January, 01 2014, 10:04am EDT
World's First Legal Adult Marijuana Sales Begin in Colorado
The Marijuana Policy Project — the largest financial backer of the Colorado legalization initiative — will support efforts to pass similar laws regulating marijuana like alcohol in 13 more states by 2017
DENVER
At 8 a.m. MT on Wednesday, approximately three-dozen state-licensed marijuana retail stores in Colorado began legally selling marijuana to adults 21 years of age and older. The state is the first jurisdiction in the world to establish a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol. Colorado made marijuana legal for adults in November 2012 when 55% of voters approved a statewide ballot initiative known as Amendment 64.
"The era of marijuana prohibition is officially over in Colorado," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the largest financial backer of the campaign in support of Amendment 64. "The state is demonstrating to the rest of the nation and the entire world that regulating marijuana works.
"It's only a matter of time before lawmakers and voters in more states adopt similar laws regulating marijuana like alcohol," Kampia said. "The dominoes are falling."
MPP is now planning to work with local and national allies to pass voter initiatives in seven states and bills in six state legislatures to end marijuana prohibition and replace it with systems in which marijuana is regulated and taxed like alcohol. The organization is currently supporting a petition drive led by Alaska activists to place an initiative on the August 2014 ballot, and it will work to pass initiatives in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, and Nevada in the November 2016 election. It also plans to actively lobby and engage in grassroots organizing efforts to pass bills in the Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont state legislatures.
"As a nation, we look back at alcohol prohibition and ask how we could have been so foolish," Kampia said. "Marijuana prohibition has been just as big a failure, and we'll soon be kicking ourselves for putting up with it for so long.
"Marijuana is a less harmful substance than alcohol, and like alcohol, it is a popular fixture in American culture that isn't going away anytime soon," Kampia said. "Colorado is taking the most realistic and sensible approach to controlling it the world has ever seen."
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper issued executive orders on December 10, 2012 that formalized Amendment 64 as part of the state constitution -- officially legalizing the possession and home-growing of limited amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and older -- and started the Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force to provide legislators and regulators with recommendations for establishing a regulated marijuana market for adults. The two-month task force process culminated at the end of February 2013 and was followed by an additional two-month legislative process. In May 2013, the Colorado Legislature passed HB 1317 and SB 283, which created the framework for regulations governing marijuana retail sales, cultivation, and product manufacturing; HB 1318, which enacted a 15% excise tax on wholesale sales of non-medical marijuana and a 10% special sales tax on retail sales of non-medical marijuana (in addition to standard state and local sales taxes); and SB 241, which initiated the development of a regulatory framework for industrial hemp. State voters approved the new taxes -- and voters in some localities approved additional local taxes -- on November 5, 2013. State officials estimate the taxes will generate approximately $70 million annually in the first year.
The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is the number one organization in the U.S. legalizing cannabis. We passed 13 medical cannabis laws in the past 15 years, and we ran winning campaigns in eight of the 11 legalization states. No organization in the movement has changed as many cannabis laws, impacted as many patients and consumers, created as many new markets, or done more to end cannabis prohibition in the U.S. than MPP.
LATEST NEWS
Open Letter Demands Global Finance Overhaul to Fight Climate and Debt Crises
"The institutions of world finance have lost their muscle," wrote more than 100 activists, celebrities, and political leaders. "You can be the leaders who bring them into the 21st century."
Apr 16, 2024
Quoting the economist John Maynard Keynes at the time of the founding of the modern global finance system in 1944, more than 100 signatories on Tuesday called on the world's largest economies to allow the world "to taste hope again" by pouring resources into solving the global debt and climate crises.
Keynes remarked after the historic Bretton Woods meeting in New Hampshire that the summit offered new hope to everyone from "our businessmen and our manufacturers and our unemployed" as world leaders established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
But with the world now "rocked by conflict, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and spiraling inflation," said the signers of an open letter organized by communications and campaign group Project Everyone, the global community needs "another Bretton Woods moment"—one that would correct the "imperfect" system hammered out 80 years ago and live up to the ideals that were centered at the original meeting, including "prosperity as a means of peace" and wealth as a means of serving "the common good."
The letter states that global inequality is "compounded by the devastation wrought by climate change," which is disproportionately likely to impact the Global South even as developing countries contribute a mere fraction of the planet-heating emissions of wealthy nations.
The signatories—including International Rescue Committee CEO David Miliband, philanthropist Abigail Disney, and singer and activist Annie Lennox—called on G20 countries to take steps including tripling their investment in the World Bank and IMF, canceling developing countries' debt to the institutions, and reforming tax codes to ensure big polluters and the wealthiest people contribute to efforts to mitigate inequality.
"This is your chance," reads the letter, which was released as world leaders met in Washington, D.C. for the World Bank and IMF's Spring Meetings. "The institutions of world finance have lost their muscle. You can be the leaders who bring them into the 21st century. You can unlock the colossal public and private investment potential of renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and climate adaptation."
Under the status quo, the signatories noted, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are "way off track," with $3 trillion still needed achieve the objective of a "greener, fairer, better world by 2030," as agreed to by 193 U.N. member states.
Project Everyone and its supporters reiterated a demand made by Oxfam International Monday to cancel debts owed by countries in the Global South that are facing rising inequality, as their debt obligations to the IMF and the World Bank have left them unable to invest in education, climate adaptation, housing, and other public services.
