Will Canna-bigots Successfully Limit THC Levels in Colorado?
By Keith Mansur
Oregon Cannabis Connection
A small group of canna-bigots in Colorado managed to get a ballot petition approved for signature gathering that will limit the potency of products sold to the recreational market. The petition was filed by two people, Ali Pruitt, a Mom and the Office Manager at Cherry Creek Mortgage in Denver, and Ron Castagna, a retired principal of Lakeview High School. Both apparently have real misunderstandings about cannabis, or straight up canna-bigotry.
“Parents say they want more apples and kiwi on lunch trays and no more burritos and pizza because they are worried about obesity. But, are you kidding?” Castagna told the Pueblo Chieftan in an interview in 2015. “They should be more worried about [marijuana]…We need to get the word out about this and we need to fight back.”
“It’s addictive and it absolutely impacts all of our kids,” He explained in the article. “Kids and pot; it’s everybody’s issue.”
Under the petition, all cannabis products sold in Colorado would need to have their potency listed, as well as a warning label identifying the following “supposed” health effects:
- birth defects
- reduced brain development
- risks to the brain
- behavioral development of babies
- breathing difficulties
Ron Castanga, retired principal who filed the Amendment 139 petition. Image: Pueblo Chieftain. - permanent loss of abilities
- mood swings
- impaired thinking and body movement
- depression
- temporary paranoia and anxiety
- potential for long-term addiction
“Permanent loss of abilities”…Huh? What “abilities”? Vision? Taste? Thinking? Breathing?
“Potential for long term addiction”…Based on what research in the last 40 years? Are you kidding me? Anyone with a PC and Google can find that marijuana is not addictive!
And “risks to the brain”…What the hell are they talking about? What risks? Again, will I get cancer? Will I become stupid? Kill brains cells?
HE obviously feels strongly about his beliefs, to the point that he included a bogus list of “health effects” he thinks there is enough “scientific” evidence to support. He completely ignores virtually all of the recent studies that show marijuana can be beneficial and that only 6% of the studies ever done on marijuana have been to consider the benefits of cannabis.
The ballot measure would also require “everything to be sold in a child-resistant, opaque, resealable package.” And edibles could only be sold only in single-serving amounts. These stipulations would only apply to recreational cannabis and not medical cannabis, too, which is absurd!
“I don’t think a lot of thought was put into the proposals,” said Mark Slaugh, marijuana industry compliance professional and executive director of the Cannabis Business Alliance. “This bill threatens to wipe out most infused product manufacturers, and its language is unclear as to what to do with edibles.”
“The initiative could devastate Colorado’s fastest-growing industry,” Roy Bingham, head of pot-industry tracking firm BDS Analytics, said in a news release.
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