ANTI-DRUG GROUPS PROTEST RTD BUS ADS FOR MARIJUANA CONVENTION

Colorado law enforcement groups are raising concerns over ads for a
marijuana convention that are on RTD buses across the city.

The Colorado Drug Investigators Association wrote in a letter last
week to the Regional Transportation District board of directors that
it worries that the ads - which promote the KushCon cannabis
convention - send the wrong message.

"Advertising a marijuana conference, on the sides of Colorado's main
source of public transportation, will do anything but prevent further
drug abuse," Jerry Peters, the association's vice president and an
investigator with the North Metro Drug Task Force, wrote in the letter.

Peters asked that RTD remove the ads.

On Friday, Daniel Brennan, president of the Colorado Association of
Chiefs of Police, said his organization was drafting a letter to send
to RTD over the ads.

"We're sending mixed messages, I think, to the public and to the
youth on this," said Brennan, who is also the Wheat Ridge police chief.

RTD spokesman Scott Reed said Friday the ads would stay up - although
the transportation district told KushCon to modify them slightly to
better reflect that they are paid advertisements.

"It's an ad for an event that is being legally held at the Colorado
Convention Center," Reed said. "There should be no implication of
support or endorsement for that event."

RTD policy prohibits ads that tout illegal products or services.
Because marijuana distribution is illegal federally, Reed said, RTD
does not allow ads for medical-marijuana dispensaries even though
medical marijuana is legal in Colorado.

But KushCon - despite billing itself as a "cannabis lifestyle"
convention with appeal to marijuana enthusiasts - is a legal event
that will not include marijuana on site. Bob Selan, chief executive
of Dbdotcom, which publishes the marijuana-centric Kush Magazine and
is sponsoring the convention, said the event's main purpose is to
provide information to medical-marijuana patients and other curious people.

"I think the signs on the buses are pretty harmless," Selan said.
"They're saying, 'Have a Kush Day!' They're not saying, 'Go smoke marijuana.' "

The convention runs Friday through Dec. 19. It will feature
marijuana-growing and cooking classes, speeches, cannabis business
booths, a skateboarding demonstration and concerts.

Law enforcement officials worry that what they see as promotion of
marijuana will lead to negative social consequences, such as an
increase in drug-impaired driving or teen drug use.

The officials say the ads are evidence that groups concerned about
the increased visibility of marijuana in Colorado are losing the
message battle.

"From a prevention and education perspective," Brennan said, "we have
a lot of work to do."