In November 2012, when we were still living in Jacksonville, Florida, Colorado passed the Recreational Marijuana Bill. Did the passing of this Bill contribute (promote) to so many Millennials aka young folks up to 40, to move here to Colorado? Some residents definitely will say "yes, of course", while others will say "no, jobs did". Well, how about both?? I just read, just now, that a legislation has passed for smoking pot in businesses in Denver. A big hotel there is now doing it. So, with this new legislation going thru, Colorado will see even more of an influx of young folks than it did before. Especially those that love to smoke it. Just think, you walk into an office building for an appointment and leave later "higher than a kite", but didn't smoke a thing. IOW, our wondering about continuing to live in Colorado may have just changed!
It's been legal here for a few years now but, other than seeing a pot shop in most towns, I don't think you come across it much unless you're looking for it. That might be different in Southern Maine. I'm sure people smoke it but it's not like someone at the table next to you at the restaurant is going to be smoking pot, or people are smoking it in the aisles at the grocery store.
It has been legal here since the first court decision here in 1977 for personal use. I think you could have 12 plants. You couldn't buy it, sell it, or transfer it until a couple years ago. Now it is regulated and taxed. The reason it has been legal is because the Alaska state constitution says anything you do completely inside your own home that doesn't affect others is legal here.
What @Ken Anderson said is true in southern ME that are not population centers like Portland, Lewiston, Biddeford and Augusta
Growing weed was recently legalized in Virginia for personal consumption. A friend owns a gardening center, and has definitely seen the sale of related products (mostly soils and amendments) explode. While there has always been some of this activity going on, people can now be overt about it. Regarding Denver: I can't imagine renting a room where weed has previously been consumed, nor can I imagine such a thing being a huge long-term draw. There might be some novelty spike, but after that, I doubt that this law catching up with reality is gonna make much of a difference. I can't see why this would impact your decision to live in Colorado...Denver has always been known for its lax enforcement.
Well, so far, and note the words "so far", we haven't smelled any anywhere, but that could change. There is a "non-smoking inside apartments" policy in our rental agreement, but there are those that don't care about that and will smoke cigarettes, and even pot, in their apartment anyway. Our maintenance supervisor told us about a neighbor she use to have that was a heavy pot smoker in her apartment. She went to encounter the girl about noise she was making, the resident opened their door and pot smoke literally flowed out the door into the supervisor's face. The girl was evicted. We just don't want to move to another apartment complex in the County and have a problem with neighbors smoking pot in their apartment or outside.............and it's against the Leasing Rules. Wife and I simply can't stand the smell of cigarettes, cigars or pot.
As you know, the issue is that someone like that could move into the apartment next to you after you've done your due diligence, regardless of where you go. The same applies with home ownership, except that raises a higher relocation hurdle. I lived in apartments for only 2 (maybe 3) years. There are trade-offs. In an apartment, the jerk next to you may be gone after his lease is up. When the jerk is a neighbor who owns his home, you are probably stuck for a while.
I don't believe so, Marie. Just out of curiosity, I took a look. I found these pieces of proposed Florida legislation: HB 467: Legalization of Recreational Marijuana Authorizes persons age 21 & over to engage in certain activities involving personal use of marijuana in limited amounts; provides for licensure of marijuana establishments; provides limits on number of certain marijuana establishments in localities; specifies that chapter does not apply to employer drug policies or operating under influence laws; removes cannabis from schedule of controlled substances; provides for retroactive effect; provides for sentencing review for certain offenders. Last Action: 3/14/2022 House - Died in Regulatory Reform Subcommittee SB 1696: Adult Use Marijuana Legalization Adult Use Marijuana Legalization; Establishing the Division of Cannabis Management within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; prohibiting the use of false identification by persons under 21 years of age for specified activities relating to recreational marijuana; exempting certain activities involving marijuana from use and possession offenses; authorizing persons 21 years of age or older to engage in certain activities involving the personal use, possession, transport, and cultivation of marijuana in limited amounts; providing that marijuana establishments that sell food containing marijuana are considered food establishments for the purposes of specified regulations; authorizing an individual convicted of certain crimes to petition the court for expunction of his or her criminal history record under certain circumstances, etc. Last Action: 3/14/2022 Senate - Died in Health Policy Apparently a ballot initiative effort was derailed by COVID, then two recent ballot initiatives were shot down by the court as being "misleading." So there has been a push, and probably lots of media buzz, but no victory for growing it or even for possession of token amounts.
I thought I read or heard someone say in order to grow it here you had to put up 25 MILLION bond for a permit to sell it or something like that, If I understood.
Apparently, it is legal in Florida for "medicinal purposes." (We're back to lying about why we drink hooch..."It's for my rheumatiz.") So apparently there are be commercial facilities established in order to supply that industry.
I've been binge-watching North Woods Law, which is about Maine game wardens, and am surprised at how often they came across marijuana grows in the woods of Maine, particularly in our northern Aroostook County, because we have such short growing seasons. One of the grow fields they found was nearly on our property in northern Maine. The dirt road (ATV trail) they drove in on was the road that leads to my land, only they went straight where I would turn right. From there, it wasn't clear where they went because, of course, the film is edited for television. I can't even drive back there until about the middle of May because snow turns to mud before the mud turns to dirt. Several of the episodes included marijuana grow fields in very out-of-the-way places, but usually small, from 20-30 plants. People would clear a small area in the woods, on private land usually, but not their own, fence the grow area in to keep deer and moose from disturbing it, and grow 20-30 plants there.
I get monthly emails on the activities of Virginia's game wardens (they don't have a tv show.) There is always some of that kind of activity (and other interesting stuff, like illegal toad licking) in the rural areas that they come upon when investigating poaching and out-of-season hunting & trapping...it seems that people engaging in illegal activities tend to diversify. It's recently become legal in Virginia (July 2021) to grow 4 plants per household, but as you said, folks doing it for sale (still illegal for individuals to do here) are growing way more than that, not just 3 or 4 plants.