To make a long story short, last November Colorado was a state that voted in favor of an amendment that legalizes small amounts of marijuana for personal consumption. There was already a medical marijuana industry in the state, an industry whose business model is threatened somewhat by this new amendment. Although the amendment was voted in, it wasn't a unanimous decision. Many voted against it.
(Disclosure: I voted against the amendment. There are already enough folk driving impaired with different substances. To me, it increases the chance of me getting hit while driving near someone legally high.)
The state had some initial ideas in place for the actual regulation of weed, but hadn't thought it through totally.
An agency modeled after the presently-established Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division was set up to lead the transition to regulated weed. The new division started work soon after the election, but there were concerns about their progress. So, the state commissioned an audit. It didn't go well. From the link at the top of the page:
"The audit, released during a two-day meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, found the division rife with wasteful spending, shoddy enforcement and unfulfilled expectations. Systems that were supposed to track marijuana plants from seed to sale were incomplete. Measures that were supposed to prevent criminals from getting involved in the industry had failed."
So, let me get this straight. We have a proposal to legalize something, but no one sat down to say "if it passes, here is a skeleton framework on how to run this program."
Instead, what we got was "we'll cobble something together if/when it passes". That doesn't make sense to me.
Oh, by the way - weed is still illegal on a federal level. The state powers-that-be haven't reconciled that part yet...
I don't normally comment on political issues here, but this situation seemed too funny and pathetic to ignore.
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