Law Colorado

[momofthegoons]

Colorado To Start Pardons For Cannabis Convictions

On Monday, Governor Jared Polis signed a bill to begin the pardoning process for those with cannabis convictions.

Finally, cannabis conviction pardons are coming to Colorado, one of the first states to fully legalize the plant. Colorado has long been under scrutiny for having a mostly white industry, but now, that may change.

This past Monday, Governor Jared Polis signed a bill to mass-pardon those with minor convictions. This bill, known as House Bill 1424, passed on the last day of the legislative session, just in time to be made into law in 2020. As of yet, there isn’t a lot of detail on what pardoning will look like, but in 90 days, the pardons are set to start rolling out according to the governor.

The power to pardon convictions is going to lie with Polis only, and he will be able to mass-pardon those who were convicted of possessing two ounces of cannabis or less. This will be a lot more expedient than trying to take care of them on an individual basis, and is similar to the process other states are using.


“For decades now, the Black community has been disproportionately criminalized because of marijuana while others have profited,” Rep. James Coleman, who supported the bill, told the Denver Post. “We have needed to act on this injustice for decades.”

Clearing The Way Towards Social Equity
In addition to clearing past convictions, the bill aims to make the cannabis industry more accessible for people unfairly impacted by the war on drugs, such as people of color and those whose past cannabis convictions have kept them out of the industry. Now, more people will be able to get licenses and become active in Colorado Cannabis.

“There’s too many people that have a prior conviction for personal amounts of cannabis fully legal today that prevent them from getting loans, from getting leases, from raising capital, from getting licenses, from getting jobs, from getting mortgages, and that’s wrong,” Polis said at the official signing of the bill, which took place at Simply Pure, a black-owned dispensary in Denver. “We hope that this measure will be a first step for new opportunities for thousands of Coloradans who should not be living with a cloud over their head simply because they were a little bit ahead of their time.”

This move was also supported by the Black Cannabis Equity Initiative and the Colorado Black Round Table, groups that have long since called for reform. Both groups wrote a letter to Polis asking him to release cannabis prisoners before the signing and get rid of low-level convictions.

“This Pardon and Expungement are not the face of social equity in Colorado, however, they are important action steps in recognizing and acknowledging systemic and institutional racism as well as the past barriers and significant omissions in the evolution and history of the Colorado cannabis industry,” their letter said.

Ninety days from now we can expect to see cannabis convictions clearing as Polis begins pardoning folks across the state.

 

[momofthegoons]

Colorado Pharmacy School Offering Grad School Education In Cannabis

The new certificate program will focus on the pharmacology of pot.

The cannabis industry is growing quickly, and medical professionals are needed to help lead and provide guidance. That’s where a new program from the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences comes in.

The school’s initial program, offered through the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Colorado for the first time last spring, is an eight-week course for continuing education. The goal of the program is to teach what medical cannabis can do for patient care, as well as how cannabis should and should not fit into the medical world. There was so much demand for the program that the school is expanding its offerings to include advanced degrees in Cannabis Science and Medicine.

New programs offered in the state include a graduate degree in Cannabis Science and Medicine and a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences: Cannabis Science and Medicine Speciality Track. Even better, all classes will be taught online, so they are being offered on a global basis to anyone who wants to pursue a cannabis degree. Classes will begin in August.

The Intention of The Program

The certificate program will focus on understanding the pharmacology and therapeutics of cannabis and is mainly for healthcare professionals wanting to learn more about cannabis and scientists who are interested in learning more about cannabis chemistry. The master’s degree will cover topics of drug action and safety, and is a good fit for those with a health sciences undergraduate degree looking to get into pharmaceutical sciences.

“The data indicated that there was a void in evidence-based cannabis education for medical professionals and scientists alike,” said Laura Borgelt, PharmD, professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Family Medicine. “But it was the response to the eight-week CE certificate that we offered in the spring that really provided the feedback we needed. Across the board, participants told us that there just wasn’t anything else out there at this level of medicine and science. That’s when we knew we had to move forward in offering an advanced certificate and a degree in this emerging field.”

“The huge variety of cannabis products at dispensaries—inhaled, edibles, concentrates, topicals—and the proliferation of hemp and CBD consumer products makes it difficult for clinicians to gauge whether a patient’s cannabis use is potentially useful or harmful, or simply a waste of money,” said David Kroll, PhD, professor of Pharmacology.

“These courses will help healthcare professionals ask the right questions of their patients and be able to give answers based on science and clinical research, not product marketing. These programs will also give scientists advanced training in applying the principles of pharmaceutical sciences to cannabis and other plant-based medicines.”
https://hightimes.com/news/denver-issues-first-research-development-license-medical-cannabis/
“Schools of pharmacy have traditionally been where healthcare providers go to learn about medicines from plants,” Kroll said. “As our University of Colorado faculty have led research projects to investigate the medical use and risks of cannabis and products derived from the plant, we feel that reaching out to the practicing and scientific community to share our knowledge and expertise fulfills our national and global mission to improve patient care and build academic and industrial research capacity.

This major milestone for cannabis education will create a brighter future for those looking to make an impact on the industry through the world of healthcare.

 

[bulllee]

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/07/13/colorado-cannabis-marijuana-sales-record-high/


Colorado cannabis sales hit new all-time high in May at more than $192 million
That’s the biggest single-month tally since recreational sales began in 2014

By TINEY RICCIARDI | cricciardi@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: July 13, 2020 at 2:20 p.m. | UPDATED: July 13, 2020 at 4:17 p.m.

Cannabis sales in Colorado set a new monthly record in May, hitting their highest level since recreational sales began in 2014.
Dispensaries sold $192,175,937 worth of products in May, according to data from the Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division. That’s up about 29% from April and an increase of 32% from May 2019.
Sales at both medical and recreational pot shops hit monthly all-time highs, at $42,989,322 and $149,186,615, respectively. Collectively, both sectors have sold more than $779 million in 2020 and paid more than $167 million in taxes and fees to the state.
Roy Bingham, co-founder and executive chairman of BSDA analytics firm, said a confluence of several factors caused by the pandemic are likely causing the increase in sales. For one, many people may have more leisure time and are spending more time at home, where cannabis is typically consumed. Existing marijuana consumers also are buying more each time they go to the dispensary, a trend that started with stocking up in March when Colorado went under a statewide stay-at-home order.

“Everyone has perhaps become more used to consuming a little more,” Bingham said.
After losing market share to products like edibles, flower is seeing a rebound in sales likely driven by drops in price, he said. According to BDSA, cannabis buds were going for $4.37 per gram in May, down from about $4.71 per gram in January.

