Blogger-pundit Matt Yglesias really wants more bars. First at Think Progress, then at Slate and now at Vox, the commentator has waged a one-man rhetorical war on the country’s urban liquor boards. The current licensing system, in which the number of bars is constrained by city bureaucrats rather than market demand, Yglesias has argued, leaves us with a paucity of public drinking spots where they’re wanted. From New York’s East Village to Adams Morgan in Washington, D.C., license limitations have caused bars to become rare, expensive, crowded and all around worse. 
 
 There’s just one problem with Yglesias’ more-bars plan: alcohol. America has a serious issue with responsible drinking, and increasing the number of sales locations probably won’t help. Alcohol abuse already kills tens of thousands of Americans annually and costs hundreds of billions of dollars a year in lost productivity, health care and property damage. It’s an especially big problem for college students and other young people; Jake New reported for Insider Higher Education that at least eight college freshman died in the first few weeks of school this year, most in alcohol-related accidents or overdoses. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a fairly dramatic increase of alcohol-related hospitalizations in this age group,” George Koob, the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health, told New. More bars would contribute to what’s already a public health crisis. Studies in Los Angeles and Cleveland suggest adding a bar is associated with about three additional violent crimes a year. 
 
 It’s hard to imagine bars without alcohol. Caffeine is popular, but it’s not what economists call a substitute good for booze. Luckily, those aren’t our only options. In a post for Vox, German Lopez suggested that the strongest argument for marijuana legalization might be that people will use it instead of alcohol. Although prohibition has no doubt suppressed use, marijuana’s social costs per user are negligible, especially compared with alcohol’s. A recent National Institutes of Health study suggested that marijuana appears to fit the seven published criteria to be a substitute medication for alcohol, in the same way doctors prescribe methadone for heroin dependence. From a public health perspective, every drink we can replace with a toke is a victory. 
 
 Individual states, moved by a combination of hard evidence and shifting public opinion, are advancing with plans to legalize recreational marijuana use. So far, only Colorado and Washington have gone all the way to legalization, but the whole country is headed quickly in that direction. Despite all the new regulatory architectures for growing, distributing and using marijuana without violating the law, no states have been willing to propose what responsible common use in public could look like. Not one Amsterdam-style coffee shop has managed to keep its doors open. Still, there’s a demand for marijuana bars or weed cafes or whatever we end up calling them, a demand that’s being suppressed far more strongly than the demand for more alcohol bars. ||||| People attend the Denver 420 Rally, the world's largest celebration of both the legalization of cannabis and cannabis culture, May 21, 2016 in Denver Coloroado. (Photo credit should read JASON CONNOLLY/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 DENVER, Colo. -- Denver voters decided to push the boundaries of marijuana law by passing ordinance 300 in this year’s election, which opens the possibility of designated areas where marijuana can be used at places of business. 
 
 The idea was supported by many of the same people who helped campaign for Amendment 64, which made Colorado the first state in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana. 
 
 When Amendment 64 passed, it was clear that there wouldn’t be many places where people could legally use marijuana besides their own homes. The amendment included language spelling out that it did not authorize the use of pot openly and publicly. 
 
 The new ordinance is designed to change that—allowing people to gather and use marijuana in businesses that obtain special permits. 
 
 But there are a lot of hoops for a business to jump through before it can legally allow people to light up a joint or start munching on edibles. 
 
 Here’s a practical guide to Denver’s new law: 
 
 THERE WON’T BE ‘HASH BARS’ IN DENVER 
 
 Colorado’s state marijuana laws ban consumption at retail locations, which means you shouldn’t expect Amsterdam-style hash bars in Denver. 
 
 While it’s theoretically possible for a social use business to locate near a marijuana store, they would need to be separate businesses, each with their own regulations to abide by. 
 
 Aside from that, there aren’t many restrictions on the types of businesses that can apply for a social use license. 
 
 It’s possible you’ll see pot patios popping up in coffee shops, restaurants, or bars in Denver. 
 
