Well it looks as though Colorado passed yet another vitally important cannabis test last weekend, and yes it just happened to be on target with Colorado’s new recreational marijuana industry.
With Colorado being the first state to legalize recreational marijuana it appears that their annual holiday held on 4/20 went well. Although there were long lines for the Cannabis Cup (which led to a few grumbles) did not led to any real bad behavior among the recreational cannabis consumers that were gathered for the rally in downtown and at other events that were held to celebrate the holiday.
The weekend of 4/20 was everything that the cannabis business had waited for and the cannabis consumers were very relaxed.
The holiday event of course turned out to be very profitable and the Cannabis commerce flowed free. Many recreational marijuana businesses had record sales; which means there was a surge in tax revenue for the state of Colorado.
This was great Public Relations for Colorado’s recreational cannabis industry since cannabis received bad PR in the beginning stages when there were several incidents involving edibles.
There are some individuals who are still against having tens of thousands of stoners gathering at one time, and smoking marijuana freely in public places although authorities did have to issue several thousand citations at the holiday event for public consumption, and some individuals were even taken to detox. Many say this is no different than alcohol-related events. There have always been those who don’t know their limit.
The message the folks of Colorado wants the rest of the world to see is: legalizing marijuana will not create a world of chaos, this is not any different than allowing individuals to drink in a bar/restaurant, or any alcohol-related event and that recreational cannabis users will not gather in large groups to consume marijuana.
Organizers of the rally downtown had a more professional event which brought a more professional side to the event. There were long lines for the vendor booths that sold Leafly and the manufacture CannaEnergy and some of the businesses handed out samples of their products. The atmosphere was very laid back.
Since the recreational cannabis industry is under the microscope due to the side effect of consuming marijuana through candy, cookies, and other means it has caused a black mark on the marijuana businesses as well as the legalization.
Horrible incidents that involve edibles need to be looked at as isolated incidents and they are not directly related to proper cannabis use. There may be possible misuse of the product (this is no different than taking too much of a prescription drug or alcohol poisoning). So the same measures you would take with medicine and alcohol you should also apply with the use of recreational cannabis.
Colorado and other states will need to address some of the issues that are tied to the edibles, and the responsible use of the cannabis users.
But 4/20 in Colorado will not only be marked as a holiday in Colorado. It will also go down on the history books as the first State to allow individuals to openly smoke, purchase, eat, and drink Cannabis in public.
