For decades, cannabis advocates of every stripe have been telling everyone who would listen that we need to legalize and tax cannabis.

I don't think this is what they had in mind: a Colorado legislative committee is proposing a ridiculous 30 percent state tax on cannabis, according to Huffington Post:

The House-Senate committee, which will introduce a bill this week drafted from the 58 recommendations that the pot task force issued last month with taxes being one of several issues the committee is considering, would ask voters to approve a 15 percent excise tax and a 15 percent special sales tax. Those rates plus existing local and state tax rates — for food and beverage sales in Denver, the the combined total tax rate is 8 percent — could mean a total tax rate of 38 percent on marijuana purchases in the Denver area.

I'm down with taxes - even high taxes - but this is beyond the pale. I'm not sure what these people are thinking. They're either horribly naive or purposely trying to discourage legal sales.

In Arizona, we have no cannabis tax. Only normal sales taxes apply, which vary slightly city to city but in Tucson is 9.1 percent. Tax rates like the ones proposed in Colorado would only drive people to the black market.

It would also destroy many, many cannabis shops in and around Denver by sending their customers clamoring to either buy on the sly or grow their own, which Colorado's new cannabis law allows. It would put people out of work.

Mr. Smith does not approve. Hmpf.

A bunch of duly elected lawmakers in the nation's capital - led by one from the shadow of the Space Needle - put their heads together and agreed on something this week. WTF?

It won't avert any fiscal cliffs or huge tax increases, but the States’ Medical Marijuana Patients Protection Act represents agreement across the aisle in the hallowed halls of Congress, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The act was introduced by a bipartisan group of 15 U.S. representatives in an effort to get the feds off the backs of people in states that have legalized cannabis. It would largely exempt cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act in states with medical cannabis laws.

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon is the main sponsor of the bill, along with Jim Farr of California. Blumenaur is a known advocate of cannabis law reform, having authored a report on the topic.

Stay tuned.

Two proposals - one that makes sense in spirit and one that doesn't - from a Phoenix state lawmaker would change the way medical marijuana is handled here.

The first bill from state Sen. Kimberly Yee, a Phoenix Republican, doesn't suck ... entirely. The proposal would require dispensaries to label medical cannabis edibles as medicine. The point is to keep things like suckers, candies and cookies out of the hands of children, which is a good idea. But I am skeptical of Yee's underlying assumptions. The Arizona Republic offered an onerous quote from her over the weekend.

"We are finding the products being produced that contain marijuana appear to be geared toward the youngest consumer - we’re talking about lollipops, chocolate bars and things that appeal to a minor," the quote reads.

Now, I'm not against labeling anything sold in a dispensary as medicine. That's what it is. The problem I have is with Yee's apparent underlying belief that lollipops and chocolate bars are "geared toward the youngest consumer." Those products are all geared toward their intended consumer - me. I like lollipops and chocolate bars. I also like brownies and cookies and little hard candies. Likewise, my children like salad dressing. That doesn't mean cannabis salad dressing is "geared toward the youngest consumer." If Yee believes dispensaries are marketing cannabis for minors, she should come right out and say it. The mere fact that something is candy doesn't mean it is "geared" for minors. It means it tastes good.

I support labeling of all cannabis products as medicine, but I don't think we need any references to children. Just because a dispensary is selling a sucker doesn't mean it is nefariously aiming drug products at children. That's just silly.

Yee's second proposed change in the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act does suck.

State inspectors gave the nod in Tucson on Thursday to the state's first commercial cannabis kitchen, Heavenly Harvest, where staff were making cannabis butter, stuffing ovens and mixing spices to bring their edibles to Green Halo dispensary patients as soon as possible.

"We expect to have a full line of edibles out by Saturday," said Heather Manus, the registered nurse who manages the non-profit associated with the Green Halo dispensary. Both are at 7710 S. Wilmot Road, just off Interstate 10.

Although the former sub shop was already a commercial kitchen, there were additional considerations for handling cannabis, forcing the kitchens opening to lag behind the dispensary by nine days. The line of goodies will include the ubiquitous brownie, cookies, cakes, hard candies and suckers, chocolates, spices, salad oil, tinctures and hot sauce, all carefully dosed so you know what you're getting. They will also stock Green Halo with non-psychoactive ointments for pain relief.

Manus was moved to near tears as the inspectors left Thursday, when she realized the approval was finally happening.

"I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to provide this type of meds," she said later in the day.

Initially, the kitchen will supply edibles for The Green Halo, which is open daily from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. For a map, menu and other information, see TheGreenHalo.org.

The Harborside Health Center in Oakland, Calif. - often recognized as the largest cannabis health center in the nation - will remain open for now, despite its landlord's attempt to halt cannabis sales there.

Harborside, which opened six years ago, was hauled into court last year in a forfeiture case against the building's owner. After feds threatened to take the property and Harborside remained open (and still paying rent), the building's owners asked a judge to halt the sale of cannabis until the forfeiture case is resolved. But landlords have no right to demand the halt of sales, Magistrate Maria-Elena James said in the ruling, and so far the federal government has not raided the center.