 In contrast with Amsterdam’s hash bars where alcohol cannot be sold, Denver’s social use ordinance would not ban the sale of alcohol in locations open to marijuana consumption. 
 
 However, limiting or banning alcohol consumption can be made part of the agreement with neighborhood groups (more on the role they play below) for each specific social use license. 
 
 Colorado law also bans people from selling pot to each other—you could show up to a social use establishment with some marijuana to share with your friends, but you could get busted if you try to sell any to people. 
 
 SMOKING NEEDS TO BE OUT OF SIGHT 
 
 You shouldn’t expect to see pot smoking areas when you’re walking down the street in Denver. 
 
 The ordinance spells out that “any outside smoking of cannabis occurring at street level is not visible from a public right-of-way or a place where children congregate.” 
 
 Consumption areas would be off-limits to anybody under the age of 21. 
 
 The businesses will also have to abide by the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, which bans smoking in the vast majority of indoor areas. However, it’s theoretically possible for an indoor marijuana smoking area to open in a licensed cigar bar. 
 
 It’s also possible for businesses to create indoor consumption areas not meant for smoking, but rather for marijuana vaping or edibles consumption. 
 
 The statute also requires the social use business to make “reasonable accommodations” to prevent the odor of marijuana from reaching people outside. 
 
 YOU NEED TO GET OTHERS ON BOARD 
 
 One of the prominently-advertised aspects of initiative 300 is the requirement that businesses show “evidence of community support” in order to get a social use license. 
 
 A business would do this by partnering with an “eligible neighborhood organization.” 
 
 This may seem difficult, but even though Denver has 78 official neighborhoods, the number of registered neighborhood organizations (RNO’s) in the city is nearly 200. RNO’s are not difficult to create and are allowed to draw their own boundaries with no ban on overlapping each other. 
 
 For reference, the 9NEWS studios are located in a part of the city covered by 8 different RNO’s. 
 
 Alternatively, businesses trying to get a social use permit can get permission from a business improvement district or any other group the city deems eligible as a partner. 
 
 THE RULES MAY BE DIFFERENT AT EACH BUSINESS 
 
 In order to get a permit, social use establishments and neighborhood groups would be allowed to reach an agreement with rules tailored for each specific license. 
 
 They can put virtually any restriction imaginable into the license. 
 
 The new Denver law specifically envisions agreements that: 
 
 limit or ban alcohol consumption 
 
 have rules to prevent DUI cases, including requiring the business to offer patrons free rides home 
 
 establish company policy in running the establishment 
 
 control odor 
 
 restrict advertising 
 
 regulate the distance of consumption areas from public spaces 
 
 create more restrictive hours of operation (None of the social use establishments will be allowed to operate between 2:00 am and 7:00 am) 
 
 These rules can be made into official city restrictions on an individual license, each written to tailor to the agreement between the business and its partnering neighborhood group. 
 
 In addition, each business will be required to submit a written operations plan to the city describing how it will prevent underage people from gaining access and how it will train its employees. 
 
 
 
 Copyright 2016 KUSA ||||| DENVER (AP) — Crowds were serenaded by live music as they waited for the nation's first legal recreational pot shops to open. They ate doughnuts and funnel cakes as a glass-blower made smoking pipes. Some tourists even rode around in a limo, eager to try weed but not so eager to be seen buying it. 
 
 A recreational marijuana menu and price list sits on a counter at 3D Cannabis Center, which opened as a legal recreational retail outlet in Denver, early Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014. Colorado began retail... (Associated Press) 
 
 DENVER, CO - JANUARY 01: Customers wait in line, which was more than 300 deep by 10 a.m., on the first day of retail marijuana sales at LoDo Wellness in Denver Wednesday Jan. 1, 2014. Customers can legally... (Associated Press) 
 
 Before opening for business, a private security guard watches the door at 3D Cannabis Center, which opened as a legal recreational retail outlet in Denver, early Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014. Colorado began... (Associated Press) 
 
 Employees help customers at the crowded sales counter inside Medicine Man marijuana retail store, which opened as a legal recreational retail outlet in Denver on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014. Colorado began... (Associated Press) 
 