“It’s beginning to look like cannabis is anti-recession, or at least COVID-recession resistant,” Bingham said, adding Colorado has experienced “spectacular growth” this year.
Liz Connors, director of analytics for Headset, which also tracks consumer trends, expects sales will continue to build on that in June and July as tourism increases.
Dispensaries in the Centennial State were deemed essential businesses during the early days of the pandemic and the statewide stay-at-home order. So far, monthly cannabis sales this year have consistently outpaced 2019, which was the highest-grossing year on record.

 

[momofthegoons]

Colorado Youth Marijuana Use ‘Has Not Significantly Changed’ Since Legalization, State Data Shows

Youth marijuana use in Colorado “has not significantly changed since legalization” in 2012, but methods of consumption are diversifying, state officials announced in a report on Monday.

While the specific ways that teens are using cannabis are shifting—with more young people choosing to dab or vape cannabis instead of smoking it—the report offers additional evidence that ending the prohibition of marijuana for adult use hasn’t led to a statistically significant increase in overall use among middle school and high school students.

The biennial Healthy Kids Colorado Survey shows that 20.6 percent of high school students and 5.2 percent of middle school students reported past 30 day cannabis consumption in 2019. For the high school category, that’s 1.2 percentage points higher compared to the most recent biennial survey in 2017—but it’s still lower than the last pre-legalization report in 2011, when that group’s consumption rate was 22 percent.

There was no change for the middle school group from 2017 to 2019, but past 30 day use is lower than the 2011 pre-legalization rate of 6.3 percent.

“Youth marijuana use has not significantly changed since legalization, but the way youth are using marijuana is changing,” the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) said in a press release.

An official with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s National Marijuana Initiative expressed a similar sentiment to lawmakers last month, stating that for reasons that are unclear, youth consumption of cannabis “is going down” in Colorado and other legalized states and that it’s “a good thing” even if “we don’t understand why.”

Prohibitionist group Smart Approaches To Marijuana (SAM) framed the new state datadifferently, attempting to cast the 2019 numbers as showing dramatic increases in youth consumption. Initially, their press release stated that there was a 15.5 percent increase in cannabis consumption among kids aged 15 and under from 2017 to 2019.

Marijuana Moment pointed out to the group’s executive vice president that that’s wrong; the 15.5 percent figure is how many of those aged 15 and under reported past 30 day marijuana use in 2019, rather than a 15.5 increase. SAM has since corrected its release.

Later in its press release, SAM states that there was a 14.8 percent increase in past 30 day use in that age group over the two year period, which is technically accurate but appears to deliberately attempt to create the impression that there was a 14.8 percentage point increase. In reality, the data shows 13.5 percent of those 15 and under used marijuana in the past 30 days in 2017, with that growing to 15.5 percent in 2019.

The group also leaves out that the 2019 rate of 15.5 percent is not a statistically significant increase compared to the 15.4 percent rate of 2013—the first year of implementation in Colorado and the first year where this specific data is available.

“Marijuana use went up in 2019 compared to 2017—full stop,” Colton Grace, communications associate for SAM, told Marijuana Moment, deflecting from the issue of how current use compares to the pre-legalization period. “CDPHE applied their own significance measure to report that this increase was not significant when combining all grades.”

SAM claimed youth use has “spiked,” with increases it characterized as “significant” despite how state officials have described their data.

“You can see the desperation of our opponents in their refusal to even accept basic facts when they are laid out clearly to them,” Erik Altieri, executive director of NORML, told Marijuana Moment. “With legalization now functional and operating as intended in many states, their game of playing Chicken Little is wearing thin.”

“Not only has the sky not fallen, but we are seeing the positive impact socially and economically of moving away from our failed prohibition,” he said. “The few remaining prohibitionists are stuck living out the adage: ‘If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the send tweet button on your baseless rant.'”

Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, told Marijuana Moment that SAM “has a long history of misrepresenting data specific to marijuana law reform and its impact on youth use patterns in an attempt to fit their own pre-conceived narrative,” noting past instances where the group’s analysis of prior studies on the subject seem to misrepresent conclusions reached by researchers.

Outside of the overall youth usage statistics, the new CDPHE report also highlighted shifts in methods of consumption.

While smoking cannabis remains the most common way high school students use marijuana at 15.3 percent, it’s down from 17.6 percent in 2017 and 18.6 percent in 2015. Dabbing among this group increased from 6.9 percent in 2017 to 10.2 percent in 2019. Vaping is also more common, growing from 4 percent in 2017 to 6.8 percent in 2019.

CDPHE described these findings as “concerning trends since marijuana products associated with these methods of consumption often contain high concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound within marijuana.”

“Public health and key partners should prioritize youth marijuana prevention efforts to mitigate these increasing trends,” the department said.

“Consistent with prior data from other states, youth marijuana use is largely stable post-legalization,” Armentano of NORML said “That said, young people—like Americans of all ages—are broadening the ways with which they are consuming cannabis, as a greater variety of cannabis products are available now than were in decades past.”

“As varying methods of ingestion can directly influence the length and degree of drug effect, it is more important than ever that would-be consumers of any age are educated to these differences and that licensed retailers remain diligent that these products, and the more potent products in particular, are not diverted to those who are underage,” he said.

Past studies looking at teen use rates after legalization have found similar declines or a lack of evidence indicating there’s been an increase.

Last year, for example, a study took data from Washington State and determined that declining youth marijuana consumption could be explained by replacing the illicit market with regulations or the “loss of novelty appeal among youths.” Another study from last year showed declining youth cannabis consumption in legalized states but didn’t suggest possible explanations.

 

[CarolKing]

Colorado cold snap could disrupt state’s marijuana industry | OutThere Colorado

DENVER (AP) — Early cold temperatures and snow in Colorado may have destroyed millions of dollars worth of outdoor plants, cannabis and hemp companies said.

www.outtherecolorado.com

Six-foot snowdrifts keep Trail Ridge Road closed
First closed due to the Cameron Peak wildfire, Rocky Mountai…
Colorado cold snap could disrupt state’s marijuana industry


DENVER (AP) — Early cold temperatures and snow in Colorado may have destroyed millions of dollars worth of outdoor plants, cannabis and hemp companies said.
The drop of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) occurred too early in the growing season for farmers to harvest the plants, Marijuana Business Daily reports.
Jon Vaught, CEO of a cannabis biotech firm Front Range Biosciences, said the temperatures below freezing Tuesday and Wednesday combined with snow were “catastrophic for growers.
Nick Drury, director of cultivation at Denver marijuana company Lightshade, said the decreased supply from the outdoor crops is likely to result in less lower-grade competition for indoor growers, while the price for extract materials could increase

 

[momofthegoons]

Colorado Governor Grants Thousands Of Marijuana Pardons With New Clemency Powers​

The governor of Colorado on Thursday signed an executive order granting nearly 3,000 pardons for people convicted of possession one ounce of less of marijuana.