"Removing burdensome debt allows countries to invest in their people and their future: in resilience, education, health, and nutrition," wrote the signatories. "This drives growth and creates string partners to trade with... Each of us stands to gain from stability, lower food and energy costs, and nature protection."
The wealthiest countries in the world, said Project Everyone, must look to the leaders who met at Bretton Woods and "fulfill their promise: to transform these instruments for peace and prosperity and truly set them to work in our common interest."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Aid Coalition Says Gaza Cease-Fire Needed to Avert 'Catastrophic' Middle East War
"To avoid the security situation spiraling out of control, all efforts must be made to ensure de-escalation through political and diplomatic means alone."
Apr 16, 2024
A coalition of more than a dozen humanitarian groups on Tuesday stressed the need for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip following Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel, which has been waging a devastating war on the Palestinian enclave for more than six months.
The humanitarian groups—including International Rescue Committee, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, and ActionAid—said in a joint statement that "recent escalations in the Middle East are unprecedented and risk regional conflagration, threatening the lives of millions of civilians."
"To avoid the security situation spiraling out of control, all efforts must be made to ensure de-escalation through political and diplomatic means alone," the statement reads. "A regional conflict would be catastrophic for the Middle East, where millions are already affected by existing crises due to conflict, displacement, poverty, and climate change."
The groups argued that escalating tensions between Israel and Iran "are closely linked to the ongoing conflict in Gaza," underscoring the need for "an immediate and permanent cease-fire" to "prevent further human suffering and to de-escalate tensions in the region."
"This latest round of violence was predictably fueled by decades of impunity for state violations of a most fundamental global rule: the prohibition on the use of force."
The statement comes days after Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel over the weekend in response to the Israeli military's bombing of Tehran's consulate in the capital of Syria earlier this month—an attack that killed diplomats and a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander.
United Nations experts said Tuesday that both Israel's consulate attack and Iran's retaliation violated international law. The experts also said an Israeli military response to Iran's missile and drone attack would be illegal.
"This latest round of violence was predictably fueled by decades of impunity for state violations of a most fundamental global rule: the prohibition on the use of force," the experts said.
The broader Middle East conflict stemming from Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip now involves at least 16 countries, and Iran's retaliation against Israel led war hawks in the U.S. to call for further escalation—including a direct U.S. attack on Iran.
Israel, for its part, has pledged to "exact a price from Iran" in response to the firing of missiles and drones, most of which were intercepted with U.S. help.
The humanitarian coalition warned Tuesday that any further military exchanges would risk disaster and implored all parties involved to "immediately work towards de-escalation."
"Drawing on our extensive collective experience in the region, we understand that crises in the Middle East often have far-reaching consequences beyond its borders," the groups said. "A regional conflict would likely result in significant global ramifications, including forced displacement and migration, disruptions to global supply chains, and impacts on energy supplies."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Should Be a Global Wake-Up Call': Coral Reefs Suffer Fourth Mass Bleaching Event
"The announcement of the fourth global bleaching event is an urgent call to do two things: reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work together to prioritize resilient coral reefs for conservation."
Apr 16, 2024
Scientists said Monday that the world's coral reefs are facing a fourth global bleaching event as the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency pushes ocean temperatures to record highs, imperiling the critical underwater ecosystems that sustain thousands of species.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI)—which NOAA co-chairs—said they documented coral bleaching in the northern and southern hemispheres of every major ocean basin on Earth between February 2023 and April of this year. It could be the worst global bleaching event on record.
"Since early 2023, mass bleaching of coral reefs has been confirmed throughout the tropics including Florida in the U.S.; the Caribbean; Brazil; the eastern Tropical Pacific (including Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia); Australia's Great Barrier Reef; large areas of the South Pacific (including Fiji, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Samoas, and French Polynesia); the Red Sea (including the Gulf of Aqaba); the Persian Gulf; and the Gulf of Aden," the organizations said in a statement.
"NOAA has received confirmation of widespread bleaching across other parts of the Indian Ocean basin as well, including in Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Tromelin, Mayotte, and off the western coast of Indonesia," they added.
"More than half the reefs on the planet have basically experienced bleaching-level heat stress in the last year."
Derek Manzello, coordinator of NOAA's Coral Reef Watch, said that "as the world's oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent."
Excessively warm water causes corals to expel algae from their tissues, causing the organisms to turn white. While they can recover, such bleaching is evidence that corals are under significant stress and at risk of death.
The latest global bleaching event is the second in the last 10 years and "should be a global wake-up call," Manzello toldThe Washington Post.
"More than half the reefs on the planet have basically experienced bleaching-level heat stress in the last year," said Manzello.
NOAA and ICRI's statement comes as scientists around the world are voicing growing alarm over high ocean temperatures. Research released last month showed that global ocean surface temperatures had broken records every day of the year up to that point, underscoring the need to aggressively rein in fossil fuel production and use.
"Temperatures are off the charts," Emily Darling, director of coral reefs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said Monday. "While many corals are suffering from extreme heat stress and bleaching, some locations and species show different types of natural resilience. Finding and conserving these priority coral reefs are critical to any global strategy to safeguard the planet's oceans and blue economies."
"The announcement of the fourth global bleaching event is an urgent call to do two things: reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work together to prioritize resilient coral reefs for conservation," Darling added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular