In Colorado, a look at life after marijuana legalization

Pot. Alcohol. Texting. Talking on the phone. They all impair you terribly while driving. That does not require prohibition. That requires taking the human out of the loop for driving ~2.5 tons of metal down the highway.

Basically, we either accept an invasive test, or we can't enforce the law. Which is 100% different than what it was before.

I wonder why they don't go back to doing a sobriety test for detecting intoxication though. It worked ok before breathalyzers, if you can pass the test than presumably you are ok to drive.

I agree that the "why" isn't that important (or at all), but what is the alternative?

It's easy to target people who are engaging in unnecessary actions at the expense of driving capability. Drinking, using drugs, and texting fall under this category. People are much less accepting of punishments for things seemingly outside of personal control. Imagine the embarrassment for law makers when some mothers' advocacy group attacks them for banning all new mothers from driving (except those rare exceptions who function well on <4 hours of sleep.) Or the backlash for hardworking people getting arrested regularly because their multiple jobs keep them from getting an amount of sleep that makes driving permissible.

1) It provides a definitive test which would later stand in court (if needed). 2) Gives you more time to "sober up" if you actually have been drinking.

At the time, I remember thinking it was good information. In hindsight, it's rather funny to think it came from the High School teachers who were teaching Driver's Ed.

Although most renters are violating their lease if they do.

In the Netherlands there might not be a monopoly on drug sales, but the coffeeshops are generally small operations without a huge presence. There are no advertisement. So yes I have experience alternatives which don't treat these industries as big money operations. And perhaps I naively thought that was possible in the US, forgetting that Americans tend to think very big when it comes to business.

One company called Spot (in Seattle) has a little chart on the back, as well as these informative numbers, that roughly equates the dose of a cookie to a certain number of glasses of wine for further expectation setting. Overall, the packaging is very clear[0] about dosage, the time of the onset, and other factors that may contribute to the type of buzz you'll get.

It's very much similar to ABV on an alcoholic beverage, though. You can know exactly what you're ingesting, and you can get the general idea of what to expect, but it's impossible to label a can of beer with something like "5 of these will make you drunk in about an hour and half".

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0. http://twotentwice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/SPOT-Bites...

One of the major functions of corporations is shielding the people involved in them from most personal liability (and, hence, accountability.)

Its hardly a novel thought that reduced accountability might make "otherwise acceptable people" into problems for the rest of society. (Plato was certainly not the first to point this out with his account Gyges Ring in the Republic around 2,500 years ago.)

The wildfires are probably the biggest issue with living in Colorado period though - as with many of the western states. Getting just beyond the state boundaries won't help there - you'll want to move somewhere less arid.

Gotcha! Yea, that sucks. You might talk to your landlord about it or ask your neighbors to be more considerate/seal their apartments better. I live in one myself and have similar gripes. Even as a regular smoker of weed, it's gross as hell to smell smoke all the time. I also agree on the statement on 25, they could really move the grow house.... like anywhere else.

> I'm aggressively trying to find a new job outside of the state.

This seems eager for a problem that seems unique to apartment complexes; even having outside entrances to the apartments helps a lot.

However, have you checked out duplexes/houses? It's actually quite easy to find renters who are looking for non-smokers—not just in the fulfilling the lease kind of way. There are plenty of families in the city who will have similar (or stronger) reactions, and many people just don't like being around smoke.

I guess I'm surprised you find this problem dominates your experience of the city; I have more issues trying to find a way to socialize without drinking, something objectively FAR more harmful than smoking (let alone any of the other even healthier ways to intake) weed.

I live in an apartment, too.

I could complain about the fact that my neighbors smoke tobacco in their apartments and that it slowly but surely seeps into mine. But I don't. I put weather stripping on my door that faces the hallway and have my windows opened slightly whenever it's warm enough to allow for it.

You have to make compromises when you live in a building shared by 400 other people.

You're part of a community. Learn to live in it.

"that's all that Colorado is: one big haze of pot smoke"

As a CO resident of over 20 years, I have not noticed any change at all. The only outside consumption I've seen is in people's private yards, just like when I was an undergrad at CU in the 90s.

My neighbor warming up his diesel truck in the morning is far more nauseating.

Nah -- just trying to figure out why your experience is so drastically different from ours. You're like "weed EVERYWHERE, it dominates EVERYTHING" and I'm confused because it hasn't impacted my day-to-day existence in the slightest. My grandpa (born in Denver in 1921) hasn't noticed it and he lives across from Kepner middle school. I guess that one stretch of globeville by the Purina plant (I-70 and York) smells terrible, but it's not worse than it always has been, just different (dog food and weed are both stinky.)

But I live in a single-family home with a yard in a low-income neighborhood, rather than an apartment building in a low-income neighborhood, so the airflow from my stoner neighbors 2 houses down is insignificant. On the other hand, my little sister lived in an apartment just south of Glendale before legalization, and she always complained about her stoner neighbors.

Headline might as well be "Colorado legalizes weed, nothing bad happens to anyone"

Examples: "Do you want to go out for dinner tonight? Or should we stay in and save money?" "Do you want cake or ice cream for dessert?" "Should we prioritize this bug fix or focus on hitting our release target?"

Somebody might reply with tongue in cheek, "Yes", to indicate they agree with both parts, want both things, it's not a simple choice, etc.

FWIW, I encounter it more with older people. As a kid, I heard it often from uncles and grandparents.

The question has several possible responses. "No, thank you," means the person wants neither coffee nor tea. "Coffee, please," and "tea, please" mean just what you think. "Yes, please," means that either coffee or tea would be acceptable, and the respondent is indifferent to which one.

This usually means "I'll take one of whatever you're having," and is probably intended to be less burdensome to the host, by allowing them to choose what they would prefer to serve rather than forcing them to defer to their guest.

Of course, the person might be trying for a cheap laugh rather than politeness. In that case, it would be appropriate to wait a beat, chuckle, optionally make a flirtatious gesture (such as a wink or arm touch), then ask "So either one is fine?"

People like to throw out the "hospitalized" statement all the time. Just because someone was taken to the hospital does not mean that they were ever in any actual danger. Someone's kid eats an edible and "feels funny" so they are taken to the hospital. Someone's kid eats a bottle full of Vicodin that they thought were candy and are taken to the hospital.. if you think those two things present the same danger to the child than I don't even know how to respond.