Tourists Flock To Colorado, Where Crime Is Down and Marijuana Is Up

[kpete]

Tourists Flock To Colorado, Where Crime Is Down and Marijuana Is Up
By Chris Roberts Tue., Apr. 15 2014 at 10:23 AM



Worldwide acclaim and fanfare greeted the unveiling of the world's first marijuana vending machine in Colorado yesterday. It was big news (somehow, putting weed behind glass in a box was so popular and lucrative it took several years to happen) -- but even bigger news should be that the machine hasn't been robbed yet.

In Denver, the biggest city in the country to experiment with marijuana legalization, crime has dropped in the three months since pot stores for adults opened Jan. 1, according to reports in PolicyMic and elsewhere.

That's good news for Denver, as it's due for a tourist influx in the next few days. The city is this weekend hosting the High Times Cannabis Cup -- and it's full-on full-melt madness, with as many as 100,000 people expected for the Sunday smokeout in front of the state Capitol building.

Hotel bookings are up 73 percent for the 4/20 weekend, and the "bud-and-breakfasts" that were supposed to be Humboldt's and Mendocino's are now opening up in Boulder.

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http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2014/04/tourists_flock_to_colorado_whe_1.php

[JaneyVee]

1. Mile High State.

[jberryhill]

2. Why have a "smoke out" in front of the statehouse?

The state government already made it legal, although consumption in public is not, which is not any different from alcohol.

Do people show up there to drink beer on Prohibition repeal day?

What, exactly, is the point?