Pursuant to a new law that he signed in June, Gov. Jared Polis (D) made the pardons on the first day the policy took effect. While the law gives him authority to grant clemency for cases of possession of up to two ounces, his office explained that he limited it to one ounce because that’s the legal possession limit under Colorado’s cannabis program.

“We are finally cleaning up some of the inequities of the past by pardoning 2,732 convictions for Coloradans who simply had an ounce of marijuana or less,” Polis said in a press release. “It’s ridiculous how being written up for smoking a joint in the 1970’s has followed some Coloradans throughout their lives and gotten in the way of their success.”

Convictions impacted by the governor’s action range from those that took place in 1978 though 2012.

“Too many Coloradans have been followed their entire lives by a conviction for something that is no longer a crime, and these convictions have impacted their job status, housing, and countless other areas of their lives,” he added. “Today we are taking this step toward creating a more just system and breaking down barriers to help transform people’s lives as well as coming to terms with one aspect of the past, failed policy of marijuana prohibition.”

The new law allows the governor to use his clemency power for cannabis offenses without consulting with prosecutors and judges involved in the cases, as is typically required under statute.

“For the individuals pardoned in this Executive Order, all rights of citizenship associated with the pardoned conviction are restored in full without condition,” the order states. “All civil disabilities and public sufferings associated with the pardoned conviction are removed.”

People who are eligible for the pardons don’t have to do anything to clear their own records; it’s automated, and individuals can check a website to see if they’ve been processed.

Those who have municipal marijuana convictions, or who were arrested or given a summons, don’t qualify for the pardon. The action only applies to state-level convictions.

A frequently asked questions document states that while Polis has declined for now to use the full extend of his pardon power by applying it to people with convictions of up one to two ounces, the “administration will continue to evaluate” cases that could receive clemency. A representative from the governor’s office did not immediately respond to a question from Marijuana Moment about whether plans are imminent to expand the pardon pool.

The governor’s action also calls on the state Department of Public Health to “develop a process to indicate on criminal background checks which individuals’ convictions have been pardoned pursuant to this Executive Order.”

Colorado isn’t alone in pursuing opportunities to enact marijuana-focused restorative justice policies.

In June, more than 15,000 people who were convicted for low-level marijuana possession in Nevada were automatically pardoned under a resolution from the governor.

The governors of Washington State and Illinois have both issued pardons for cannabis offenses since their states legalized the plant.

Polis told Westword that beyond the practical benefits of having these records cleared, the move is “also symbolically important, because it shows that as a state and nation, we’re coming to terms with the incorrect discriminatory laws of the past that penalized people for possession of small amounts of marijuana.”

 

[momofthegoons]

Colorado Governor Requests $5M To Support Marijuana Entrepreneurs And Social Equity Businesses​

Colorado’s governor is looking to further assist the marijuana industry and entrepreneurs from communities most impacted by the drug war through a proposed program to provide businesses a pool of resources that they are currently ineligible for.

The state’s Office of Economic Development & International Trade (OEDIT) is requesting a “one-time $5,000,000 infusion” of cash to fund the establishment of “a new cannabis advancement program, as well as workshops and business support staff for the program.”

The $5 million will partly go to employing two people in OEDIT who will oversee the launch of the program, which will be designed to mimic to roles of the federal Small Business Administration and state Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

Because marijuana remains federally illegal, cannabis companies have been broadly barred from accessing government grants, loans and services afforded to small businesses in other industries. The new budget proposal from Gov. Jared Polis (D) is an attempt to fill the “significant gap in OEDIT’s ability to help entrepreneurs in the industry,” and it’s intended to give people from communities most harmed by prohibition a leg up.

“The SBDCs provide candid, free advice on developing a business plan, how to access capital, how to market a business, etc., and unfortunately, marijuana businesses have not been able to take advantage of that assistance due to the federal prohibition,” the new proposal from the governor’s office says.

“Additionally, cannabis businesses cannot access traditional banking or capital markets for the same reason,” it continues. “Therefore, the sector has diminished levels of entrepreneurship that could be increased by providing access to traditional business support services that are currently lacking.”

To help resolve these problems, OEDIT is proposing a cannabis advancement program “that would (1) establish and fund a technical assistance program specific to cannabis businesses but modeled after existing OEDIT programming, and (2) establish a grant and/or revolving loan program for businesses that qualify as ‘social equity licensees.'”

“Technical support and access to capital are key pieces of OEDIT’s programming to help businesses get off the ground and grow successfully, and a dedicated staff member can help cannabis entrepreneurs—some of whom may have been previously shut out—navigate this process. The program team can track a variety of evidence-based-policy-focused metrics associated with this consultation, including the number of started businesses, amount of capital formation, number of clients assisted, and number of jobs created/retained, as well as follow the success of these businesses over time to refine and report about OEDITs processes and support.”

Further, it will “immediately lay the groundwork for and help design a grant and/or revolving loan fund program to help cannabis entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses.”

The proposed program will be discussed by the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee at a hearing on Wednesday.

If funded by lawmakers, the new effort would build on Colorado’s existing programs and initiatives to promote social equity in the cannabis sector and right the wrongs of prohibition.

In October, for example, Polis signed an executive order granting nearly 3,000 pardons for people convicted of possession one ounce of less of marijuana.

Those pardons came under new powers granted to the governor under legislation that also created a statewide definition of which businesses qualify as marijuana social equity license applicants and are eligible for certain incentives.

Separately, Colorado cannabis regulators have also sought out feedback on a proposal to create a franchise marijuana business model to promote equitable participation in the industry by people from communities harmed by the war on drugs.

Legislators initially approved a bill last year to create an accelerator program for cannabis businesses, but it was only designed to give eligible entrepreneurs an opportunity to share a cannabis facility with an existing company. Following stakeholder meetings, regulators laid out a proposal to let those entrepreneurs functionally serve as franchises of current larger marijuana businesses, operating out of separate facilities but sharing branding, advertising and intellectual property under certain conditions.

In the new request, OEDIT outlined the estimated administrative costs of the cannabis advancement program but said it would update lawmakers if it determines additional staff hires would be needed to implement it.

“As part of Colorado’s response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the State must prioritize those people and sectors most affected by economic hardships,” the office said. “Such priorities include providing immediate relief and recovery aid to small businesses most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, stimulating growth and investment in Colorado’s advanced industries, and expanding access to capital for vulnerable populations.”