 Employees help customers at the crowded sales counter inside Medicine Man marijuana retail store, which opened as a legal recreational retail outlet in Denver on Wednesday Jan. 1, 2014. Colorado began... (Associated Press) 
 
 Customers stand in line shortly after the opening of 3D Cannabis Center, which opened as a legal recreational retail outlet in Denver at 8am on Wednesday Jan. 1, 2014. Colorado began retail marijuana... (Associated Press) 
 
 And when the sales began, those who bought the drug emerged from the stores, receipt held high and carrying sealed shopping bags, to cheers. 
 
 "I'm going to frame the receipt when I go home, to remind myself of what might be possible: Legal everywhere," said musician James Aaron Ramsey, 28, who did some time in jail for pot possession in Missouri and played folk tunes with his guitar for those in line. 
 
 Activists hope he's right, and that the experiment in Colorado will prove to be a better alternative to the costly American-led drug war, produce the kind of revenue that state officials hope and save the government costs in locking up drug offenders. 
 
 Just on the first day, prices in some places rose to more than $500 an ounce, and some shops announced midafternoon they would close early because of short supply. It's too soon to say whether the price spikes and long lines will persist. 
 
 Washington state will open its pot industry later this year. Both states' programs will be watched closely not just by officials in other states, but by activists and governments in other countries because the industries will be the first to regulate the production and sale of the drug. 
 
 Some countries have decriminalized the drug, and the Netherlands lets people buy and sell it, but it's illegal to grow or process it. 
 
 Just as shops opened Wednesday, the Denver Police Department tweeted, "Do you know the law?" and linked to city websites on state and local laws that include bans on public consumption, driving under the influence, taking marijuana out of state and giving pot to anyone under 21. 
 
 Denver police said one person was issued a summons for public consumption. The Colorado State Patrol reported no pot-related incidents. No pot-related incidents were reported at Denver International Airport, where signs warned travelers that they can't take the drug home. 
 
 At least 24 pot shops in eight towns opened. In Denver, pot users welcomed the new year and the new industry by firing up bongs and cheering in a cloud of marijuana smoke at a 1920s-themed "Prohibition Is Over" party — a reference to the 1930s-era law that outlawed marijuana. 
 
 Shopper Jacob Elliott said he wrote reports in college about the need to end pot prohibition, but never thought it could happen in his lifetime. 
 
 "This breaks that barrier," said Elliott, who traveled to Colorado from Leesburg, Va., to be among the first to buy legal weed. 
 
 Preparation for the retail market started more than a year ago, soon after Colorado and Washington voters in 2012 approved legal pot industries. Uruguay passed a law in December to become the first nation to regulate pot, but regulatory system isn't in place yet. 
 
 Pot advocates, who had long pushed legalization as an alternative to the drug war, had argued it would generate revenue for state coffers — and in Colorado's case to support education — and save money by not locking up low-level drug offenders. 
 
 "I feel good about it. The money's going to schools," said shopper Joseph Torres of Denver. 
 
 The price for high-quality weed at some shops was around $400 an ounce. That's about four times what smokers are paying on the black market in Colorado, according to crowd-sourced Internet surveys. Much of the extra cost was attributed to state and local taxes in excess of 25 percent. 
 
 People who were waiting in line shared their pot incarceration stories over coffee and funnel cakes. 
 
 "Trafficking conviction. Nineteen years old. For a plant, how stupid," said 24-year-old Brandon Harris, who drove 20 hours from Blanchester, Ohio. 
 
 Colorado set up an elaborate plant-tracking system to try to keep the drug away from the black market, and regulators set up packaging, labeling and testing requirements, along with potency limits for edible pot. 
 
 The U.S. Justice Department outlined an eight-point slate of priorities for pot regulation, requiring states to keep the drug away from minors, criminal cartels, federal property and other states in order to avoid a federal crackdown. 
 
 With the additional police patrols, the airport warnings and various other measures, officials hoped they have enough safeguards in place to avoid predictions of public health and safety harm from the opening of the pot shops. 
 
