Police Grapple With Lack of Data on Marijuana Use

Aspen Police Chief Richard Pryor started a recent day with his usual stroll into town. “I walked down Main Street today, instead of Hopkins Street, and along the seven hundred block of West Hopkins, I could smell the odor of marijuana plants somewhere in the area.” Chief Pryor chuckles at the thought. A little over a year ago, he would have followed his nose, started knocking on doors and asking questions. But with recreational marijuana legal in Colorado for the last year, Pryor made “a mental note of it, and moved on.” That’s just one of many changes for police departments across the state, and Pryor and other police chiefs recently gathered in Denver to compare notes. Pryor talks with Aspen Public Radio’s Elise Thatcher about marijuana and public health and safety.