“This proposal’s funding will provide significant access to capital to traditionally under-served communities recovering from decades of the war on drugs, while also stimulating small business growth in the Colorado economy,” it concluded.

Separately, the Colorado Department of Revenue recently launched a new webpage that houses information and resources for cannabis social equity businesses and applicants.

Read the governor’s funding request for the Colorado cannabis advancement program by following title link and scrolling to the bottom of the article.

 

[Baron23]

This was a shit stupid idea in the first place. I'm pretty sure that this woman has never grown a plant. There is no such thing as "dial a potency" knob on MJ plants. Now, what are growers to do under her proposed law if a crop tests at 16%...throw it away? How about 15.5%?

And since THC is the active ingredient that we want, limiting its percentage is sort of the same as watering down the product and cost consumers more for less.

Let me say it again...shit stupid initiative from the start.

Colorado’s marijuana industry flexed its big muscles and now an effort to limit pot potency is unraveling​

State Rep. Yadira Caraveo says her proposal to limit the potency of marijuana sold recreationally in Colorado was just in its beginning stages. But when draft legislation was recently leaked and prominent figures in the state’s cannabis industry created an uproar, the measure started unraveling.
Now, Caraveo, a Thornton Democrat and pediatrician, is backing off parts of the measure and loosening the restrictions in what’s left.
“Given the pushback that we’ve had overall on the bill,” she said, “we really want to streamline it and focus it on the things that we think absolutely need to happen this year.”
The episode is a prime example of the multibillion-dollar cannabis industry’s growing clout in Colorado politics. Marijuana interests have been spending more money on lobbying at the state Capitol but haven’t quite flexed their muscles like this since voters approved recreational pot sales in 2012.
There have been newspaper articles with dire quotes. There have been opinion pieces. There have been social media posts.
“It makes sense that the cannabis industry is utilizing whatever resources we have to right this proposal,” said Peter Marcus, communications director for Terrapin Care Station, a major marijuana retailer. “Because without any true research or peer-reviewed science behind the subject, this rushing to policy like this — which would put the industry out of business overnight — doesn’t make any sense.”

Cannabis plants grow inside a cultivation facility near Lafayette on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018. (Andy Colwell, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Caraveo’s initial proposal, which she says was always supposed to be a negotiating floor, was to limit the potency of marijuana products sold in Colorado to 15% THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis that gets people high.
“The potency is going to change, but we have not reached a number,” said Caraveo, who is also a pediatrician. “We’re still talking to leadership and other groups about it. It’s not going to be 15%.”
She said 15% was supposed to be a research-based floor that mimics the way the Netherlands regulates cannabis potency.
She said she has already cut parts of the bill that would have prevented “budtenders,” or retail marijuana salespeople, from working on commission, as well as limits on advertising to prevent companies from marketing to kids. Caraveo also wanted to outlaw vaping products that looked like innocuous items, such as a highlighter pen.

“I think those are fights to take on at another time,” she said.



Caraveo, who is one of the first Democrats in the state to clash with the marijuana industry, said she launched her effort because “the products available now are not the products Colorado legalized.” Many strains of marijuana flower that are sold in Colorado have a potency above 15%. She’s particularly worried about children’s access to cannabis concentrates, which can have a THC makeup of 70% or higher, and their effects on a developing brain.
Colorado currently has no potency limit.
“We haven’t reevaluated what the industry has done, in terms of effects on youth and effects overall, since we legalized (marijuana),” Caraveo said.
Of the states that have legalized recreational marijuana sales, only Vermont has a potency cap. The state’s legislature imposed a 30% limit on THC for cannabis flower and a 60% THC limit on cannabis oil products.
The big difference between how Vermont handled its potency caps and what Caraveo is trying to do is that Vermont’s limits were put in place when recreational marijuana was legalized late last year. Colorado’s marijuana industry has been operating without potency caps since recreational sales began in 2014, and cannabis advocates argue it would be hard to put the smoke back in the pipe.

Men wait outside of Rocky Mountain Cannabis located on U.S. 40 near downtown Dinosaur Colorado. Dinosaur has three recreational cannabis shops that contribute about $25,000 in tax revenues to the town, which has only 320 residents. (William Woody, Special to The Colorado Sun)
“This would be problematic on a number of levels,” said Mason Tvert, a partner at the cannabis policy and public affairs firm VS Strategies who helped lead Colorado’s 2012 marijuana legalization campaign. “The primary reason being that it is going to incentivize a new illegal supply to meet demand for whatever products are no longer allowed. But, more importantly, there’s really no good justification for doing it.”
Truman Bradley, who leads the Marijuana Industry Group, also attacked the proposal for not being based on data. “This is not a bill that’s scientifically backed.”
One study out of the United Kingdom and published in a peer-reviewed journal, however, found that the “use of high-potency cannabis was associated with a significant increase in the frequency of cannabis use, likelihood of cannabis problems, and likelihood of anxiety disorder.”
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment also studied high-potency marijuana products. “Products containing a high THC concentration raise public health concern because increased dose may lead to higher potential for adverse health effects in consumers of these products,” the agency wrote.
Want exclusive political news and insights first? Subscribe to The Unaffiliated, the political newsletter from The Colorado Sun. That’s where this story first appeared.
Even with the changes, the potency bill is likely to fail in the Democratic-controlled statehouse. Caraveo has yet to secure a fellow Democratic prime sponsor for the legislation. Sen. Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, has signed onto the measure. Rep. Terri Carver, a Colorado Springs Republican, says she is reviewing a draft ahead of deciding whether to sign on.
Lundeen said he’s looking forward to a nuanced policy discussion that protects kids but doesn’t hurt what’s become an increasingly important Colorado industry.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Alec Garnett, D-Denver, has expressed skepticism about the proposal. Democrat Jared Polis, the nation’s first pot governor and the ultimate arbiter on the bill, is unlikely to cross the cannabis industry and says he supports other ways of driving down youth marijuana use.
“We haven’t seen the bill yet,” Polis said Tuesday. “We share the goal of protecting children. I think the best way to do that would be to increase penalties on anybody who sells legal or illegal marijuana to children.”
The Colorado legislature resumes its 2021 lawmaking session on Feb. 16.

 

[CarolKing]

They are trying to limit the mj potency in WA state too. Just when you think you’re over the summit there’s alway another mountain.

 

[momofthegoons]

Colorado Bill Would Require Schools To Store Cannabis-Based Medicines For Student Use​

When the school board refused to let their daughter, Marley, receive her cannabis-derived medicine from willing teachers, Sarah and Mark Porter made the difficult decision to pull Marley out of a Douglas County public school in October 2019.

