Colorado Decides Pot Mags Don't Have to Stay With the Porn

DENVER, CO—Following a pair of lawsuits challenging the part of Colorado’s new marijuana law that mandated that magazines promoting the… er, industry, like High Times  and… uh, High Times… had to stay behind the counter of retails stores along with the porn, the state attorney general decided it was unconstitutional after all. The first of the two lawsuits was filed in late May by High Times and other publication, the second a week later by the ACLU on behalf of a group newsstands and booksellers.

The story should have ended with the state AG decision shortly after the suits were filed that it would be a losing battle for the state to fight. But Tuesday, the judge in one of the cases put a final nail in the pot-mags-as-porn-mags coffin by issuing a permanent injunction against the part of House Bill 13-1317 that called for "a requirement that magazines whose primary focus is marijuana or marijuana businesses are only sold in retail marijuana stores or behind the counter in establishments where persons under twenty-one years of age are present." The injunction will apply to both cases.

Even better for Colorado taxpayers, the entire debacle will cost them nothing, not even attorneys fees for the plaintiffs’ lawyers. One of them, David Lane, said he could be happier about the outcome.

"This is exactly what I predicted would happen," he said. "I credit [Colorado Attorney General] John Suthers for saving free speech in this instance and saving taxpayers thousands of dollars."

The quick resolution to the cases was the result of the speedy filing of the lawsuits, he said, plus the savvy awareness by Suthers that it was a losing battle. As far as the money goes, he said they played a little hardball there, too,

"Normally, we would be submitting a bill to the state for attorneys fees for filing this lawsuit in order to preserve the Constitution," Lane said. "But in this case, we said, 'State of Colorado, if you cave in right now, we won't charge you any attorneys fees.' So the ACLU waived their attorneys fees and I waived all my attorneys fees for the magazines, because it was resolved so quickly and painlessly."

Now why can’t they act so reasonably when it comes to porn?