The state's first dispensaries began legal recreational sales on January 1, 2014. In 2014, combined recreational and medical sales totaled $683.5 million, and are expected to top $1.5 billion in 2018.

Over the 5-year period, recreational sales generated 78% of sales revenue. The most recently published sales data shows combined 2018 sales though October of $1.27 billion.

$247 million in tax revenue

Tax revenues jumped 266% during the period, from $67 million in 2014 to $247.4 million in 2017. Colorado's tax revenues have risen each year since recreational legalization, and currently represent about 1% of the state's 2018 - 2019 fiscal year budget.

Marijuana taxes are spent on public school projects, human services, public affairs, agriculture, labor and employment, judicial affairs, health care policy, transportation and regulatory affairs.

The financial data, read together with a social impact report released this week by Colorado's Department of Criminal Justice, is insightful for Colorado and states considering legalization.

Social costs of legalisation

The report presents a mixed bag of encouraging and frustrating data.

The number of marijuana-related arrests during the 5-year period, shows overall arrests decreased, including for African-Americans, though African-Americans were arrested for such offenses at double the rate of whites.

DUI traffic citations with marijuana-impaired drivers increased 3%. In a subset of arrest data from 2016, where blood tests were performed, 73% returned a positive screen for cannabinoids

"The number of fatalities with cannabinoid‐only or cannabinoid‐in‐combination positive drivers increased 153%, from 55 in 2013 to 139 in 2017," the report states, going on to note that "detection of cannabinoid in blood is not an indicator of impairment but only indicates presence in the system."

Fatal traffic accidents involving a THC-positive driver, on the other hand, decreased 5%.

Cannabinoids characterize both THC and CBD. Cannabidiol "CBD" is a non-psychoactive biochemical found in hemp and marijuana plants. Tetrahydrocannaabinol "THC" is the psychoactive biochemical found in marijuana.

Both biochemicals are cannabinoids that interact with neurotransmitters, known as the endocannabinoid system.

Marijuana-related hospitalizations, including possible marijuana exposures, diagnoses, or billing codes, increased from 575 in 2000 to 3,517 in 2016.

Emergency room visits and calls to poison control related to marijuana increased.

The numbers are likely to disappoint lawmakers and politicians who tout recreational legalization as a cure for discriminatory criminal justice practices. Continue reading

Catholic Health Initiatives acknowledged it was "morally wrong" for lawyers representing one of its hospitals to cite the state's Wrongful Death Act in defence of a lawsuit brought by the husband of a woman who died with her unborn twins at the hospital in 2006.

CHI's lawyers argued that it could not be held liable for the deaths of the twins because under the Wrongful Death Act "a fetus is not a person until it is born alive".

In a statement, CHI also "unequivocally affirmed CHI's strict adherence to one of the Church's most basic moral commitments — that every person is created in the image and likeness of God and that life begins at the moment of conception.

"It is an unfortunate and regrettable point of fact that Colorado law, as it now stands, fails to adequately protect the rights of the unborn."

CHI said lawyers for the hospital "will not cite the Wrongful Death Act, which does not allow fetuses to sue, in any future legal hearings of this case. Although the argument was legally correct, recourse to an unjust law was morally wrong."

Meanwhile, the case has fuelled a long-standing debate in Colorado over whether unborn children should have legal rights.

A state legislative committee recently defeated a bill to make it a crime to kill an unborn child in cases such as mass shootings.

Another bill to be considered would make it a crime to kill an unborn child during a criminal act committed against a pregnant woman. That measure specifically states that the intent is neither to outlaw abortions nor to give unborn children additional rights.

Spurred on by advancing medical technology that makes unborn children more viable and more visible, nearly 40 legislatures in the United States permit wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of unborn children.

Sources:

Catholic Health Initiatives

Reuters

Image: Fox News

The case was brought by Jeremy Stodghill, whose 31-year-old wife Lori and her unborn twins all died in 2006 at a hospital operated by Catholic Health Initiatives.

Stodghill sued CHI, the hospital, his wife's obstetrician and the emergency room doctor.

In the case of the twins, he argued that because they were viable at 28 weeks' gestation — which none of the defendants disputed - he should be able to sue for their wrongful deaths.

Lawyers for CHI argued that no act could have saved Mrs Stodghill, who suffered a heart attack due to a blood clot which travelled to her lungs.

But they also argued that CHI could not be held liable for the deaths of the twins because in Colorado law "a fetus is not a person until it is born alive".

After CHI advanced this argument, lawyers for the two doctors raised the same contention.

Following two court rulings in favour of CHI, Stodghill has appealed to the state's supreme court.

A statement from Colorado's three bishops said: "Catholics and Catholic institutions have the duty to protect and foster human life, and to witness to the dignity of the human person — particularly to the dignity of the unborn. No Catholic institution may legitimately work to undermine fundamental human dignity."

They added: "Catholic Health Initiatives has been accused by some of undermining the Catholic position on human life in the course of litigation. Today, representatives of Catholic Health Initiatives assured us of their intention to observe the moral and ethical obligations of the Catholic Church.

"The Catholic bishops of Colorado are not able to comment on ongoing legal disputes. However, we will undertake a full review of this litigation, and of the policies and practices of Catholic Health Initiatives to ensure fidelity and faithful witness to the teachings of the Catholic Church."

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Archdiocese of Denver

Image: Jezebel

That this view was swept away in the deluge of sad commentary on Friday was surprising to me, an outsider.

By this standard James Holmes was not a young man armed more heavily than the soldiers the US fields in Afghanistan, but an event, an act of god, to be weathered rather than countered. Read more

Sources

• Nick O'Malley in The Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: International Business Times

Nick O'Malley is the US correspondent of The Sydney Morning Herald