Colorado Looks To Washington For Pot Protocol
DENVER (CBS4) - Gov. John Hickenlooper got the formal certification of the election results from the secretary of state on Friday. That means Colorado's Amendment 64 legalizing marijuana could take effect by early next month.
The future of marijuana in Colorado is still very hazy, but what is taking place in the state of Washington may provide a glimpse of what could come. When it came to actual legalization, Washington beat Colorado to the punch.
Like Colorado, the law states it's illegal to use marijuana in public, but police in Seattle have announced they will not ticket those with under an ounce. Still there is much confusion about the law.
"It didn't make it legal to sell it, and it didn't make it legal to grow it, so I don't know if it's supposed to fall from the sky or how people are supposed to get it," King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said.
CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger placed a call to person in Seattle who ran an advertisement on Craigslist.
"I'm wondering, now that marijuana legalized, does one need a medical marijuana prescription, or can you just deliver it to me if I order it?" Sallinger asked.
The person said he would still need a prescription.
Travel journalist Rick Steves was a strong backer of legalization in Washington.
"I spent a third of my adult life in Europe hanging out with people who think it's wacky to be locking up people for smoking pot," Steves said.
On the same day pot was legalized there was a darker side. Two people were killed there in an illegal grow house.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and so far the silence from the U.S. Department of Justice has people guessing.
