>> "“This is our dream,” said Kirstin Knouse, 24, who flew here from Chicago with her husband, Tristan, to take their first-ever marijuana vacation."
And there's some people already ruining it. I believe Amsterdam had this same problem. Drug tourism is not something cities want for many obvious reasons.
I understand the sentiment, but you forgot to include the rest of the paragraph:
>> She said that she suffered from seizures and fibromyalgia, and her husband from post-traumatic stress, but that the couple had not been able to get medical marijuana at home. “We’re thinking about moving here because of it,” she said.
Maybe they're just making up excuses, but doesn't sound like these are a couple of 20 year olds just looking to get high in the middle of the day.
I have a MMJ card in CA because it helps with some nerve pain I have. Half the time I use it it's a tiny amount to get me through the next couple hours (placebo or not it works well especially for the trivial cost) and half the time it's to get so high at night that I stop caring about it and hopefully get at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep in. The benefits of the latter are severely underrated when you deal with chronic pain.
Not to mention I have no idea why society has a double standard with casual marijuana use especially given the use of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, prescription drug abuse, and more out there. I'm trying to drink less alcohol as part of my weight loss plan for my wedding and it really shocked me to realize that people around me easily kill a bottle of wine per person at a single dinner on top of drinking cocktails, beer and straight liquor... and that my restraining myself to 1-2 alcoholic drinks a week is crazy in comparison. Some of my friends persistently bother me for Adderall that I never give away because I barely have enough of for myself. Et cetera. Weed is pretty harmless in comparison I would think.
It's been an open secret for years. The Denver Post published stats a couple years ago that showed that around 80% of the red card holders in CO were men age 25 and younger. If you remember from the health care debate, this is the healthiest population around.
It was dead simple to get a red card - go into one of the many shops advertising an on site doc, complain of chronic back pain (or PTSD if a veteran), and there you go. The hardest problem was finding a shop taking new patients, as the MMJ law capped the number of patients per provider.
Not really an equivalent scenario. If all you want to do is get drunk, there's no reason to go to Napa to do it, so while the average level of intoxication is probably higher, it's much less so that it would be if it was the only place you could legally buy alcohol.
It's not just a few coffee shops, Colorado and Washington are big states. They will very much welcome tourism and the dollars that brings in. The cannabis cup was already in Denver and I don't recall hearing complaints about all the money it brought to Colorado.
Yes but people who come explicitly for the drugs don't tend to be the best tourists. While not everyone will cause trouble there will undoubtedly be a few. It just depends on whether the towns are happy to put up with a few stoned idiots roaming the streets causing trouble for the extra money it brings in from the people not causing trouble.
> Yes but people who come explicitly for the drugs don't tend to be the best tourists.
This is a jingoistic view of "drug users" that really needs to die. Marijuana "users" are normal people -- with a slim majority supporting marijuana legalization and a significant fraction of that openly admitting marijuana use, the old stoner/loser stereotype is hopefully on its last legs. Paul Bucheit's comment above is really right on the nose.
> It just depends on whether the towns are happy to put up with a few stoned idiots roaming the streets causing trouble for the extra money it brings in from the people not causing trouble.
Most places already allow bars, so this is something they have to deal with anyway.
Perhaps there will be an issue with local convenience stores running out of snacks, but I don't imagine marijuana vacations to be very raucous affairs. Also, marijuana isn't exactly rare or expensive anywhere in the US, odds are if you're going to get on a plane and head to Colorado for weed you will also spend a lot of dollars on other stuff. It should be a great boon for the economies of CO and WA.
And drunks? We all seem to ignore the droves of them wandering around causing trouble. I've never had anyone high on weed bother me for anything but cookies.. drunks on the other hand, tend to be violent &/or obnoxious, destructive, and much more.
The drunks were just as bad, however they are fairly bad everywhere in my experience. There was just an added layer of trouble. The guy trying to sell me a dolphin was memorable...
And there's some people already ruining it. I believe Amsterdam had this same problem. Drug tourism is not something cities want for many obvious reasons.