 A group of addiction counselors and physicians said they're seeing more marijuana addiction problems, especially in youths, and that wider pot availability will exacerbate the problem. 
 
 "This is just throwing gas on the fire," said Ben Cort of the Colorado Center for Dependency, Addiction & Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado Hospital. 
 
 Some medical marijuana patients groups say they're worried about supply. That's because the retail inventory for recreational use is coming entirely from the preexisting medical inventory. Many in the industry warned patients to stock up before the sales began. 
 
 It was too soon to tell whether prices for medical marijuana patients were going up. 
 
 For now, they should have plenty of places to shop. Most of Colorado's 500 or so medical marijuana shops haven't applied to sell recreational pot, and many that have plan to serve both recreational and medical patients 
 
 The industry has not just given rise to shops, but a whole line of other businesses, including tours. 
 
 Addison Morris, owner of Rocky Mountain Mile High Tours, had 10 clients waiting inside a limo who paid $295 for three hours of chauffeuring by a "marijuana concierge" who would help them choose strains and edible pot products. 
 
 Morris said she's booked through the end of February with out-of-state clients, who get samples in designer bags. And for the tours, guests are asked to leave cameras at home. She said she's selling discretion. 
 
 "We're your grandmother's pot connection," the 63-year-old said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Kristen Wyatt can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt . Associated Press writer Jim Anderson contributed to this report. ||||| Lighting up: Marijuana law questions linger 
 
 Midnight marked the end of Washington’s decades-long prohibition on marijuana possession, prompting celebratory tokes at the Space Needle early Thursday morning and Seattle police to issue a droll statement that officers will look the other way. 
 
 Voters approved marijuana decriminalization through Initiative 502 by a 12-point margin on Nov. 6. But, despite the efforts of the serious-minded supporters who crafted the law, what happens next remains something of a mystery. 
 
 One ex-Microsoftie is already aspiring to be the state’s first entirely legal pot kingpin. A new driving-under-the-influence rule will be ripe for an in-court test. For at least a year, Washingtonians won’t be able to legally grow or sell the pot they can now legally buy. 
 
 And, hanging over it all, federal authorities still won’t say whether they’ll play ball as state leaders in Olympia attempt to put in place the truly revolutionary piece of I-502 – a state system which licenses growers and dealers while taxing the heck out of pot. 
 
 “We’re in uncharted water here,” Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said at a press conference Wednesday morning. 
 
 “We’ve struggled with prohibition for a century,” Holmes continued. “It’s going to take some time to substitute a state licensed and regulated system.” 
 
 First, the easy piece. 
 
 As of 12:01 a.m. Thursday, possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by people 21 and older will no longer be illegal under Washington law. Public smoking is still banned, and pot won't get a pass on the anti-smoking rules for bars and restaurants. 
 
 But the murkiness of the law has prompted the Seattle Police Department to order its 1,300 officers to take no enforcement action on public marijuana users. That means anyone caught smoking pot in public will get a verbal warning from cops. 
 
 Trickier will be a portion of the initiative enabling the state to regulate and tax marijuana, which the state Liquor Control Board is expected to do by December 2013. 
 
 Marijuana could then be sold to customers over 21. Restrictions written into the initiative would prevent pot retailers from opening near places where children congregate, block advertising on public transit and provide recourse for local governments unhappy with Liquor Control Board licensing decisions. 
 
 The initiative’s sponsors contend it does not run afoul of federal drug law – it impacts only state activities, they contend, and would not require state agents to do anything illegal. Medical marijuana is readily available in Washington and several other states despite it being disallowed under federal law. Backers of the initiative hope the same kind of unofficial truce will allow the state to regulate and tax marijuana distribution in Washington. 
 
 In a statement, U.S. Attorney for Western Washington Jenny Durkan reiterated that Congress has placed marijuana in the same category of drugs as heroin, and ordered that it be policed as such. Durkan suggested that only Congress can remove that mandate. 
 
