{"id":8758,"date":"2019-04-20T12:56:41","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T12:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3429600"},"modified":"2019-04-20T12:56:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T12:56:41","slug":"qa-john-hickenlooper-on-colorados-marijuana-legalization-and-how-he-talks-to-his-son-about-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/qa-john-hickenlooper-on-colorados-marijuana-legalization-and-how-he-talks-to-his-son-about-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&amp;A: John Hickenlooper on Colorado\u2019s marijuana legalization and how he talks to his son about pot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/qa-john-hickenlooper-on-colorados-marijuana-legalization-and-how-he-talks-to-his-son-about-pot\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/qa-john-hickenlooper-on-colorados-marijuana-legalization-and-how-he-talks-to-his-son-about-pot.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/04\/20\/john-hickenlooper-marijuana-q-and-a\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-news-marijuana+%28Denver+Post%3A+News%3A+Marijuana%29&amp;utm_content=Google+UK#comments-anchor\"><span class=\"spot-im-replies-count\" data-post-id=\"3429600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Colorado\u2019s former-governor-turned-presidential-candidate John Hickenlooper gets his fair share of pot questions on the campaign trail these days.<\/p>\n<p>Voters in early states like Iowa want to know how it\u2019s working and whether Denver really has enough marijuana revenue to pave its streets with gold. We talked to Hickenlooper on the eve of 4\/20 about marijuana, what he tells his teenage son about smoking and where he comes down on legalization.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what he said, edited for clarity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Let\u2019s talk about election night 2012. You\u2019d opposed legalizing recreational marijuana, and then voters decided 55-to-45 to do it. What was your first thought?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You know, I felt the same way I did when I got the call that Denver was going to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention. (A mixture of excitement and responsibility.) I had been opposed to it (marijuana, not the DNC). I was concerned about what it might do to teenage consumption; more people driving while high. But I also grew up in the \u201960s.<\/p>\n<p>There was part of me that felt, that always wondered if it was treated the same as alcohol. If there was a campaign to educate teenagers about the risks of high THC marijuana. If there was a better system out there waiting to be created.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Now that you\u2019re running for president and talking to voters in different states, what do they think about Colorado\u2019s marijuana experiment? Is there anything they get wrong?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh my gosh, it\u2019s amazing. I used to think that Paul Bunyan was a pretty far-fetched legend. There are all kinds of stories about what we did in Colorado, and how much money it is making in the state. And how we are going to pay for early childhood education for every 3- and 4-year-old. There are these over-the-top, insane legends.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I think every parent of small children in Colorado knows that preschool isn\u2019t free. Beyond what voters in other states get wrong, what do they want to know about legalized cannabis?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>They ask me what our mistakes were. We obviously made mistakes. We still have a modest black market \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2018\/10\/26\/colorado-marijuana-impact-report\/\">Andrew Freedman<\/a> (who worked as Colorado\u2019s first marijuana czar), he thinks we have the smallest black market of any state. People want to know what recommendations I give to other states; what do I tell other governors \u2026 The real question they want to know is if it works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you tell them that legalized marijuana works in Colorado? Did we build that better system?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The things that we were most worried about didn\u2019t happen. The spike in teenage consumption, for example. There was this big federal study (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.samhsa.gov\/data\/sites\/default\/files\/NSDUHsaeShortTermCHG2016\/NSDUHsaeShortTermCHG2016.htm\">released in June 2018<\/a>) showing a significant decrease in teenage consumption in Colorado \u2026 We spend more of a percentage in per capita terms, we spend more money on youth prevention than any other state. That\u2019s often one of those lessons I try to teach other governors: Build the mousetrap the best you can right from the start.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What about your own son? Has the messaging worked on him? He\u2019s about the same age you were the first time you say you tried marijuana.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have told my son many times. I have told him candidly many times that high THC marijuana when your brain is growing rapidly has a high probability of diminishing your long-term memory. You\u2019re at risk of losing a little sliver of your long-term memory, even if you only smoked this pot once a week.<\/p>\n<p>(Long-term memory) is how society generally, that is one of the main ways they measure your intelligence, your IQ. That\u2019s the one part of your brain almost more than anything else that you don\u2019t want to lose.<\/p>\n<p>I bet you anything he\u2019s probably tried pot. He\u2019s a teenager. What can I say? I watch him closely, though. When he comes home at 11 (p.m.) or 12 a.m., I\u2019m talking to him; I\u2019m peering into his eyes so close to see if they\u2019re dilated that he can smell my breath.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s probably a different conversation than you imagined having with him when he was born. Marijuana wasn\u2019t legal then.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When we first passed it in 2012, I talked to dozens of teenagers, high school students \u2026 I asked how hard it was to get pot and would legalization change their approach to smoking it. None of them thought it was going to be any easier to get it. One of them even said if you do it right and get the taxes right and you get rid of the black market, you will actually make it harder. \u2026 Drug dealers don\u2019t care who they sell to.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In those first months of legalization, did you ever worry the federal government was going to stop Colorado?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That was certainly a problem, an anxiety and a concern. \u2026 I explained (to the Obama administration) what we were doing and why we were doing it. They were sympathetic to the fact that our voters passed it 55 to 45. It took a certain amount of diplomacy with the Obama administration to let us become a laboratory experiment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did that feeling come back when the Trump administration, under former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, rescinded its memo that protected states where medical and recreational marijuana is legal?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>They were definitely firing a shot across the bow. We went to see him right after he took office. \u2026 He was very direct and very blunt (no pun intended). He said, \u201cI don\u2019t see how smoking or consuming marijuana in any way makes us a better country or a stronger country. I recognize the situation you\u2019re in, and I also recognize we don\u2019t have the resources to fully address the illegal activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And I can quote him, he said, \u201cWe recognize that we have higher priorities: heroin, methamphetamines, fentanyl.\u201d \u2026 There was a recognition, there was a tacit sense that they would let us do this. There was just this kind of sense that they didn\u2019t have the resources to come in and take over.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Last question: Since you\u2019re running to be president, would you sign a bill decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level?<\/strong><\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>Yeah, absolutely. I would support that. \u2026 A lot of states, certainly at the minimum, want to legalize medical marijuana. I think 33 states already have. That\u2019s two-thirds of the states, which should trigger something.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s get the FDA involved and research what are the different medical conditions where it\u2019s effective and what are the side effects. \u2026 Let\u2019s get the Department of Agriculture involved. \u2026 I think that there is a whole raft of things the federal government should do.<\/p>\n<p>If it\u2019s true that states are the labs of democracy, and I think it\u2019s true, and one of the keys to a successful country, let\u2019s make it possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Colorado&#8217;s former-governor-turned-presidential-candidate John Hickenlooper gets his fair share of pot questions on the campaign trail these days. He sat down with The Denver Post on the eve of 4\/20 to field a few more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,6811,6857,8132,8133,2097,6813,77,5667,56,9,6855,5019,441,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[2632,6816,6859,8134,8135,4665,6818,2655,5673,2636,6856,5022,3015],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}