Elections 2022 Archives - KGNU Community Radio: Recent Episodes
Elections 2022 Archives - KGNU Community Radio
An independent, noncommercial community radio station licensed in Boulder and Denver and dedicated to serving its listeners.
By now you’ve probably heard about the passage of Proposition 122 in Colorado. Also called the Natural Medicine Health Act, the initiative passed by 53% of the vote last November and decriminalized certain psychedelic plants and fungi. In addition to legalizing the personal use of psychedelic mushrooms for adults 21 and older, the passage of Proposition 122 also begins the process of creating a regulated access program where adults will eventually be able to use a variety of plant medicines under supervised care. But what will that actually look like? What does the law in Colorado currently define as legal or illegal when it comes to natural medicines? What gray areas remain that will likely require our attention in the coming years?
On January 30th on A Public Affair, Journalist Douglas Brown interviewed Barine Majewska, a Denver attorney in Vicente Sederberg’s Entheogens and Emerging Therapies Practice Group. As an active supporter of Proposition 122 and plant medicine, and former intern in psilocybin studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Majewska helped clarify the current and future legal landscape surrounding plant medicine in Colorado.
Listen: play_arrow*Legal or Illegal? Psychedelics Lawyer Answers Colorado Plant Medicine Law QuestionsHannah Leigh (Download Audio)
Trigger Warning and Disclaimer: This show discusses drugs and drug activity for the purposes of education and increased public understanding of the law. KGNU does not support illegal drug activity or risky drug activity. Trigger warning for our listeners, we do discuss abuse in this program. In addition, the information heard in this program is not legal advice.
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The Cannabis Report – November 17th, 2022
Cannabis and plant medicine initiatives were on ballots across Colorado and the country this midterm cycle. Longtime Cannabis correspondent Leland Rucker spoke to KGNU’s Hannah Leigh Myers on the Cannabis Report about the results in communities big and small and the notable absence of a “green wave” at the polls this time around.
Listen:
- play_arrowHow Did Cannabis And Plant Medicine Initiatives Do In Colorado and Nationwide?Hannah Leigh (Download Audio)
About Leland Rucker:Leland Rucker is a journalist who has been covering the cannabis industry culture since Amendment 64 legalized adult-use in Colorado, for Boulder Weekly, Sensi, and The News Station. Leland has been keeping KGNU listeners up-to-date on cannabis news for nearly a decade.
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Proposition 124 on this year’s ballot asked voters. If the state should allow liquor stores to have an unlimited number of licenses, Bruce Dierking is the owner and founder of Hazel’s Beverage World in Boulder. He says if prop 124 passes it would repeal post-prohibition era laws that have protected small liquor store owners in Colorado for close to a century.
- play_arrowElections 2022: Prop 124 Would Widen Liquor Market To Out-Of-State Chain. Small Liquor Store Owners Say It Will Put Them Out Of Business.Alexis Kenyon Bruce Dierking: In Colorado, our policy was that grocery and convenience stores would be able to sell low strength beer and anything else stronger would be sold through license, retail, liquor stores, and only one license per person would be allowed.
Alexis Kenyon: The limited licenses, which over the years have increased to three per owner, have created a unique environment for small liquor stores. Dierking says because of the laws, small businesses can thrive in Colorado because they don’t have to compete with large, big box franchises.
Bruce Dierking: And I would argue, even though you might say it could be more convenient for consumers, if alcohol were available in more places, or if you could order alcohol and have it delivered everywhere. Is that really one of our top problems in Colorado, that it’s just too hard to buy alcohol?
Alexis Kenyon: Supporters of Proposition 124, say yes. David and Robert Trone are two out of state brothers who have almost single handedly funded the yes on prop 124 campaign. With close to $13 million in donations. The brothers own the nation’s largest independent alcoholic beverage retailer, Total Wine and More. The retailer has 229 locations or so-called superstores across the nation. Last year, they brought in close to $5 billion. Dierking says in some states total wine and more has virtually eliminated any competition.
Bruce Dierking: If you go to Arizona for example, Total Wine and More really dominates and there are very few local liquor stores even around Arizona State. Even around the college, you have a few total wine and mores and that’s it. That’s the entire market.
Alexis Kenyon: In Colorado because of the state’s liquor laws, Total Wine and More can only operate three locations. The Trone brothers, one of whom is a congressional representative in Maryland, say, not only are these laws unfair to their business, they’re bad for any liquor store business in Colorado. Yes on prop 1 24 spokesperson, Scott Willoughby, says repealing the restrictions gives everyone a more equal playing ground, including small businesses.
Scott Willoughby: This is a fairness argument and I think that the piece of the campaign that the media has really failed to recognize and report on is this element of the great compromise that allowed full strength beer into the grocery stores, and expanded the number of liquor license drug stores can own. I think that they don’t understand. That’s not fair to these guys.