 “Regardless of any changes in state law, including the change that will go into effect on December 6th in Washington State, growing, selling or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under federal law,” Durkan said in a statement. She went on to remind the public not to bring marijuana onto federal property, including national parks and forests. 
 
 Federal authorities have stopped short of threatening to take any specific action. Holmes described their posture as “studied silence.” 
 
 Speaking Wednesday, Alison Holcomb, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington drug policy director who spearheaded the legalization effort, said the ultimate goal is to square federal law with federal action in the field. And that, she agreed, will take action by Congress. 
 
 But Holcomb suggested minor changes in federal drug law could go a long way to ameliorate the concerns of Washington voters who supported I-502. Congress need only order that law enforcement action fall in line with state law with regard to marijuana. 
 
 More broadly, Roger Rothman, a professor emeritus at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work, said he hopes the change in law will allow for greater education about the dangers of marijuana. 
 
 “We have not done well with safely and healthily living with marijuana,” Rothaman said at the ACLU press conference Wednesday. 
 
 Describing the drug as “not harmless,” Rothman, who spent his career researching marijuana dependence, said the public is very poorly informed about the threats the drug can pose. He suggested those wishing to educate themselves review “Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens and Drugs” or other materials provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. 
 
 While the threat of legal action looms, state law enforcement will enter uncharted territory. 
 
 Smoking marijuana in public will remain illegal – those caught doing so could be ticketed, and face penalties similar to a traffic ticket. Speaking Wednesday, Holmes said it was too early to say exactly what qualifies as “in public” – a smoking area outside a bar would be a gray area – but that a basic guideline is not to smoke marijuana in view of a public space. 
 
 The initiative also mandates that anyone caught driving with a specific level of active THC in their blood – 5 nanograms per milliliter – is presumed to be driving under the influence. THC is the chemical in marijuana that makes users high; proponents compare the rule to the .08 blood alcohol concentration limit set for drunk driving. 
 
 Driving stoned was already illegal, but the “per se” limit put in place by I-502 gives police a clear measure that’s easier to prove in court. Impaired driving specialists will still be called on to check drivers suspected of driving stoned, and law enforcement agencies are working to incorporate the blood testing into their work. 
 
 “With respect to impaired driving, we hope you’ve all heard our mantra by now: We’ve always arrested impaired drivers regardless of the drug involved,” State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins said in a statement. “It has always been a crime to drive while impaired by drugs whether they be illegal, legal or even medically prescribed. This new law does not change how troopers will determine impairment at the side of the road.” 
 
 The blood tests take days or weeks to deliver results, Calkins said, making them “an issue for prosecutors and defense attorneys,” not troopers. 
 
 The referendum also does nothing to impede employers from drug testing workers – the federal Department of Transportation has already warned commercial drivers, train conductors and pilots that a positive drug test for marijuana will leave them parked and grounded. 
 
 University students living on campus will not be permitted to possess marijuana. While most wouldn’t be allowed to anyway – I-502 decriminalized marijuana for those 21 and over – universities are concerned that giving the green light to marijuana on campus violates federal rules about drugs in schools. 
 
 Holmes warned that his office will prosecute “unfortunate flaunting” of marijuana in public places. Basically, he said the city’s near total tolerance of minor marijuana crimes doesn’t extend to intentional public smoking. 
 
 Holmes also acknowledged that marijuana reform remains a work in progress, and suggested patience. 
 
 “We’ve struggled with prohibition for a century,” Holmes said. “It’s going to take some time to substitute a state licensed and regulated system.” 
 
 CORRECTION: Due to a reporter's error, this article incorrectly described the manner in which cocaine and methamphetamine are catagorized under federal law. 
 
 Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news. 
 
 Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk. ||||| “Back in the '70s, you had to smoke a lot to get high,” Robert Kidder recalls, explaining his surprise when he recently tried legal weed for the first time at the suggestion of his daughter, who works at a marijuana dispensary in Denver called Sticky Buds. 
 
 After eating one of the store's pot-infused edibles, Kidder said he thought, “Damn, is this stuff good!” 
 
