Free Republic

DENVER - While marijuana may be legally purchased, legally possessed and legally smoked as of January 1, under Colorado law, it can also get you legally fired. There is already a precedent for this in the state courts. In 2010 a Colorado man was fired by his employer, Dish Network, for using medical marijuana off-duty. The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the firing which is now being heard by the Colorado Supreme Court. Amendment 64 gives employers the same discretion, allowing them to prohibit marijuana use both on and off the job. Marijuana proponents believe it's a double-standard. "No business...

Patrick Kennedy sees ‘mad rush’ to legalize marijuana Ex-congressman’s cautionary efforts provoke pushback DENVER — Not all Coloradans appreciated former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy harshing their buzz Wednesday with his anti-marijuana effort. Mr. Kennedy received a mixed reception at the unveiling of Project Smart Approaches to Marijuana, known as Project SAM, which seeks to spread information about the medical and public-health drawbacks of legalizing marijuana. “Project SAM was created because we were concerned about the mad rush to legalization in this country and the false dichotomy presented as policy,” Mr. Kennedy said. “Incarceration or legalization. Lock ‘em up or let...

DENVER—A ballot initiative in Colorado that could make the state the first to effectively legalize marijuana has an unlikely bunch of people very nervous: owners of the state's medical marijuana dispensaries. Despite an expected surge in demand, some fear passage of the initiative, called Amendment 64—which legalizes the buying and selling of up to one ounce of pot at a time for customers over the age of 21—could goad the federal government into a crackdown on the dispensaries, ending their industry's three-year miniboom. If the amendment passes, the "best-case scenario [is] you get a million new customers," the owner of...