Colorado will allow marijuana delivery and tasting rooms soon under new laws — but with big catches

Starting next year, Colorado marijuana customers could begin getting their purchases delivered at home, like pizza. And people seeking to use marijuana socially — including tourists, who have few options for where to go — could consume what they buy in tasting rooms or bring-your-own-pot establishments.

But there’s a big catch: Both will depend on whether your local government has opted in.

That means it’s now up to mayors, city council members and county commissioners — and potentially local voters — to decide whether they want to allow consumption spaces and marijuana delivery within their borders. By signing the two bills into law Wednesday, Gov. Jared Polis put the ball in their court.

The options are more likely to be embraced in cities such as Denver, which already has a small-scale social use licensing program, but they may be eschewed by more conservative places such as Colorado Springs, which lobbied the legislature for the chance to say no.

Advocates and supporters of the bills greeted Polis with applause for the afternoon signings — not least because his predecessor, fellow Democrat John Hickenlooper, had publicly worried about previous versions of the bills. He vetoed a tasting-rooms bill last year. [Read more at The Denver Post]