 So it goes in the legal pot era: As more states legalize, decriminalize or simply consider softening restrictions on marijuana, many people are finding that the products available today are not their father’s Summer of Love kind of weed. Today, pot smokers may find themselves one toke over the line after only one drag, increasing the chances for sudden revelations as well as for potential psychological disturbances or for being cited for driving under the influence. 
 
 Photo: Reuters 
 
 Over the past few decades, cannabis, commonly known as marijuana and by numerous other nicknames, has been selectively bred, tweaked and refined to be more powerful and more effective – a kind of steroidal version of its former self. New methods of production such as hydroponic cultivation and improved artificial lighting have given growers more control over their product, including its potency. Today’s cannabis breeders are more like chemists than botanists. They can favor certain compounds in the plant, particularly delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is what gets a person high. 
 
 “Most of the pot in the '70s came from Mexico,” Gregg Gold, a Humboldt State University professor of psychology, told International Business Times. “Compared to today, it was pretty weak stuff.” 
 
 Gold said old-school pot consumers typically smoked the leaves of the cannabis plant, which “growers nowadays simply throw away.” Today's growers go straight for the flowering tops of the female plants, called the buds, which have the highest concentrations of THC. 
 
 Kidder noted that in most cases a pot smoker in the old days could smoke an entire joint or more without getting overly high, though even then some smokers had access to highly potent sensimilla or bolstered the THC effects through bongs and other mechanisms. 
 
 But what’s at issue now is not which generation has had the best weed but the potential ramifications of removing legal prohibitions to consumption of pot that is almost universally potent. As the U.S. becomes increasingly pot-friendly -- two states have legalized it, and others are considering following suit, dispensaries have access to a slew of new cannabis and cannabis-infused products of varying strengths that can produce different effects. 
 
 Photo: Reuters 
 
 As of July 8, adults aged 21 and older can walk into one of Washington state’s recently licensed pot shops, show their ID and make a purchase from an array of legal products. In Colorado, which opened its first marijuana retail stores in January and is the only other state where recreational marijuana use is legal, “budtenders” sell cannabis-infused products ranging from butter, ice cream and chocolate bars to gummy candies, lemonades, granola bars, sweet cakes and beef jerky. 
 
 Edibles are popular in Denver's legal marijuana market in part because of consumers' health concerns over smoking. Others are swayed by laws that bar them from consuming marijuana in public; a pot cookie is far more discreet (and less odorous) than smoking a joint. 
 
 New York recently became the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana, but the law does not go into effect until 2015. Nebraska, Ohio, Mississippi and North Carolina have decriminalized cannabis possession, meaning first-time offenders who are found with a small amount of pot will not face prison time or a criminal record. 
 
 Twenty-three states totally prohibit marijuana possession of any kind. 
 
 Today’s pot is, on average, two to seven times more potent than pot in the 1970s, and experts say some can be as much as 20 or even 30 times stronger. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, the marijuana smoked 40 years ago was anywhere from .74 percent to 1.67 percent THC; by 2008, that number had jumped up to 8.5 percent. There are reports of some samples clocking in at 37 percent THC. 
 
 Comparing pot with alcohol, Ryan Vandrey, an associate professor in the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said the marijuana of the 1960s and ’70s was the equivalent of beer. “Now,” he said, “you’ve gone from beer to liquor.” Vandrey said a first-time pot consumer – or even a veteran consumer who is new to the world of edibles – could end up with enough THC in his system “to knock over an elephant.” 
 
 Like Colorado, Washington has set purchase limits of less than an ounce for concentrated versions of cannabis such as hash oil, 16 ounces for food that contains pot, and 72 fluid ounces for weed drinks. But some experts fear the products still contain too much THC and that consumers will not understand what constitutes a reasonable serving. 
 
 Photo: Reuters 
 
 Anyone who has gotten higher than they intended to knows the pitfalls -- the paranoia, the vacillation between obsessive focus and inability to focus, the potential for eating anything and everything. As New York Times writer Maureen Dowd noted of her experimentation with a cannabis-chocolate candy bar in Denver, she ended up spending eight hours “in a hallucinatory state,” “panting and paranoid.” 
 
