The fact that drug arrests in Colorado have dropped since the state began legalizing the recreational use of marijuana with the passing of Amendment 64 is not surprising. However, new data released by the Drug Policy Alliance reveals just how significant the state’s drug policy has unburdened Colorado’s courts and shaped the local criminal justice system.

Luke Goodman, 22, shot and killed himself after eating a large amount of pot edibles, authorities say. (Courtesy of Kim Goodman)

The last time Kim Goodman saw her son alive, it was at a bus stop in central Colorado, and he flashed that toothy smile that she so loved about him.

The Oklahoma family was on a vacation in the Rockies. Her son, Luke, was about to make off on his own to go snowboarding with some of his cousins. She recalls a contented feeling as she saw him leave. They had just hada really long talk the night before, and he looked so full of life — tan, fit, fresh out of Oral Roberts University. Ready for anything.

Man admits to shipping total of 220 pounds of marijuana from Colorado

A man has been sentenced to serve almost five years in prison after shipping hundreds of pounds of marijuana from Colorado to Iowa.

From May of 2011 to March of 2013, prosecutors say 23-year-old Jared Michael Fromknecht shipped marijuana from Denver, Colorado, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt.  Fromknecht lived at the Denver home of a man named George Podes, and helped him cultivate and grow marijuana.

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The Denver Fire Department issued 58 permits for warehouses to grow marijuana in non-licensed facilities last year – marijuana not to be sold in dispensaries. This marijuana was to be grown primarily by caregivers for consumption by medical users, or for the grower’s personal use.

With the permits, the department was acknowledging state law, approved by voters through a constitutional amendment in 2000, which gave caregivers the right grow six plants for five patients and six for themselves, or 36 plants.

But when the Denver City Council dropped the hammer on the permitted warehouses on March 23, it was because the fire department presented evidence that the process had gotten far out of hand.

 lawsuit filed Wednesday takes aim at a fresh Denver ordinance that could shut down dozens of unlicensed nonresidential marijuana-growing collectives by limiting them to growing 36 plants.

The Denver City Council passed the measure 11-0 Monday night. It was proposed by Mayor Michael Hancock’s marijuana office, which says it’s attempting to address unsafe conditions in the unlicensed growing facilities and an “exponential increase” in the cultivation of untracked marijuana.

Hancock signed the bill into law on Tuesday.

But the new limit — which doesn’t apply to licensed commercial grow houses — has drawn protests, in part because of the potential impact on caregivers who grow a large number of plants.

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Core Requirements

DENVER — Colorado may give up on one of its toughest marijuana problems to emerge in the new market — making sure that edible pot products can’t be confused with regular foods.

A bill up for its first vote Wednesday would repeal a 2014 Colorado requirement requiring pot foods to have a distinct look when out of the packaging. The bill strikes a requirement that edible pot be “clearly identifiable … with a standard symbol indicating that it contains marijuana and is not for consumption by children.”

The sponsor of the measure, Republican Sen. Owen Hill of Colorado Springs, said he’ll suggest an amendment Wednesday to revive the requirement, but not for all foods.

Recreational marijuana has been legalized in four states, but that doesn't mean it's a tested consumer product. Some of those potent buds are covered in fungus while others contain traces of butane, according to an analysis of marijuana in Colorado.

Last May, after people began getting sick from edible marijuana products, the state of Colorado began requiring all products to be tested. Washington has mandated testing too, with a detailed checklist of items to analyze, including potency, contaminants, moisture and microbiology.

The state's marijuana overseers issued their first annual report

Colorado just got its first year-long batch of data on the state’s grand experiment with legal marijuana. In the first annual report on supply and demand, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division disclosed on Friday that 4.8 million edible marijuana products and nearly 150,000 lbs. of marijuana flowers were sold in 2014.

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