Zane Swiley of Savannah, Ga., smokes on a private bus during a marijuana tour hosted by My 420 Tours in Denver on Dec. 6, 2014. (Denver Post file)

Activists revise ballot initiative on more pot-use options in Denver

With time running out to make the November 2015 ballot, activists and Denver officials on Friday discussed a revised initiative that would allow pot consumption in places now off-limits.

After the first comment hearing last week between Brian Vicente and Mason Tvert — who co-wrote Amendment 64, which voters approved in 2012, legalizing the sale and use of recreational marijuana — and assistant city attorney David Broadwell, the activists revised their proposal to clarify that their target locations to allow marijuana consumption are nonresidential properties where people under 21 are not permitted and the owner consents, such as bars.

The revision also included a proposal to allow consumption in designated outdoor spaces that are 25 feet from public view, such as rooftop bars.

“The big-picture difference with this is that we took a lot of City Council’s feedback about reasonable regulation the city can have,” said Christian Sederberg, an author of Amendment 64 and a partner at marijuana law firm Vicente Sederberg.

One of the most noticeable changes to the proposal, Broadwell said, is the elimination of the term “commercial establishment,” which originally described the locations the activists wanted to allow pot consumption under certain regulations.

This story was first published on DenverPost.com