 “There’s a strong need for any consumer to be well informed,” said Roger Roffman, professor emeritus in social work at the University of Washington and author of “Marijuana Nation: One Man's Chronicle of America Getting High: From Vietnam to Legalization.” “That does not mean judged, shamed, blamed or glorified; it just means we owe it to consumers of marijuana to give them accurate, accessible information.” 
 
 While Washington has adopted several laws to help govern the new retail stores – including requiring marijuana-infused products to be stored behind a counter or other child-resistant barrier as well as banning cartoons on packaging, the state liquor board’s main campaign is to keep the products out of the hands of children, particularly because many look like regular chocolates or gummy bears. The Washington Traffic Safety Commission has also launched a "Drive High, Get a DUI" campaign. 
 
 But beyond the fine print on product labels, there have been few efforts to educate the public about the potential for marijuana to exacerbate certain heart conditions or schizophrenia -- links for which have been established. “The label will tell you what you need to know,” Roffman said, “but only if you know how to interpret it.” 
 
 Photo: Reuters 
 
 The Washington Liquor Control Board said last week it will adopt rules requiring all marijuana-infused products to be labeled clearly as containing marijuana, give serving size recommendations (1o milligrams, with a maximum of 10 servings per package) that the consumer can easily identify, and require products to be approved by the board before sale. Likewise, Colorado officials are expected to issue later this month stricter potency and dosing-size rules designed to prevent overconsumption. Still, experts say that without a central body such as the Food and Drug Administration to oversee the quality of new products for safety and consistency, dispensaries run the risk of selling products whose labeling could be inaccurate or inadequate. 
 
 A batch of pot brownies, for example, is mixed with a highly concentrated THC-derived oil. If the batter is not thoroughly stirred, some brownies could contain more THC than others. If quality-assurance testers take just one brownie from that batch for testing and report back with an acceptable level of THC, all the brownies from that batch – including the ones that contain higher THC levels – will be given the stamp of approval. With pills and alcohol, at least, “you know the potency is the same every time,” Vandrey said. 
 
 All of which means that even legal users experimenting with pot in the U.S. should be cautious in their approach, noted Rebecca Craft, chair of the Department of Psychology at Washington State university. 
 
 “I can tell you what I told my husband: Be really, really conservative,” Craft said. “If you smoked a whole joint before, just take one toke and sit back and wait.”
– Malcolm Harris doesn't have a problem with more bars—he just thinks those bars should sell pot, not alcohol. In an opinion piece for Al-Jazeera America, Harris offers his take on how marijuana bars would give Americans more palatable gathering spaces with fewer health risks, creating an "urban-planning win-win" and possibly even saving lives. Some highlights: Harris points out the 88,000 deaths annually from excessive alcohol use as noted by the CDC and the "hundreds of billions of dollars a year in lost productivity, health care, and property damage" that the National Institutes of Health has researched. Citing another NIH study, Harris says that pot would serve as an acceptable "substitute medication" for booze: "From a public health perspective, every drink we can replace with a toke is a victory." There are few places these days that resemble the famous bar from Cheers. "Fewer and fewer people have a third place (not work or home) where everyone knows their name," Harris writes. Because so many people have migrated to the suburbs and holed up with their cable TV and Internet, not as many people are heading out to congregate. "These spaces [would] promote community integration, friendship, and extrafamilial networks of support," Harris notes. Although he's optimistic that "eventually Americans will have public places to go and get high with their friends," Harris thinks government should ease up on strict regulations. "Not one Amsterdam-style coffee shop has managed to keep its doors open," he writes. "Though owners seem willing to conform to whatever guidelines they're given, so far, no locality wants to be the first to host an American marijuana bar." Harris also acknowledges some of the logistical hurdles that businesses may have to overcome. "One problem with weed bars is employees' right to a smoke-free workplace; even if cops allowed indoor marijuana smoking, no one would be allowed to work there," he writes. Click for his full piece.