Alexis Kenyon: The great compromise was a deal made between large grocers and Colorado liquor store owners in 2016 and came after years of failed attempts by grocers to repeal the state’s liquor laws. In an effort to protect small liquor store owners who argued that repealing the laws would devastate thousands of family owned businesses, the great compromise allowed large grocery stores with pharmacies to gradually increase liquor store licenses over the course of around 20 years. It also allowed large groceries to sell full strength beer, which grocers argued supported the state’s small craft brewers. In exchange, liquor stores could sell some food products and groceries hopefully would keep liquor laws off the ballot. Loren Touch, owner of Gunbarrel liquor, says not only did the grocery stores not keep their word about keeping liquor laws off the ballot as seen by this year’s ballot. They didn’t follow through with their support to craft brewers
Loren Touch: And that’s not happened at all? In fact a lot of the small brewers are having a very difficult time getting on the shelves at King Soopers, Safeway, Walmart, and Target.The reason why is because when you can work with fewer and fewer suppliers, it’s easier for a big corporation to do business.
Alexis Kenyon: Bruce Dierking says regardless of industry, small local businesses tend to look out for each other because it’s good for everyone’s bottom line.
Bruce Dierking: Consumers have done really well here. Our craft industry is what it is, largely because local producers could walk in and talk to the owners of local stores, get their products on the shelf, and the dollars people spend in these stores stay in our communities. The owners are here, the employees are here, the customers are here at all cycles and stay here.
Alexis Kenyon: Dierking says, prop 124 would change all that. According to Colorado’s licensed beverage association, one of the groups representing liquor store owners in Colorado and supporting the efforts against proposition 124, about 60% of the state’s liquor stores are owned by people of color and women. Prop 124 would put many of these family owned stores out of business.
Bruce Dierking: And in a time where income inequality is shrinking the middle class and systemic racism are big issues, we’re talking about passing a law to benefit major out-of-state corporations that’s going to put out all these family businesses out and leave families that currently have a middle class income figuring out where do I go to support my family? And I just think that’s the wrong policy.
Alexis Kenyon: Loren Touch of Gunbarrel liquor says if prop 124, or any of the alcohol-related propositions on this year’s ballot, pass it’s only a matter of time before gun barrel liquor will probably close.
Loren Touch: When I was younger, we used to have independent flower shops, delis, video stores, pharmacies and butchers, we don’t see those anymore. What’s left? I mean, how much are we going to allow them to take?
Alexis Kenyon: Touch says, if Coloradans want to know what will happen when large corporations come into a market with local businesses, all they have to do is look around at other retail sectors in Colorado’s economy.
Loren Touch: The landscape or independent business in Colorado is slowly shrinking. I think allowing any of these propositions to pass, especially 124, is to send a message to all Coloradans that their small business aspirations don’t matter here.
Alexis Kenyon: The ballot question about loosening restrictions on liquor licensing comes as the two biggest grocery store chains in Colorado, Kroger owned King Soopers and Albertson’s owned Safeway, discuss their intent to merge nationwide. For KGNU I’m Alexis Kenyon.
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The Cannabis Report – November 3rd, 2022
This time on the Cannabis Report, longtime marijuana correspondent Leland Rucker reminds us of the details in Proposition 122, a ballot measure currently before Colorado voters that would decriminalize the personal use and possession (for adults age 21 and older) of some hallucinogenic/entheogenic plants and fungi as well as create a natural medicine regulated access program for supervised care.
Listen:
- play_arrowElections 2022: How Familiar Are You With Colorado’s Prop 122 to Decriminalize Some Psychedelic Plants and Fungi?Hannah Leigh (Download Audio)
About Leland Rucker:Leland Rucker is a journalist who has been covering the cannabis industry culture since Amendment 64 legalized adult-use in Colorado, for Boulder Weekly, Sensi, and The News Station. Leland has been keeping KGNU listeners up-to-date on cannabis news for nearly a decade.
Featured Image by Pretty Drugthings on Unsplash
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During the October, 31, 2022 edition of A Public Affair this morning, host Rossana Longo Better speaks with Boulder County Commissioner Marta Loachamin and Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Molly Fitzpatrick about the integrity of our elections, our local ballot […]
A panel from the League of Women Voters of Boulder County took calls from KGNU listeners with questions about the 2022 election. Emma Piller (left) is the League’s Voter Service Director, supporting the League ballot issue, candidate forum, voter outreach […]
The Annexation of CU South [Download Audio] Watch debate here. CU South Boulder is a 308-acre parcel of land at the southernmost city limit of Boulder. The former gravel mine has been undeveloped for over 20 years now. The […]