensed clubs, either. Alaska\u2019s Marijuana Control Board voted last year to repeal an explicit ban on social marijuana clubs, but the state hasn\u2019t yet finished work on the potential to allow for people to use pot at certain stores that sell marijuana.<\/p>\n

Concerns about pot clubs mirror worries about legalizing the drug. Law enforcement officials have said the clubs could lead to more impaired driving, though there\u2019s no evidence that existing underground clubs have been linked to traffic accidents or crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no good regulatory model for what these clubs should look like,\u201d said Colorado Rep. Jonathan Singer.<\/p>\n

The Democrat planned to propose some sort of pot club bill during the recent legislative session, but gave up after law enforcement, the pot industry, state regulators and even bars and restaurants couldn\u2019t agree on how it should work.<\/p>\n

Others worry that pot clubs would further encourage minors to try the drug. One Denver woman interviewed at a popular park said she fears that clubs would further entice her underage grandchildren to try pot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is, marijuana is all over the city now,\u201d said Sara Epstein, 77. \u201cIt\u2019s so easy to get. Why do they need a club? That\u2019s just going to show kids it\u2019s even easier to get. It\u2019s the wrong message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marijuana activists trying to get a club measure on Denver ballots say pot skeptics should welcome clubs for just that reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want it in your face? Great. Let\u2019s get it off the street,\u201d said Jordan Person, head of Denver NORML, which is backing the ballot measure. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to put more people on the road high. They\u2019re already there, probably driving while they use it. So this is better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Person\u2019s group has until mid-August to collect about 5,000 signatures to put the question on municipal ballots this November. She had no estimate how much the campaign could cost if the measure makes ballots. Four years ago, Denver County approved legalization nearly 2-to-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me what it comes down to is personal freedom,\u201d Wright said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to hurt anybody. People just don\u2019t want to smell it, like cigarette smoke. So it makes sense to give people a place to enjoy cannabis with other adults.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DENVER \u2014 Legal marijuana is giving Colorado a stinky conundrum. Visitors can buy the drug, but they can\u2019t use it in public. Or in a rental car. Or in most hotel rooms. The result is something marijuana advocates and opponents feared \u2014 people toking up on sidewalks, in city parks and in alleys behind bars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":24747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-24746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24746"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}