“The last time she got out of the hospital, she never went back to school,” Mark Porter told Newsline.

In the 18 months since, Marley has been able to take her prescribed medicine regularly while learning at home—keeping her Crohn’s disease more manageable than it’s ever been, her parents testified to Colorado legislators during a February 24 hearing of the Senate Education Committee.

But Marley, now 15, is missing out on one-on-one interactions with teachers and the social aspects of school, like drama club.

“School is so much more than just learning and just education,” her father said. “No friends, no after-school activities. Nothing.”

A Colorado bill under consideration by the state Legislature aims to make life easier for kids like Marley and their families. It would require schools and school districts to have a policy allowing their employees — like the high school teacher who was willing to walk down to Marley’s middle school, had the school board permitted it — to store and administer medical cannabis recommended for a student by a doctor.


Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, a Republican from Douglas County, said Senate Bill 21-56 is more important to him than any other legislation he’s sponsoring this session. The seven lawmakers on the Education Committee approved the bill unanimously on February 24, sending it to the Appropriations Committee for review on a yet-to-be-determined date.

“As a person that comes from a community fairly consistent in being opposed to marijuana legalization in Colorado, I’m willing to put my hand up and say I was wrong about cannabis-based medicine,” said Holbert, of Douglas County, who is partnering with Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, on SB-56. “I’m perfectly willing to have conversations with constituents, doubters, to say, ‘You’re wrong. You need to meet these people.’”

Holbert’s change of heart occurred after he met constituents Amber and Brad Wann, who found a way to treat their son Ben’s life-threatening epileptic seizures: a bottle of Charlotte’s Web cannabidiol, or CBD.

The science around CBD is emerging, and it has been touted for many benefits for which research has yet to provide verification. But some recent studies support claims that it can be effective, particularly in treating certain epilepsy syndromes. “Recently, CBD has gained traction in the scientific community for its ability to treat multiple conditions,” reported Insider in November.

But when a school nurse asked Amber Wann why Ben had stopped having seizures in 2014, and learned about the cannabis-derived medicine, she reported the Wanns for potential child endangerment, Holbert said.

“The sheriff and the [district attorney] and the school district and child protection services did what they had to do, and at the end of it, they determined no, no… Giving their son Ben CBD oil was not endangering him, and bringing his seizures to an end certainly wasn’t endangering him,” Holbert told the Education Committee.

After the investigation was complete, the school’s principal allowed the Wanns to keep a cannabis-based nasal spray on campus to treat Ben’s seizures. But when the Douglas County School District Board of Education found out, they required that it be removed from the school.

“It pisses me off that my school board would somehow…decide which kid in our school district lives and which dies,” Holbert said.

SB-56 builds on other laws that were intended to help families like the Wanns.

Through a 2016 state law—known as “Jack’s Law” after Jack Splitt, the child who inspired it—school districts were required to let parents or guardians administer medical cannabis to their children on campus to treat symptoms such as seizures and severe pain. No Colorado law has ever allowed children to smoke marijuana on campus; rather, medicines containing CBD, THC or both often come in the form of oils, nasal sprays or capsules. And students aren’t legally allowed to keep the medicine on their person, even if they have a prescription.

“I hated cannabis,” Jack’s mother, Stacey Linn, testified to the committee on February 24. “But when your child almost dies, multiple times a month, sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes multiple times a week, it’s surprising what you might do.” She referred to Jack’s seizures.

“Being able to access cannabis, for Jack, saved his life and allowed him to go to school,” Linn said.

Jack, a 15-year-old who suffered from cerebral palsy, died in August 2016. But his legacy lives on.

Jack’s Law made it possible for students like Ben Wann to receive his medicine on school grounds.

However, it didn’t require school nurses and staff to administer the medicine to students as they would pharmaceutical drugs. With many children requiring multiple doses per day to keep their symptoms under control, it was a tough ask for working moms and dads to travel to schools and give their kids medicine.

“Imagine you had to leave work every day at the same time for an hour or more to get to school so that your child got their medicine,” Sarah Porter said during the hearing.

In 2018, House Bill 18-1286 became law in Colorado. Nicknamed “Quintin’s Amendment” after then-9-year-old Quintin Lovato, the bill allowed school nurses to administer medical cannabis at school for qualifying medical conditions and with a doctor’s approval. But the law left an “opt-out” clause for districts that didn’t want their employees giving kids the medicine.

After the law passed, Quintin’s school district in Eagle County allowed him to receive his medicine at school, giving him control over his seizures and tics.

So Quintin and his mother, Hannah Lovato, reappeared at the Capitol three years after HB-1286’s passage to testify in support of SB-56. Quintin updated the lawmakers on his academic and athletic accomplishments.

“Please help push this new bill through so that other kids like me have the opportunity to live their best lives, too,” Quintin told the committee members on February 24.

The bill wouldn’t force any school personnel to administer the medicine, if they don’t feel comfortable, but it does require school districts to have a policy for the storage of cannabis-based medicine on campus. The policy must allow willing school nurses, teachers or staff to administer the medicine to a student who provides a doctor’s recommendation and dosing instructions.

In addition, SB-56 protects school personnel from discipline if they choose to administer a student’s cannabis. They can’t have their state-issued licenses or certificates taken away.

“It’s in large part based on a Good Samaritan kind of perspective,” Holbert said in an interview. “If they help, they’re protected, and if they don’t want to help, they’re protected.”

The bill would increase state expenditures by around $15,000, according to its fiscal note. That money would be allocated to the Colorado Department of Education to pay for rulemaking and enforcement.

School districts could pay up to $4,200 per school for storage, staff training and staff time, but the actual costs will “depend on districts’ current policies, related resources, and the number of students with recommendations for medical marijuana, among other factors,” the bill’s fiscal note stated.

The bill contains an exception for school districts that can prove they are at risk of losing federal funding if they administer cannabis to a student. In those cases, they could refuse to store cannabis on campus.

But under the past two presidential administrations, that’s never happened in Colorado, Holbert said, and it’s not likely to happen under current President Joe Biden, even though cannabis is classified as a Schedule I narcotic under federal law.

“Anyone who is concerned about this, unfamiliar with it, take time to try to connect with people in your community who rely on cannabis-based medicine—especially kids,” Holbert said. “And what you’ll find is there are next to miraculous things happening, and completely effective medicine can be made from cannabis plants.”

This story was first published by Colorado Newsline.

 

[Baron23]

So, apparently the legislators in CO have been eating lead paint chips as that I all I can think of to explain such idiocy.

