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Colorado’s vision of regulating medical pot dispensaries with high-tech checks and seed-to-sale tracking becomes a pipe dream
By Kirk Mitchell The Denver Post
RUSH
Grower Kristina Imperi prepares marijuana plants for the next stage of their growth in an indoor growhouse in Denver. Joe Amon, The Denver Post By Eric Gorski The Denver Post
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DENVER & THE WEST
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The state law may be moot after the Supreme Court rules on marriage. »1B
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SWING &MISS
One month before Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements was shot to death in the doorway of his home — a shooting now linked to a white supremacist — prison officials shook the world of hundreds of members of the suspect’s prison gang, the 211 Crew. The Denver Post has learned that Clements’ Department of Corrections staff moved a core group of white supremacist leaders held at Sterling Correctional Complex to Buena Vista Correctional Center, diluting their numbers and strength. “There was a group up there and (prison officials) decided to break them up,” said a DOC official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Now DOC officials and others are investigating whether Clements’ killing was an ordered “hit,” or whether the gunman was acting alone, a source told The Denver Post. Four DOC and federal officials spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak officially due to the ongoing criminal investigation. In court papers obtained by The PRISON GANG » 6A
Louisville’s pressure defense smothers CSU on Saturday, handing the Rams an 82-56 loss. »1C
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More on the Tournament.
The Senate approves a Democratic $3.7 trillion budget for next year that includes tax hikes and protection for domestic programs. »6A
»1C, 16-21C
MARIJUANA » 22A
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Prison shu±e jarred gang A DOC source says the 211 shake-up could be a motive for retaliation.
GREEN he technology was supposed to efficiently track medical marijuana from seed to sale — the catch-phrase that came to define Colorado’s efforts to regulate what had been an outlaw business. Field investigators could walk into any dispensary or grow operation and with a digital reader instantly collect data from tags attached to everything from newly potted plants to potinfused lollipops. In July 2011, the state Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division signed a $636,000 contract with a Florida company to build the system using Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, technology. About nine months later, the project was shelved because of a budget shortfall — just one unfulfilled promise in a regulatory system often held up as a national model and serving as the foundation for how the state will regulate recreational pot legalized by Amendment 64 last fall. The challenges of starting an agency from scratch, a lack of stable funding, staff cutbacks and balancing public safety concerns with the desires of an industry looking for legitimacy all have complicated efforts to regulate Colorado’s Green Rush.
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