The ruling allows Harborside to continue serving approximately 100,000 registered patients (!) until the forfeiture case goes to court ... or until the federal government decides to back off. Please?

Go. Judge. James.

• J.M. Smith
• The Green Halo is open for business at 7710 S. Wilmot Road.

Finally. Tucsonans or any other Arizona green card holders can walk into a shop, plop down some cash and walk away with a handful of the medical cannabis of their choosing.

The Green Halo, southern Arizona's second dispensary and the state's third, opened Jan. 1 on Wilmot Road just south of Interstate 10 with a full range of meds for any ailment. As of Jan. 2, they had about a dozen strains available. Unlike Southern Arizona Integrated Therapies, no appointments are necessary at Green Halo. Walk in. Buy meds. Walk out. Thank you very much, voters of Arizona.

The place is very, very easy to find. Take I-10 to Wilmot road, turn into the Shell station just south of the interstate. It's next door to Shell in the same building. It's green ;)

What: The Green Halo
Where: 7710 S. Wilmot Road
When: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. daily

The Arizona Department of Health Services yesterday issued the state's first authorization to open a medical marijuana dispensary, but it went to a come-from-behind Glendale applicant and not a Tucson dispensary, as many had expected.

Although the Green Halo was the first in the state to ask for an inspection (in September) of its dispensary near Interstate 10 and South Wilmot Road, there were problems with the design and paperwork. So Arizona Organix beat them to the punch, getting authorization the same day of their inspection on Thursday. The "rigorous" application process has finally ended for the dispensary, but they won't be open for at least a couple weeks, said their lawyer Ryan Hurley of Scottsdale. Boo.

So far six dispensaries have said they are ready for inspection. One in Tucson is scheduled for Tuesday, so we'll see how soon they can open. Some dispensary operators are having trouble finding enough meds for initial inventory. Let's hope they have stocked shelves by the time the state gets around to inspections.

Perhaps emboldened by the voters of Washington and Colorado, lawmakers in Rhode Island and Maine announced today that they will introduce legislation to make pot legal there for recreational users. Rhode Island Rep. Edith Ajello and Maine Rep. Diane Russell made the joint announcement through the Marijuana Policy Project, a non-profit advocacy group.

"We are passing the tipping point when it comes to this issue," said MPP Legislative Analyst Robert Capecci. "Unfortunately, lawmakers have traditionally been behind public opinion when it comes to marijuana policy reform. With these thoughtful legislators in at least four states planning on introducing sensible proposals to remove criminal penalties and regulate marijuana in their states, it's clear that ending marijuana prohibition is gaining momentum."

He added that similar bills are expected in Vermont and Massachusetts. Vermont and Maine have had MMJ since 2009, Vermont since 2006, and Massachusetts just passed an MMJ law on election day.

Momentum indeed. Mr. Smith approves.

A second Tucson medical marijuana dispensary is nearly ready to open, but yet again the state has not responded to its request for an inspection.

So far, two dispensaries here - one near Interstate 10 and Wilmot Road and one on the eastside (the address has not been made public) - have asked the state to inspect their storefronts. On Sept. 19, The Green Halo asked for approval to operate at the Wilmot Road location, and on Oct. 22 the other dispensary certificate holder asked. On Oct. 19, an operator in Glendale also asked for an inspection. As of Nov. 1, no inspections had been done.

WTF? It's interesting that the Department of Health Services can't complete the inspections, since the department has reportedly assigned six people full time to managing dispensary applications. According to the state rules, DHS has 45 days to complete the inspections after operators ask. For Green Halo - the first to ask statewide - that day was Nov. 3.

C'mon, Will Humble. Put a fire under someone's ass. We're waiting.

Surprise, surprise. It seems some former Drug Warriors are on the warpath concerning the prospective legalization of marijuana in Colorado, Washington and Oregon.

Former administrators from various Washington drug enforcement agencies (including the nefarious National Institute on Drug Abuse, which keeps cock-blocking clinical trials) gathered on a conference call to try to pressure Attorney General Eric Holder to announce drug law enforcement plans on the three states, according to HuffingtonPost.com.

The call was largely a case of preachers addressing the choir, Mason Tvert, co-director of Colorado's Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, told HuffPost:

The nation wastes billions of taxpayer dollars annually on the failed policy of marijuana prohibition and people like Bill Bennett and John Walters are among the biggest cheerleaders for wasting billions more. The call today should be taken as seriously as an event by former coal industry CEOs opposing legislation curtailing greenhouse gas emissions. They are stuck in a certain mindset and no level of evidence demonstrating the weakness of their position will change their views.

Hopefully, Holder will ignore Bennett, a former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H.W. Bush who once said the crime rate would go down if we aborted all black babies, and Walters, who ran the same office under George W. Bush.