Colorado may see its biggest overhaul of marijuana laws since recreational legalization​

They don’t make cannabis products like they used to, and there’s an increasing number of Colorado lawmakers who think that’s problematic.
As recently as 2014, the vast majority of medical and recreational cannabis sold in Colorado was flower and only 11% was the high-potency concentrates consumed through dab rigs or vape pens. By 2019, concentrates took up a third of the market and flower was below 50%.
With the rising popularity of high-THC concentrates, which are several times more potent than flower and edibles, come worries among deep-pocketed political groups and their statehouse allies that teenagers have too much access to it without enough knowledge of the effects.
Lawmakers are working on what could be the biggest marijuana legislation in Colorado since recreational cannabis was legalized in 2012 — a bill that would more tightly regulate the state’s industry with a range of proposals, including a possible THC potency cap, a requirement that people seek medical cards in person only and improved data collection aimed at stricter enforcement of purchasing limits.
Its potential impact is enough to have the cannabis industry and its advocates warning of a so-called soft prohibition and again raising concerns about racial inequity in the business itself.
For those who want to see it pass, the chief stated priority is the health and safety of children. And the public face of the proposal is the legislature’s lone medical doctor, Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a pediatrician.
“In the last couple years, I’ve seen much more frequent use among teenagers, to the extent that I just saw a patient — young lady, cheerleader, great kid all around, but she’s been using these (high-potency) products daily and ended up in the hospital because she was vomiting constantly and lost 25 pounds,” said Caraveo, who is from Thornton.
That doesn’t resonate with Wanda James, owner of Simply Pure dispensaries in Denver. She’s one of just a few dozen Black marijuana business operators in Colorado, compared to nearly 2,000 white operators, state data shows.
“I would like someone to explain to me why this is being wrapped around, ‘Oh, the children, the children,’” she said. “What we’re discussing here is clearly a parenting issue, not a business issue.”
James added she can buy a truckload of Everclear at a liquor store but lawmakers don’t seem interested in limiting its 95% alcohol content or installing strict purchase limits like they might do with concentrates — which usually have 70-80% THC content — or other cannabis products.
“These legislators do this all the time,” she said. “It does nothing but put their names in the paper and get their 15 minutes.”

One gram of marijuana concentrate is weighed before packaging at Viola in Denver on Wednesday, March 10, 2021.

What might be in the bill — and “recriminalization”​

Caraveo initially proposed to ban any cannabis products with THC potency above 15%, but industry backlash was swift and it was immediately clear that Democrats who control the Capitol would not allow such a bill. It was never introduced.
But many lawmakers are at least interested in having the conversation about weed potency, which has led Caraveo to keep going — though she acknowledges that a 15% cap is a non-starter politically.
“I don’t know that we can take a piecemeal approach and have something big and controversial again next year, and the next year,” Caraveo said. “This is an industry that has some benefits but also we’ve learned that it has changed, and like any industry there are things we need to readdress. It’s a regulated industry, so let’s regulate it.”
Her revised bill, which is still in negotiations, may end up applying a cap on only concentrates, she said, adding that no proposed percentage has been set yet — and no decision has been made about whether to include flower under the cap.
Other changes on the table include creating a database to crack down on people who purchase more cannabis than the state’s daily limits (one ounce recreational, two ounces medical) due to a lax system of enforcement, and banning medical marijuana patients from obtaining or renewing their cards virtually.
“We want a bona fide relationship with a doctor and a patient,” Caraveo said.
All told, the package could amount to the state’s most comprehensive reassessment of cannabis regulations since voters approved recreational marijuana in 2012.
The Boulder-based, liberal political group Blue Rising Together just commissioned a poll showing two-thirds of Coloradans support a THC potency cap. Caraveo has said her effort is backed by groups like Smart Approaches to Marijuana and Smart Colorado, both of which are connected to wealthy donors and have supported a slew of potency limitations in other states.
Caps have largely failed elsewhere, though Vermont limited flower at 30% THC and concentrates at 60% THC when it legalized marijuana in 2020.
Supporters and opponents of the bill say science should be the guiding principle behind setting caps, not political compromise. But there’s a dearth of studies on the effects of these products, largely because marijuana is still federally classified as a Schedule I drug like LSD and peyote.
Colorado’s health department issued a report last year that said “use of cannabis with higher THC content (12-18% THC) was associated with diagnosis of a psychotic disorder in adulthood, regardless of childhood cannabis abuse status.” Use of these products among kids is rising too, the report said.

Lianna Loving, Colorado sales director for the Denver-based concentrate company Viola, said many customers attest to the products’ medical benefits, like pain relief and sleep aid.
Viola was one of the first legal concentrate producers in the state, and business is booming: close to $6 million in Colorado alone last year, up from about $1 million five years ago. Loving said Viola has 20-30 competitors now, up from single digits a few years back.
Standing in a packaging room at Viola’s production facility this week, Loving remarked that some $320,000 worth of concentrate moves through the building daily. Her colleague held out a small container of concentrate that he said represented $8,000 in profit.
If Colorado adopts a potency cap anywhere in the range of 60%, Loving said Viola would “have to change our whole business model.”
She added, “It would recriminalize something we fought so hard to decriminalize.”

Denver business Viola sells marijuana concentrate to be consumed in a dab rig or a vape pen.

“A chance to lead”​

No matter what Caraveo’s side of the cannabis lobby wants, the power broker on this is House Speaker Alec Garnett, a Denver Democrat. He’s concerned about potency but also protective of an industry that sold a record $2.2 billion in 2020, with close to $400 million in tax revenue. The bill won’t debut without his blessing.
“If we have a chance to lead, we should. Colorado was the first state to end prohibition, and with the ongoing conversations we’re having, we should also be the first state to create a blueprint for the industry that addresses the impact some products are having on our youth,” Garnett said. “We’ve had a lot of productive conversations in the last few weeks about how we could do this.”
And unlike most other policy matters at the Capitol, there are no clear party lines with cannabis. Caraveo has support from some Republicans, while some fellow Democrats are ready to fight her on this.
“You’ve got advocacy groups from the very conservative political stripe, from the very liberal stripe,” said Sen. Paul Ludneen, a Monument Republican who plans to be a lead sponsor of Caraveo’s bill. “It’s not really about politics. It’s about a public health crisis that’s affecting children, and how we need to address it.”
The stakes are high, with potential to ripple across states, said Christian Sederberg, the chairman of the board of the Cannabis Trade Federation and interim board chair of the United States Cannabis Council.
“In terms of the broader impact nationally,” said Sederberg, who also helped write the amendment that brought about legalization, “Colorado has consistently set an example for how to responsibly transition from a deeply ingrained prohibition model to a legal and well-regulated cannabis market.”

