Denver Scraps Plan to Outlaw Pot-Smoking in Yards

Residents of Denver will be able to smoke pot in their backyards after all. The city has ditched a proposed rule that would have made even the smell of marijuana wafting from somebody's yard an arrestable offense punishable by up to a year in jail, reports the Denver Post (via the San Jose Mercury News). The ACLU had objected, arguing that because recreational pot use is now legal in Colorado, the rule would have effectively "recriminalized" the drug.

The new draft law also lightens up on possession in city parks. "Anyone is free to have marijuana in these locations; they are only prohibited from waving it around," wrote one local council member to his peers. The city, he said, is trying to find reasonable compromises on behalf of residents who want no part of marijuana. "If you are visible from a public space, we would just assume that you would not consume your marijuana in an open fashion." (More Denver stories.)