Marijuana is now legal in the snowy state of Colorado. Thanks to Colorado’s amendment 64, any person over 21 years of age and older can legally posses up to one ounce of marijuana and use said marijuana in private. This law does not make it legal to smoke marijuana at ski resorts nor on chairlifts. Colorado ski resorts are split on how to regulate this new legal marijuana use.
Arapahoe Basin ski resort in Colorado says:
“Already I have kicked several people out of here and taken their ski passes for smoking [marijuana] in public. Those passes will be gone for a very long time.” – Chief Operating Officer Alen Henceroth wrote on Arapahoe Basin’s blog
Wolf Creek ski resort in Colorado says:
“Our patrol’s job is not to bird-dog everybody when they smell marijuana.” – As Wolf Creek CEO Davey Pitcher told the Denver Post:
Here’s the monkey wrench in this whole smoking-on-the-hill-in-Colorado-thing: 22 of Colorado’s 25 ski resorts are located on US Forest Service land. US Forest Service land is federal property that is governed by federal law. This means that technically, marijuana is still totally illegal at most of Colorado’s ski resorts.
Will park rangers on US Forest Service land still enforce federal marijuana laws on US Forest Service land in Colorado?
“From our standpoint, nothing has changed from last year to this year and we’re definitely going to make sure people follow federal law. It is possible people will be cited for marijuana use and possession on federal lands.” – Chris Strebig, a spokesman in the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Golden, CO
If you get busted on federal land with marijuana, you could be looking at anything from a $250 citation to a court summons to a $5,000 fine and up to six months in jail.
The bottom line is this: just smoke weed like you’ve always done at ski resorts before when it was illegal. As long as you’re mildly covert about it, things likely haven’t changed too much out there as far as getting high on the hill is concerned.
Maybe be a little extra careful at Arapahoe Basin:
“We at Arapahoe Basin would like to see Amendment 64 work in the way Colorado voters intended it to. The law allows limited use of marijuana and does not allow consumption in public. Arapahoe Basin is a public place and marijuana use is not allowed here.” – Arapahoe Basin’s Chief Operating Officer Alen Henceroth
I want to travel to Colorado to have a high trip 😀
Seriously, I really want go to Colorado this year and smoke good pot on mountains.
Haha — the suggestion to airlift resorts to a better location made me laugh hard! I really enjoyed this post, wish I’d read it sooner before writing a similar one a couple days after you.
I like a toke here and there. But do it on the DL and make darn sure that you are not in the vicinity of resort staff, including lifties, patrol, ski school, etc. Also make sure that there are no local LEO’s (may be in uniform, or like at aspen wearing Aspen Ski Co “safety patrol” uniforms or NFS rangers (may be in plain clothes or wearing a green NFS jacket). Ask before you light up on the lift and only then if you use common sense.
And please do watch your language around kids / families and baby boomers. There is no excuse for using the F word in public, it is a bad habit. Act responsible and courteous, and there should be no issues.
If you favor legalization, don’t help the Anti- folks by being all high-profile about your smoking. They argue that legalization will lead to people smoking around children on playgrounds, schoolyards, etc. which just feeds legalization fears. I’ve seen this happen where I work in Washington, and boneheads smoke up around tourist families in enclosed areas because “it’s legal now” here. The Resort staff have to be the reluctant ogres, and you just know word of the horrors of legalization gets back to prohibition advocates in other states.
Also, use a vaporizer.. Not only is it a cleaner way to smoke, most people who aren’t on the level wont even notice you’re doing anything, since your not using a lighter. It works better in wind, because of lack of said lighter.
I was at Alpine and Squaw last spring, and it was pretty much a free for all(Speaking in terms of being from the E. Coast). We were drinking beers and smoking pipes in the Funitel, on the hill, and on the lifts and nobody had a problem with that. some stuck up yuppie asked me to watch my language on the Funitel because it was the only thing he felt he could complain about. I’m friends with people on the ski patrol there and if any one of them busted your balls for cheifing, they would get their balls busted for bugging you for that (unless they somehow got you to give them some of your shit.). Most of the patrol smoke out there, and as long as your not being a fucking lamebrain asshole, they wont HAVE to bust your ass. They do however have to keep up appearances, and if you were ripping one in the bathroom or right in front of a ski patrol meeting, then yeah, your gonna get hit up. Key is, don’t be a bonehead. The only story I heard was how they fired an employee for burning one in a ski lift shack, because the guy was missing or something and when they found him, he was walking out of a cloud of smoke. DONT BE STUPID.
Does anyone know what KSL’s attitude will be at Squaw this year, Funitel for example, or chairlifts, or in the trees etc? OK only if discreet seems how it’s been? Who is officially tasked with enforcement? Patrol at Alpine seem concerned that it not be at all public, visible, obvious. I’ve been warned.