Durango Mayor Dean Brookie says the city needs to look for more creative ways to solve budgetary needs than an additional pot tax.
The Durango Herald reports industry representatives spoke out during a city council meeting where council members were discussing a possible 5 percent tax on marijuana sales.
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Andrew Collins no longer has a cocktail of 17 prescriptions coursing through his body.
The Army combat veteran stared death in the face while serving two tours of Iraq in the 2000s. He now battles post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his wartime experiences.
The Olympia veteran has tried medications, meditation and hypnosis while adapting to the stresses of life in the civilian world. But more than any other treatment, Collins says marijuana has helped him cope with the psychological trauma he carries around.
Collins has launched a support group called Twenty22Many (pronounced “twenty-two too many”), which is focused on reducing suicide rates among military veterans with help from medical marijuana.
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A California blue-ribbon panel says curtailing the illegal marijuana market should be the primary goal of legalizing the drug’s recreational use in the state, and not developing another tax source.
In a 93-page report released Wednesday, the panel chaired by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom presents a wide range of choices and competing interests involved as advocates work to bring a recreational use initiative to voters next year.
Chief among the issues will be to determine how to structure licenses that growers and others in the industry will need. The panel indicated it wants that done in a way that both allows existing small suppliers to participate as well as leading to legitimate jobs without creating an unwieldy system.
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A district judge in Montezuma County on Wednesday issued an injunction against the “Bong-a-Thon” from holding their 32-year-old annual event in the small unincorporated town of Stoner.
The Cortez Journal first reported the judge’s decision. The newspaper says complaints from more than two dozen neighbors prompted the request for an injunction.
Stoner is a townsite that lies on Colorado 145 about 65 miles northwest of Durango.
