Last year, Colorado voters passed legislation calling for the state to allow adult marijuana use and this year Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, signed some very liberal provisions into law. The world will be watching closely as the first truly legal marijuana marketplace opens for business.
To see how Colorado’s new laws compared with Amsterdam’s laws, which many people erroneously believe legalize marijuana, Mason Tvert, evaluated the differences between the laws. Tvert is the communications director for Marijuana Policy Project he also spearheaded the campaign to legalize marijuana in Colorado.
Although marijuana use is tolerated in the Netherlands; it has not been legalized. The purchase of up to five grams is tolerated in coffee shops. Possessing pot is illegal in Amsterdam, and so is growing it, but if you surrender your smoke to authorities they probably won’t press the issue.
Colorado is a completely different story! Currently, only medical marijuana licensees may buy pot, but adult recreational use dispensaries are expected to open their doors as early as January 2014. When the shops do open, adults over 21 will be able to purchase up to one ounce; and they are allowed to grow up to six plants.
Smoking marijuana on public streets is not legal anywhere, but smoking in your home is legal in Colorado and generally tolerated in the Netherlands.
Everyone is watching as Colorado is the first place in the world to legalize marijuana, complete with regulation and taxation. Until now Amsterdam was the cannabis center of the world with its relaxed enforcement of laws, but now Colorado offers true legal freedom of recreational pot smoking.
Huff Post Denver
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/colorado-is-new-amsterdam_n_3390123.html