 

[momofthegoons]

Colorado Senate Passes School Medical Cannabis Bill​

A bill that would give children access to their medical cannabis in school is getting closer to becoming a law.


The Colorado state Senate passed a bill this week that would expand students’ access to medicinal cannabis while in school. The measure, Senate Bill 21-056, was passed by the Colorado Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 33 to 1. Under the bill, children with complicated medical conditions would be able to receive cannabis-based medicines from school personnel while on campus. The measure now heads to the Colorado House of Representatives for consideration.

Current Colorado law directs school districts to allow parents and caregivers to possess and administer medicinal cannabis to children while on school grounds. However, school principals have the discretion of whether to allow school personnel to possess and administer cannabis medications.

The bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday removes that discretion and directs school districts to implement policies to permit school personnel to possess and administer cannabis medicines to students who need them. The measure would permit school personnel to follow a treatment created by a student’s physician. The bill also protects school personnel who possess and administer medicinal cannabis from criminal and civil liability.

Parents Call On Lawmakers To Pass Bill​

At a Senate Education Committee hearing last month, parents of medical cannabis patients explained the difficulties they face administering medical cannabis to their children. Some parents noted they had to leave work to medicate their child on school grounds. Others said they opted to keep their children in remote learning because it was easier to administer cannabis at home.

Mark Porter told lawmakers his family moved to Colorado from another state so that they would be able to access medical cannabis for their daughter Sarah, who has Crohn’s disease. She has seen considerable improvement with medical cannabis, but her high school has not updated its policy to allow school personnel to administer her medicine. As a result, Sarah has continued with remote schooling instead of being on campus with her peers.

“Do we just discreetly send it with them and hope they do not get caught?” Porter askedat the February hearing. “We shouldn’t have to. There’s nothing my child is doing that is wrong.”

Student access to medical cannabis while at school has been a controversial subject in Colorado for years. In 2016, legislators passed Jack’s Law, which gave school districts the authority to write policies governing the administration of medical cannabis to students. That was followed in 2018 with Quintin’s Amendment, named for Quintin Lovato, a young Colorado boy with epilepsy. The amendment allowed school personnel to administer medications to students.

At last month’s hearing, Quintin’s mother Hannah Lovato called on lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 21-056 so that children like Sarah and Benjamin Wann, a student with epilepsy, can see the same success Quintin has.

“Because Quintin’s amendment was passed as a permissible law, we are allowing school districts to pick and choose who receives their life-saving medication and who could potentially die,” said Lovato. “Why is my son more important than the Wann’s? Why is my son more important than the Porter’s?”

“The system we have is already in place and my son is living proof,” Lovato told lawmakers.

 

[momofthegoons]

Colorado Is Auctioning Marijuana-Themed License Plates To Raise Money For People With Disabilities​

Colorado is really leaning into its reputation as the marijuana state—for a good cause. Officials are taking the unique step of auctioning off cannabis-themed license plates to help raise money for a disability fund.

From April 1 to April 20, residents can bid on the vanity plates with terms like “BONG,” “GANJA,” “GOTWAX,” “HEMP,” “ISIT420” and even “TEGRIDY,” a nod to the fictional South Park marijuana farm.

Bids on several of the plates start at $420, of course.

“The Colorado Disability Funding Committee had the TEGRIDY to STASH away some great HERB related license plate configurations and is making them available to you,” a Facebook post states. “Don’t be GREEN with envy because your neighbor GOTWAX and HONEY, bid on a plate and support people with disabilities!”



“Colorado GANJA themed license plates could make you as HAPPY as your 100% HEMP t-shirt,” the post, which was uploaded on April 1 but is not an April Fool’s joke, continues. “Leave ya SATIVA and INDICA, put down the BONG, use our HASHtags to follow along.”

The page for each license plate up for auction includes a disclaimer not to drive while impaired and to use cannabis responsibly.

The proceeds of the auction will go to the Colorado Disability Funding Committee, which issues grants to organizations that “have new and innovative ideas that benefit the disability community.”

Given the popularity of Colorado’s marijuana market, which exceeded $2 billion in sales last year alone, it stands to reason that the plates will be a hit.

People who don’t live in Colorado can also bid. If they win, they will be sent a novelty plate without the security features that come on a normal plate.

Despite being one of the first states to legalize for adult use, Colorado’s cannabis program is continually evolving.

Last month, for example, the state House passed a bill to increase the lawful possession limit for marijuana and the governor signed legislation to create a social equity fund for the marijuana industry.

Gov. Jared Polis (D) visited a marijuana dispensary in Denver to sign the measure, which will establish a program within the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade that’s intended to support cannabis businesses owned by people who qualify as social equity licensees, primarily people most impacted by the drug war.

The program will receive an initial infusion of $4 million from the state’s marijuana tax fund—about $1 million short of what the governor had requested in January. The legislation was created in consultation with Black Brown and Red Badged (BBRB), a coalition of minority-owned cannabis businesses.

Last year, Polis signed a separate bill that creates a statewide definition of cannabis social equity licensees. Those businesses are now the ones that will primarily benefit from the new legislation.

This kind of funding is largely made possible from tax revenue derived by the state’s robust cannabis market. Data from the state’s Department of Revenue shows that more than $10 billion of marijuana has been sold since the adult-use program launched in 2014.

Another piece of cannabis reform legislation that cleared the Senate last month would require schools and school district to institute policies permitting employees to store and administer marijuana products for students who are registered medical cannabis patients.

 

[momofthegoons]

​

Colorado Governor Signs Bill To Expand Medical Marijuana Access For Students In Schools​

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) on Wednesday signed legislation to expand access to medical marijuana for students in schools. Meanwhile, another bill recently arrived on his desk that would increase the legal cannabis possession limit in the state.

Current law gives principals discretion to set policies allowing or preventing schools to store and administer cannabis-based medicines. But under the new legislation Polis signed, that discretion is removed and school boards will be required to create policies on storage of cannabis medicines and allowing personnel to volunteer to possess and administer it to qualifying students who need it.

“This bill is a long time coming,” the governor said at a signing ceremony. “It’s also the culmination of communities coming together to make it happen—make change.”

Meanwhile, lawmakers also recently sent a bill to Polis’s desk that would increase the lawful marijuana possession limit for adults from one to two ounces.

While that’s yet to be signed, the governor celebrated the student-based legislation, which he said would make it so “school nurses, teachers and other volunteers can’t be discriminated against for stepping up to administer medical cannabis.”

