Last year voters in Colorado legalized marijuana but a legal marijuana market can’t exist until the regulations governing one are created. Throughout the week the Colorado legislature moved forward by adopting several bills which would regulate and tax recreational marijuana for adults. The provisions in the bills are a mix of the good, the bad, the common sense and the mundane.

It is 4/20 again and time for my annual review of the progress the marijuana reform movement has made in the past 365 days. Without a doubt this was the best year for the movement so far, in the future it may be looked back on as the single most significant year in the long process of ending marijuana prohibition.

After more than five months since the voters in Colorado and Washington State legalized marijuana there still has been no official decision from the Obama administration on how they plan to handle the federal-state conflict. A new Congressional Research Service report outlines what the administration’s options are.

We now have our first really good preview of how the legal market for marijuana will likely work in Colorado. The task force created by Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) to come up with recommendations on how to implement the newly approved Amendment 64 has finally released its official report. While the state government will probably not adopt every suggestion of the task force, this document should serve as the basic road map for implementation.

As of today, I paint this Capitol Rainbow, and plant our fabulous and proud color stamp on it, for everyone and every day we were there during Amendment 2, during Matthew Shepard, during Amendment 43, all the days in between and to this day and every day forward on the march to full equality.

Civil Unions are not enough, but reversing the original Ground Zero for Equality is enough to plant this flag, and make this claim:

The days of covering bigotry in alleged holiness are over. This Capitol Is Ours TOO!

On Jan. 25, 110 members of the U.S. House of Representatives – 94 Republicans and 16 Democrats – signed a letter urging Energy Secretary Steven Chu to approve expanded exports of liquified natural gas (LNG).

The Associated Press has a breaking investigative story out today revealing that the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) censored a smoking gun scientific report in March 2012 that it had contracted out to a scientist who conducted field data on 32 water samples in Weatherford, TX.

Last summer I wrote about the Sierra Club’s Water Sentinels program for testing water. Our town’s anti-fracking activists have been using it at their homes for a while now, but around the time of my post we also began free monthly water testing for the community. We are careful to emphasize several caveats, though. The most important is that the testing is not comprehensive or EPA certified; it is not meant to be a substitute for a certified test. It measures a handful of items and is only meant to give a basic idea of water quality. Similarly, the testing would almost certainly not be admissible in a court of law; anyone with an eye on future court cases should go with an EPA certified lab.

That said, the tests are a good way to look for changes.

I’m convinced that legalizing marijuana is the best policy option for our society, but you have a chance to help prove it. The world is watching so show everyone that your fellow citizens made the right decision. Have fun but also be safe, smart and conscientious.

The fact that the voters in two states so overwhelmingly supported the change is making it much easier for politicians, government officials, and prominent public figures to speak out for the idea.