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Are Adults Willing To Buy Pot For Underage Kids?

DENVER (CBS4) – Recreational marijuana is illegal for anyone under the age of 21, but a CBS4 undercover investigation looked into whether adults are willing to buy it for people who may be underage.

To make sure the law was not being broken, a young man over 21 who easily looks underage was asked to approach strangers about to enter dispensaries.

"Hey excuse me sir, I forgot my ID can you buy me a joint," he would ask. Only two out of 25 people said yes.

This experiment was conducted just before a campaign was being rolled out by the state of Colorado warning people it is a felony to sell or give marijuana to someone under 21.

"Sorry man I can't," was the response of many customers. But one of the two who agreed said "Yeah sure I can grab it for you."

Residents who live near a Boulder dispensary said that there have been others hanging around asking the same question.

"They saw some kids outside of (Terrapin Station) asking if they would buy them pot for $20. They were between 18 to 21," said a resident.

CBS4 showed video from their undercover investigation to Diana Carlson of Smart Colorado, a group that tries to protect kids from marijuana.

"I find it very disturbing, but even more disturbing is that it's not surprising," said Carlson.

At nearly all the dispensaries CBS4 visited someone from inside eventually told the young man to leave. Again, the majority of people refused to buy marijuana for CBS4's young solicitor.

"Sorry I don't know how old you are. I don't know anything about you. I could end up in jail for the rest of my life just because for you," said one woman.

It is legal for someone over 18 to obtain medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

Statistics show the number of 18- to 20-year-olds with registry cards has gone up sharply while other ages have only gone up a little bit.

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