A mandatory state class to ensure safe access for seniors has a lot of ignorance to dispel

A tide is coming in. The Baby Boomers are retiring. When they can't live on their own, many go into what are called “adult residential facilities,” or ARFs.

ARFs offer seniors their own little space. They don't have to take out the trash, or mow the lawn, or clean and wash, if they don't want to. There's someone to make sure medications are taken.

But that medication better not be cannabis.

Fifteen years after Proposition 215 enshrined in the state constitution a medical right to cannabis for the sick and dying, the sick and dying and just plain old have the hardest time getting it.

Colorado will vote on whether to end marijuana prohibition this November

It's official. The 2012 statewide initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Colorado has qualified for the November ballot and will appear as Amendment 64. That means in just eight months voters will have the opportunity to make the state the first place in the world to end marijuana prohibition and replace it with a legal and regulated marijuana market for adults 21 and older.

Reaching this point was not easy. The process of drafting the language took about six months, and getting the ballot language approved by the state took another couple months. Then, of course, was the petition drive. For six months the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol worked with hundreds of volunteers and businesses around the state to collect the roughly 86,000 valid signatures of registered Colorado voters required to qualify for the ballot.

This year, give those closest to you the gift of education and inspiration.

The 2012 election is less than a year away, so it's time to step up the effort to build support for the initiative to end marijuana prohibition in Colorado. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol will soon be launching a huge campaign to educate voters about marijuana and the benefits of ending its prohibition, but this next few weeks is as good a time as any to get the process started.