Denver Mayor Michael Hancock wants to make the Mile High City decidedly less high -- by banning free joint giveaways in the city.
UPDATE: Mayor Hancock's spokeswoman Amber Miller clarified Friday that the new ordinance will not affect the 4/20 marijuana celebration at Civic Center Park every April 20. The 4/20 rally is a "free speech" event and Miller told 7News that police make decide each year not to make mass arrests. An earlier version of this story cited AP reports that the 4/20 rally would be banned also, which was incorrect.
In an interview with Colorado Public Radio, Hancock said that he plans to outlaw free pot in city parks and better define the city's ban on public consumption with the introduction of a new ordinance on Monday.
The ordinance would clearly state that all Denver city parks are drug-free zones.
Marijuana activists opposed to excise and sales taxes on recreational marijuana in the state made headlines last month when they handed out free joints at Denver's Civic Center Park. That's the same park where the city's enormous 4/20 marijuana smokeout takes place each April 20.
"And so those types of giveaways that you saw will be prohibited in our parks from this point forward, and anyone who decides to partake in our parks will now be subject to citation and possible arrest," Hancock said, according to The Associated Press.
Public consumption of marijuana is already against the law under Amendment 64, Colorado's recreational marijuana legalizing measure which voters approved last November.
Hancock has been a vocal critic of marijuana legalization and has already recommended that Colorado's capital city -- and arguably marijuana's capital city -- instill a two-year moratorium on new pot shops and a ban on marijuana clubs.
Denver's 4/20 marijuana rally draws tens of thousands of people every year. However this year's event was interrupted by gunfire that injured two people and caused the scattering of a crowd of thousands.
Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 last November making the limited sale, possession and growing of marijuana for recreational purposes legal for adults 21 and over.
A64 states that adults can possess up to an ounce of pot, can grow as many as six marijuana plants at home (with only three flowering at any given time), but home-grown marijuana can only be for personal use and cannot be sold. However, adults can gift one another up to an ounce of pot.
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