While comparing state cannabis programs can be a bit like comparing apples and oranges, Colorado offers a particularly interesting window into the outcomes of legalization. As the first state to launch adult-use cannabis sales, regulators also embarked on an unprecedented data collection effort. The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice’s Office of Research and Statistics published its third “Impacts on Marijuana Legalization in Colorado” report this month, and with it, data on everything from arrests and impaired driving to use rates among youth. Colorado’s data collection is by design. Lawmakers passed SB 13-283 in 2013, a year after voters passed Amendment 64 and legalized cannabis for adults. This legislation directed the Division of Criminal Justice within the Colorado Department of Public Safety to embark on a study of the various impacts that came with Amendment 64. Nearly eight years have passed since the first sales took place, in early 2014, offering insights to regulators and policymakers in the state and across the country.
Alyson Martin, Cannabis Wire, 07/29/2021 20:00:00