Visitors attend the Pot Pavilion at Denver County Fair on Friday Aug. 1, 2014. (Brennan Linsley, The Associated Press)

Editorial: Denver County Fair’s pot pavilion too much trouble

Sometimes making history is memorable and necessary. And sometimes history is better left alone.

The Denver County Fair, ever the quirky innovator, was proudly advertising another first before it opened its doors last weekend.

“Who will win the nation’s first Blue Ribbon for ‘Best Marijuana Plant’ at a county fair?,” its website asked. “Find out this August, when Denver County Fair makes history yet AGAIN with the world’s first Pot Pavilion!”

Such flaunting of pot at a county fair that kids attend amounted to tasteless excess — as we said back in February. (And yes, we know the pavilion was upstairs and off limits to minors; so what?) Somehow you just knew this was going to end badly.


Archive interview: Denver County Fair organizers talk about the plan to create a Pot Pavilion


Right on schedule, the fair is now investigating reports of visitors being drugged by eating a Full Melt Chocolate bar they got at the pavilion — bars that were supposed to be THC-free, but may have packed enough punch to daze a steer.

Meanwhile, the company that allegedly provided the bars is facing a class-action lawsuit.

Gee, wasn’t that fun? Should we maybe rethink this pavilion idea?


Six Months In:
A special report from The Cannabist

Is that really a thing? 10 strange but true stories as ganjapreneurs leap into cannabis market

Pot forum video: How’s it really going in Colorado? Panel discussion on edibles issues, tax revenue questions, the need for increased public education and more

Big changes ahead: Colorado’s recreational marijuana industry started a transformation July 1 that could add hundreds of new pot businesses to the state and reconfigure the market’s architecture

Watch: Colo. Gov. John Hickenlooper, veteran broadcaster Katie Couric talk marijuana in Aspen on July 1, the six-month anniversary of legal recreational pot sales in the state


This story was first published on DenverPost.com