What has Colorado learned from six months of legal recreational marijuana sales?
That was the subject of conversation on NPR program On Point on June 30, when the program hosted a number of Colorado figures — including Cannabist editor Ricardo Baca and Denver Post editorial writer Alicia Caldwell — for an in-depth conversation on weed in the Centennial State.
Some of the program’s most compelling comments came from Bill Masters, sheriff of San Miguel County, home to mountain hamlet Telluride and its recent, world-renowned Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
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“We just had our annual bluegrass festival here with 15,000 (people), which is a lot for us — we’re a very rural community, a very rural county,” Masters told On Point host Tom Ashbrook. “We just had 15,000 people here for a big party, certainly a lot of them drinking alcohol and using marijuana products. I think the (marijuana) stores did very well this past weekend.
“And the sheriff’s office, for the first time in history — I’ve been a law enforcement officer for 39 years — made zero custody arrests, no detox arrests, no arrests whatsoever during the bluegrass festival.”
Masters did note the Telluride Police Department made a few arrests during the festival.
“It’s kind of surprising,” Masters continued. “We thought we would have more of an impact from people overdosing … on the infused products and causing some kind of law enforcement problems.”
Listen to the full NPR report:
