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CBS Denver – Police, Organizers Agree Denver’s 4/20 Rally A Success

Watters’ World: The Denver pot edition

Apr. 21, 2014 – 5:27 – Watters asks attendants of a Denver pot celebration about a new study on the damages of smoking marijuana

COLORADO REACHES THE HIGH POINT OF LEGALIZING POT

Group worried about kids who showed up to 4/20 rally

DENVER — Smart Colorado formed, it says, to protect the health of children. And while they are not against the weekend 420 Rally at Denver’s Civic Center Park, they are concerned about those 21 and under, who showed up.

They say they were particularly worried about parents who showed up to the rally with young children.

Through a written statement, Smart Colorado says, in part:  “The messages we are sending our youth are deeply concerning.  Getting high is being encouraged, celebrated and glorified…”

RELATED: Tens of thousands turn out for 1st 4/20 rally since legal pot sales began
RELATED: Cannabis lovers take Denver’s 4/20 weekend to new highs

Tens of thousands celebrate marijuana holiday across US

DENVER –  Tens of thousands of revelers raised joints, pipes and vaporizer devices to the sky Sunday at a central Denver park in a defiant toast to the April 20 pot holiday, a once-underground celebration that stepped into the mainstream in the first state in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana.

The 4:20 p.m. smoke-out in the shadow of the Colorado capitol was the capstone of an Easter weekend dedicated to cannabis in states across the country. Although it is still against the law to publicly smoke marijuana in Colorado, police only reported 63 citations or arrests on Sunday, 47 for marijuana consumption.

“It feels good not to be persecuted anymore,” said Joe Garramone, exultantly smoking a joint while his 3-year-old daughter played on a vast lawn crowded with fellow smokers.

The Garramone family came from Hawaii, among the tens of thousands who crowded into various cannabis-themed extravaganzas, from a marijuana industry expo called the Cannabis Cup at a trade center north of downtown to 4/20-themed concerts at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater. Acts included Slightly Stoopid and Snoop Dogg.

At 4:20 p.m., an enormous plume of marijuana smoke wafted into the sky above downtown Denver as rapper B.o.B. belted out his song “Strange Clouds,” with the hook: “And all we do is light it up, all night/All you see is strange clouds/Strange clouds, strange clouds.”

The Civic Center Park event is the most visible sign of the pot holiday’s transformation. It started as a defiant gathering of marijuana activists, but this year the event has an official city permit, is organized by an events management company and featured booths selling funnel cakes and Greek food next to kiosks hawking hemp lollipops and glass pipes.

Gavin Beldt, one of the organizers, said in a statement that the event is now a “celebration of legal status for its use in Colorado and our launch of an exciting new experience for those attending.”

Denver is just one of many cities across the country where 4/20 marijuana celebrations were planned Sunday.

In Trenton, N.J., speakers urged a crowd of about 150 gathered at the statehouse to push state and federal lawmakers to legalize or decriminalize marijuana and called on Gov. Chris Christie to do what he can to help medical marijuana patients. Among those at the rally was Jawara McIntosh, the youngest son of noted reggae musician and pro-marijuana activist Peter Tosh.

In San Francisco, thousands of revelers gathered at Golden Gate Park’s Hippie Hill, which has become the go-to spot for the unsanctioned festival every year.

City officials said they would be cracking down on illegal parking, camping, drug sales, underage drinking and open alcohol containers. Hippie Hill was covered in canopies as dozens of people sold pot-laced cookies, brownies and other items. Some vendors told the San Francisco Chronicle that sales were slow because so many people were peddling the treats.

Officer Danielle Newman said at least eight people face possible felony charges, but she didn’t elaborate on the reasons for their arrests.

In Washington, thousands celebrated in the only other state to legalize marijuana. Events included an event sponsored by Seattle’s Dope Magazine, with a $99 “judge’s pass” available that included 10 marijuana samples.

Back in Colorado, University of Colorado officials closed the Boulder campus to all but students, faculty and staff on Sunday to ensure no 4/20 celebrations were held. Spokesman Ryan Huff said the tactic was working, with no arrests reported Sunday.

While the weekend was for celebrating, recent events have brought serious scrutiny to Colorado’s experiment with legalizing marijuana. Denver police say a man ate marijuana-infused candy before shooting and killing his wife on Monday, an attack dispatchers heard during a 911 call the woman placed. Her death followed that of a college student who traveled from Wyoming to Colorado with friends for spring break, ate more than the recommended dose of a marijuana-laced cookie and jumped to his death from a hotel balcony in Denver. State lawmakers are debating how to increase safety regulations.

Marijuana festivities got off to a slow start on Easter Sunday. But as the clock counted down to 4:20 and crowds surged into Civic Center Park, festivalgoers noted the big changes from previous years — more merchandise and more police.

Last year’s rally was cut short by a shooting that wounded three. All attendees this year had to pass through security screening, and a heavy police presence ringed the park.

“I still feel a little like a teenager,” Garramone said as he eyed police patrolling the park.

Just as striking was the proliferation of merchandise, from cannabis-related gear and T-shirts to $9 roast turkey legs and $4 water bottles.

“I can just imagine how much money is being made right now,” said Tina Crockett, 34, of Wichita.

The commercialism disappointed Bob Glisson, 27, who was attending his fourth 4/20 celebration in the park.

“It’s all about the money now,” the Denver resident complained.

Still, the scene was wonderfully surreal for Bud Long, 49, from Kalamazoo, Mich., who recalled taking part in his first 4/20 protest in 1984.

“Nationwide, it’ll be decriminalized,” he predicted on Saturday, the first day of the two-day festival, “and we’ll be doing this in every state.”

In Colorado, 4/20 marijuana holiday tries to go mainstream

NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press

DENVER (AP) – Once the province of activists and stoners, the traditional pot holiday of April 20 has gone mainstream in the first state in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana.

Tens of thousands gathered for a weekend of Colorado cannabis-themed festivals and entertainment, from a marijuana industry expo called the Cannabis Cup at a trade center north of downtown, to 4/20-themed concerts at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheater – acts include Slightly Stoopid and Snoop Dogg – to a massive festival in the shadow of the state capitol where clouds of cannabis smoke are expected to waft at 4:20 p.m. MDT Sunday.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE

‘We’re not Amsterdam’: Is Colorado pot tourism a myth?

By Bill Briggs, Special to CNBC | CNBC – Sun 20 Apr, 2014 3:30 PM IST

America’s most mammoth party this weekend may well be Denver’s 420 rally on Sunday, but Colorado’s legal pot law, so far, has not lured a sustained surge of out-of-state weed lovers, say trade advocates for the state’s hotels and restaurants.

“Marijuana tourism,” as some media members have dubbed it, may prove to be an urban myth or just an overblown concept, experts say.

“We’re not Amsterdam,” said Deborah Park, spokeswoman for Visit Denver, the city’s tourism office. “This law was (passed) because the people who live here wanted it for their own use. The thought process behind the law wasn’t really for tourists.

“So that’s our question: Where is this marijuana tourism?” Park added. “In Denver, you can’t smoke in public. You can’t smoke in a hotel. You can’t smoke in parks. We don’t have cafes. So there’s just not a location for anyone who’s coming in for that as tourists.”

But that on-the-ground reality has not curbed some outsiders or some locals from maintaining that weed is indeed feeding the Mile High City tourism machine.

Read More It’s pot, it’s smokeless-and it’s publicly traded 

That rhetoric reached new volume ahead of Denver’s annual 420 festival-previously held to generate support for marijuana legalization but billed this year as “a celebration of legal status for its use in Colorado.”

Hotels.com, a room-booking site, reports Denver is likely to see a deluge of 420-minded visitors based on a 73 percent spike in online hotel searches for stays April 18-20 this year as compared to similar searches conducted at the site for those dates last year.

Searches for Denver hotels also were 25 percent higher during the first three months of 2014 as compared to the first three months of 2013, according to Hotels.com

“The search increase could be attributed to a number of factors, but the data does suggest that more people are planning to visit Denver this coming weekend due to the number of festivities and events that are planned,” said Taylor Cole, who handles public relations for Hotels.com North America.

