Kansas has quietly become a border state — to legal (sort of) marijuana.
Whether Colorado's fast-emerging medicinal pot market will waft across the state line — either in traffic of those headed toward the Rockies for a dose of ganja, or in swaying Kansan sensibilities about weed — is hard to tell.
Still, the fast-shifting climate for medical marijuana in Colorado shows how sales can take hold when suppliers detect a legal opening.
Lawyers specializing in marijuana cases estimate that more than 100 dispensaries have opened in Colorado this year — though no state agency keeps track. None, so far, have been busted. Thousands of people have applied for the right to treat their maladies with pot.
"It's amazing to see how fast this has taken off," said Warren Edson, a Denver lawyer whose clients gingerly tread the emerging norms of medical marijuana in the state.
Denver's alternative Westword newspaper has even created a job for a pot critic.
Coloradans amended their state constitution in November 2000 to make marijuana available for a handful of medical conditions.
Then for most of the decade, nothing happened. The amendment legalized pot by prescription but did not legalize its sale.
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