Wake-Up Call: My life has gone to pot

It's been three weeks since we first posted news of our search for a medical-marijuana reviewer. Within five minutes of that posting, we had our first application for this extremely part-time job. Within ten minutes, our first media inquiry. And the applications and media calls keep coming.

This morning -- while on hold with CBS, which called me just after 4 a.m., then postponed the interview because another segment ran long (breaking news? A Balloon Boy update?) -- I fished another fifty applications out of our spam filter. This latest wave was apparently inspired by an AP story sent out this week; the responses are coming in from around the globe -- from applicants and media outlets alike. The BBC. And Irish talk show. Unfortunately, we closed off applications last week, after we'd collected more than 200 of them. (Channel 9 neglected to note that when it ran a piece Tuesday night; my apologies to the extremely erudite poster who lamented missing the deadline at the end of the comments section.)

But the story just keeps growing.

Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown is looking at proposing rules that would regulate dispensaries in Denver. Many municipalities around Colorado have already done the same. The constitutional amendment that this state's voters approved in 2000, legalizing medical marijuana, was intentionally very broad -- but given Colorado's strong home-rule stance, local governments have a lot of leeway in coming up with their own rules.

And state Senator Chris Romer now plans to introduce a bill in the next legislative session that would put some statewide regulations on this incredibly booming business.

At last count, Colorado had a hundred medical marijuana dispensaries, and the number seems to increase every day. The least likely investors are suddenly contemplating getting into the game.

When Governor Bill Ritter started pushing Colorado's green economy, we don't think this is what he meant.