Keeping Recreational Cannabis out of Canon City will not make us safer, nor will it make us "drug-free". Ashley Smith uses her children as political props for a cause worthy of Don Quixote.

Regulating and taxing Cannabis sales will make us safer and reduce access to marijuana by children and teenagers. A regulated store will not sell to children. The status quo puts our children at risk because a shadowy black market doesn't care who uses it's untested, unregulated product.

Free speech is a two-way street. If you don't want people yelling their opinion at you, then don't stand on the side of the road yelling your opinion at the world. Ms. Smith is the worst kind of parent- smug, hypocritical and willing to use her children as political props.

Do they need more volunteers because all money is being embezzled by trustees or because it is cheaper to have a volunteer dig a pit than to properly cremate animals? Crooks.

I trust the independent investigator more than the corrupt Humane Society of Fremont County. The response from HSFC dissapoints me; the board of directors is in a state of denial or worse. I will never donate, patronize or otherwise support the HSFC ever again.

Ms. Norman of the Penrose Water District is proposing unreasonable and arbitrary regulation on this industry by fabricating concerns over water use by "manufacturing facilities". These facilities are essentially license commercial kitchens producing a wholesale product and would use less water than the Coyote Coffee Den.

Grow your own if you can; don't pity the profiteers. They hire lobbyists for pete's sake!

These 13 businesses are already given preferential licensing over any entrepreneur who aspires to open a legal business and compete in a free market. The city and state only accept license applications from entities that had the balls to open up shops way back before HB 1284 and A64 passed. That is hardly a free and fair market.

You said it yourself- "The drug wars have been a colossal failure". So why support the continuation of heavy-handed police raids that lead to oppressive felony prison sentences? The black market has thrived for years in spite of these tactics- why do you think they will stop black market exports now? The profit incentive is too great. Many people supported A64 because they want to see an end to the futile and expensive war on drugs. You are using A64 to justify it.

We need to focus on market based change that will undermine the incentive for export. The solution needs to be multifaceted, but I would at least advocate that people should be given a chance to play by the rules. Under the current state and local moratorium, only medical businesses that existed prior to 2009 are able to apply for a license. The black market is the only option for entrepreneurship. The market being implemented by A64 favors a select few well-positioned business people and reserves the same brutal police tactics to eliminate those who are not licensed.

Amendment 64 was a huge victory, but in the larger national and global context of cannabis prohibition the good fight is far, far from over. In my obstinate view, this is about expanding civil rights for an oppressed and persecuted culture- cannabis users. I believe any marijuana user should be sympathetic for the plight of anyone caught up in a legal system that treats this plant as a schedule 1 narcotic. After all, the people who you defend as "playing by the rules" are the same people who were pushing the envelope just a few years ago to get where they are today.

I think that in order for A64 to succeed, it needs to exist in the context of ever expanding rights for cannabis users beyond Colorado.

"Good!!! Thank you Boulder County Drug Task Force! " That sounds like a celebration to me. How can you take pleasure in people facing 8 to 32 years in prison for cannabis? You make a rational argument but your opening line is sadistic, like I said.

Colorado exports weed, it always has and it will continue to do so until cannabis reform happens at the federal level. It is sad that advocates of legal marijuana would support a continuation of the expensive and damaging militarized war on drugs.

I would focus on creating real access to legal, regulated business opportunities for the black market so that is possible for the old school mountain grower types to step out of the shadows. Under the current regulatory structure there is a continuation of a years-long moratorium that only allows established businesses to apply for licenses. That, combined with the $500,000 plus investment necessary to be a legal cannabis business, effectively locks all but a select few from entering the market.

Either you got a golden ticket back in 2009, or you will have the SWAT team kicking down your door. That's hardly a fair and free market.

They have my sympathy.

Anyone that endorses Cannabis related arrest and incarceration should not consider themselves an advocate for legalization. Your attitude is sadistic.