In Denver, FOX affiliate KDVR cited those metrics, reporting on its website: “The evidence is anecdotal, but strong: Legal pot seems to be attracting tourists’ attention to the Centennial State, especially during the 4/20 weekend.”

For that event, held at Civic Center park downtown, organizers say they are anticipating huge crowds although Denver officials have mandated that rally leaders broadcast to all attendees that marijuana consumption at the site is illegal.

“We’re estimating about 80,000 people per day,” said top organizer Miguel Lopez, adding that based on internal “polling” and Facebook posts, the expected composition of that throng will be “10 percent foreign, 40 percent out of state and 50 percent in state.”

Read More No pot of gold: Banks balk at marijuana money 

To Lopez, marijuana tourism is entirely real.

“Absolutely-if you look at how filled the hotel rooms are this weekend … they’re pretty full,” Lopez said. “Whether or not the tourism industry wants to acknowledge it or not, that’s what they look at and that’s what we’re looking at. People are having a hard time findings rooms this weekend.”

Two hotels Lopez cited as being “sold out” included the Comfort Inn Downtown and the Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel.

But both hotels still have rooms-at least 10 remained available at each Thursday, according to calls made by CNBC to the businesses.

Visit Denver spokeswoman Park checked as well on occupancy rates this weekend: “I wanted to see if our hotels were completely booked. They’re not at all. You can get a room anywhere downtown at this point.”

In total, Denver offers 44,000 hotel rooms.

Further, Denver has hosted a series of large conventions this year (including dermatologists, physicists and storm chasers). Those gatherings plus a healthy, late-running ski season and two Denver Broncos playoff games in January are likely fueling much of the online hotel searching, Park said.

Restaurants across Colorado similarly are not reporting noticeable bumps in patrons that can be attributed to marijuana-seeking visitors, said Pete Meersman, president and CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association.

“Until someone does an actual survey on ‘marijuana tourism,’ we won’t know what effect it has had, or hasn’t had,” Meersman said. “I believe we may gain some ‘marijuana tourists,’ or people coming to our state to buy marijuana, but we may also lose tourists and business groups who don’t want to expose their entourage to marijuana in Colorado.”

Read More The best cities to live for marijuana lovers 

One Colorado tourist attraction is aiming to seize the 420 moment – albeit in a split-personality fashion that might make some heads spin. On Sunday at dawn, Red Rocks Amphitheater just west of Denver will host its annual Easter sunrise service. The event usually draws some “regional tourists,” Park said.

Sunday night, the same outdoor venue holds a concert featuring Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa, billing it as “the first ever Snoop’s Wellness Retreat,” and inviting fans to “turn up your zen.” The concert is sold out.

Will Lopez have time to breakaway from the 420 festival to catch the show?

“I haven’t been invited,” he said. “Do you know anybody with tickets?”

View the article HERE

WATCH: Denver’s first ’420 Rally’ since marijuana legalization draws huge crowd

By Scott Kaufman
Sunday, April 20, 2014 13:45 EDT

Authorities predict that Denver’s first “420 Rally” since the legalization of marijuana will be the largest to date, but remind attendees that smoking pot in public is still illegal.

Recreational marijuana use was legalized in Colorado on January 1, 2014, and has proven to be quite lucrative for the state.

However, as Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown told NBC News, “the state constitution and city ordinances make smoking pot in public illegal, [so] if they want to celebrate 4/20, they should do so in the privacy of their home.”

According to the group organizing the two-day event, “Colorado is the epicenter of the industry and all eyes will be on Denver on 4/20/14.” The state, organizers claim, “has taken aggressive steps to ensure the marijuana industry realizes its potential in a credible, responsible manner.”

Miguel Lopez, one of the event’s founders, said that “[w]hile this year’s rally is still a celebration of the marijuana culture and a protest against the federal prohibition against its use. Our goal is to create a positive environment for users to share stories, learn about the industry and create informed opinions on the remaining issues facing the industry.”

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper expressed dismay that his state has become so closely associated with the 420 movement. “Colorado is known for many great things,” he said, “marijuana should not be one of them.”

The Denver Police Department told NBC News that it plans to have “a large presence” at the event, but that it will use “discretion” when handing out citations to those who smoke openly at the rally.

Watch a video of the first day of the rally from About Colorado TV HERE.