Medical marijuana signings: Bill Ritter holds no pot party

The announcements kept coming from the governor's office yesterday: Bill Ritter would be signing this bill in front of this group, that bill in front of that group, with his eye on hitting constituencies across the state -- and also hitting the June 11 deadline for action on all bills coming out of the last legislative session.

But there was no advance announcement on HB 1284 and SB 109, the two medical marijuana measures that Ritter signed into law without ceremony yesterday.

Why so silent? There's no shortage of people interested in these two new laws. Would-be dispensary owners are rushing to sign on any available space before the one-year moratorium takes effect on July 1 (after that, they'll have until August 1 to file for a state license). Municipalities that want no part of any dispensaries in their fair towns are looking at imposing bans as soon as they can. And already, lawyers are lining up potential plaintiffs for the inevitable challenges to the laws' constitutionality.

From 7 to 10 p.m. tonight, Kush will sponsor a panel discussion at the Colorado Convention center to explore the meaning of the new laws -- if the panelists can figure out what those meanings are. The Cannabis Therapy Institute, which has its own assessment, hasn't updated its website since May 24.

So it wasn't really surprising that there was no ceremonial signing, since the compromise measures satisfy precisely no one.

But one crackpot caller to Peter Boyles's show this morning suggests that the party's already begun: That explosion yesterday afternoon, he insists, was because the power demands of all the hidden growhouses in Denver has overloaded the system.

And so it grows...