The grass is pretty green here in Colorado, but for marijuana events, it's a lot greener in California.
You know how they say the grass is always greener on the other side?
Well for the High Times Cannabis Cup, that other side is California.
The flagship marijuana event will be permanently relocating there from its regular home in Colorado, citing frustration over having event permits denied in multiple counties across the state.
For the last few years, the Cannabis Cup has taken place at the Denver Mart in Adams County where it drew up to 35,000 visitors each day. After Adams County commissioners rejected their 2016 event permits on account of public consumption and capacity concerns, however, organizers announced they'd be seeking asylum in Pueblo — one of Colorado's friendliest and most permissive weed communities. But nope; the Cup had no better luck there, and found themselves running into more regulatory issues and concerns over timing.
Understandably, Cup organizers were upset. They'd enjoyed years of healthy relationships with local governments in Colorado, and each of their annual events had gone by with little incident, quite the feat considering the enormous number of visitors it received.
So, organizers did what any giant weed event would do, they threw up their hands — and like your older brother — announced they'd be moving to California.
As the Cannabist reports: "High Times decided to relocate the event to the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, Calif., for April 15-17, a High Times representative confirmed to The Cannabist. The venue recently wrapped a two-weekend run for the the SoCal Medical Cannabis Cup earlier this year. The Cannabist obtained an e-mail allegedly sent by a High Times staffer to businesses that had purchased exhibition space at the U.S. Cannabis Cup that spelled out the event’s move — and its intentions to expand an affiliated and already scheduled Colorado concert to include an award ceremony."
High Times is expecting the California event to draw upwards of 25,000 people per day, making it smaller than Colorado's past Cups. But other than the size and the fact that recreational marijuana is still illegal in California, the event will be mostly the same as it was in Colorado pre-legalization.
So, what do Colorado's marijuana industry professionals have to say about this?
“The simple fact is that, regardless of the tremendous strides that our community has made in legalizing cannabis, there’s still a long way to go," High Times Editor-in-Chief Dan Skye told the Cannabist.
MMJ America owner Jake Salazar echoed his sentiment. He sponsored last year's Cup, and was frustrated to learn that the event was leaving Colorado. He told the Cannabist he was especially upset that the Colorado economy would be missing out on the tourist spending associated with the event.
“It’s ridiculous,” Salazar said. “This community definitely benefits from having these nonviolent visitors come in and enjoy the freedoms that we have in Colorado, and they support other businesses — not just the cannabis businesses. The restaurants, hotels, convention centers and music and entertainment venues will miss out, too.
“The Cup is an all-out good thing. You don’t hear about a lot of bad things happening on that weekend. But it’s a different story when you talk about the (Great American) Beer Festival and you have guys throwing up and getting in fights all weekend long. These guys attending the Cannabis Cup will go out to the bars while they’re here, but they’re cool customers. They’re just here to enjoy the products.”
However, the Cup hasn't cut its ties entirely with Colorado. They will be hosting a one-day Colorado Cannabis Cup award show in Denver on April 19th, according to that same email obtained by the Cannabist. Cypress Hill, Action Bronson, Cronixx and Parliament Funkadelic will be performing at the award show. But, there will be no smoking, no product samples. Just … awards and music. Which is great, but … we'll miss our old Cup.
Hopefully the Cup's emigration from Colorado will bring attention to continued discrepancies between marijuana laws, how they're regulated and people's behavior. It's confusing to live in a state where weed is "legal," yet it's becoming regulated at increasingly stricter rates. But while the guys in power figure out how the skirt that line, we'll be over here, having our own private Cannabis Cup in memoriam.
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