“I’m pleased to sign this bill, which finally will treat cannabis the same way as other prescribed medicines,” Polis said. “I want to thank all those who put tireless and relentless work into this important step toward building and honoring legislative advocacy of the past— and, of course, with so many beneficiaries in the future.”

SB 21-056 would impose a “duty on school principals to create a written treatment plan for the administration of cannabis-based medicine and on school boards to adopt policies regarding actual administration,” a summary of the bill states.

Carly Wolf, state policies manager at NORML, told Marijuana Moment that, “like conventional medications, students who rely on medical cannabis should never be denied access just because they are in a school setting. Now, students and their families will never be forced to choose between a child’s health or their education.”

But while advocates regard this as a step in the right direction, they’re also eagerly awaiting the signing of legislation to increase the marijuana possession threshold for adults 21 and older in the state overall.

Beyond increasing the limit from one to two ounces, it would also require courts to approve requests to have prior records for cannabis possession sealed without consulting with a district attorney as long as the proper documentation is provided.

“Passage of this legislation will ensure that many low-level offenders are not saddled with fines they cannot afford and that law enforcement can focus more of their resources on fighting legitimate crime, rather than interacting with otherwise law-abiding Coloradans because of a minor, nonviolent marijuana offense,” Wolf said.

That policy change could have a significant impact on future gubernatorial pardons. Polis signed an executive order in October that granted clemency to almost 3,000 peopleconvicted of possessing one ounce or less of marijuana. And while the legislation that enabled him to do that in an expedited way applied to possession cases involving up to two ounces, his office declined to pardon those with more than one ounce on their records because that amount violated the existing state law.

 

[Baron23]

Colorado bans hemp-derived delta-8 THC​

(A version of this story first appeared at Hemp Industry Daily.)
Colorado regulators banned hemp-derived THC isomers such as delta-8 in foods, drinks and dietary supplements, but the status of marijuana-derived THC isomers wasn’t immediately made public.
A notice issued Friday by the Colorado health department says that “chemically modifying or converting any naturally occurring cannabinoids from industrial hemp is non-compliant with the statutory definition of ‘industrial hemp product.’”

The move comes as THC isomers derived from hemp extracts such as CBD have shaken up the cannabis market. The health department cited in its ruling uncertainty about how the isomers are made.
“Insufficient evidence exists to determine whether or not any toxic or otherwise harmful substances are produced during these reactions and may remain in the regulated industrial hemp products ingested or applied/used by consumers,” the agency said.
“Therefore, these tetrahydrocannabinol isomers are not allowed in food, dietary supplements or cosmetics.”
The notice referenced a delta-8 THC ruling from the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED), which oversees dispensaries and high-THC cannabis. But the MED’s notice wasn’t posted publicly on Friday.
Proponents of products such as delta-8 and delta-10 THC argue that because the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp extracts, the products are legal.
However, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration disagreed, saying that because delta-8 THC is manufactured from hemp-derived CBD, not extracted directly from the hemp plant, it is a controlled substance.
The conflict has not yet been decided in court; the Hemp Industries Association and a South Carolina hemp manufacturer are challenging that rule in Washington DC.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and MED said they would convene “stakeholder conversations on this topic as necessary.” No date was set.

 

[momofthegoons]

Colorado Cannabis Company, Nature’s Root Labs, Breaks New Ground by Unionizing​

Nature’s Root Labs has just unionized their employees in two states.

The Colorado cannabis landscape is shifting, and unionization is coming to the industry. Nature’s Root Labs in Longmont, Colorado just unionized employees through United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

Nature’s Root Labs sells CBD to Union Harvest in Florida, a company that then uses the raw product to make cannabidiol-rich CBD offerings for their customers. Now, the business has reached an official agreement with the UFCW that will provide a legal union option for the company’s workers.

“[The] agreement between UFCW and these companies in Longmont, Colorado marks a first of its kind, across-the-board unionized CBD joint venture that sets a precedent for even more workers in the industry to unionize,” claimed the release from UFCW.

Now, following this move, the option is on the table for more cannabis businesses with multiple locations or licenses in other states to unionize. In the past, this has kept businesses from being able to make such a move because of the federal illegality of cannabis and the disconnect between different state laws.

Other states have already started unionizing legal cannabis, including California, another early supporter of both recreational and medical cannabis industries. However, Colorado is a bit behind, as the state only started its first cannabis-related employee union in 2021.

Even Illinois has already managed to unionize. Cresco Labs in Joliet, Illinois voted to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers in January 2020, making the the first cannabis business in the state to have a union.

Nature’s Root Labs’ Future With UFCW​

The workers became part of the UFCW Local 881, and according to Steve Powell, president of that union, the UFCW was “proud of these workers and looks forward to standing with them to negotiate a fair and just contract that will improve their working conditions.”

Now that there is an option for protecting workers rights and legally organizing the cannabis industry, many industry insiders and legal advocates feel this will be a step in a positive direction that will lead to even more industry growth.

“This is going to presumably increase employee benefits and employee wages,” said 9NEWS Legal Analyst Whitney Traylor. “It could lead to costs in other places, but I think the immediate impact that you’re going to see [wil be] more unions pop up in Colorado and other states.”

According to Traylor, this move is not small. It could have a big impact on the entire industry, given the fact that unionizing is something there has been a call for for a while now, but it’s not an easy or straightforward process to get it going.

She explains that the fact that Nature’s Root Labs were able to make this happen, even across state lines between Colorado and Florida, is a big deal and could have larger implications for cannabis unions in general, not just in Colorado.

“Some advocates have said that partnering with a national labor organization got politicians to trust them, because that meant officials were working with a familiar partner,” Traylor said. “I think we’ll see a change in the labor market. How far of a change? How much of a change? Time will tell.””Having a good relationship with our employees is important and a signed union contract is part of that,” Union Harvest Managing Director and Founder Justin Eisenach said in a statement to UFCW. “Now consumers will have a choice when they purchase CBD and can buy USA union-made, union-packed, union-sold products.”

With this bold, new move, the workers at Nature’s Root Labs will be able to move forward with an equitable and fair working environment, and cannabis workers in Colorado and other states will now have more hope of organizing and unionizing in the future.

 

[Baron23]

Do any of you massive dabbers want more than 8 grams/day???​

​

Colorado May Pass a Bill to Restrict The Marijuana Industry​

When you think of liberal cannabis laws, Colorado is probably near the top of the list. However, according to a recent MJBizDaily article, the Colorful State will likely add restrictions to their marijuana industry, pending the signature of Gov. Jared Polis. If passed, House Bill 1317 would:

• Roll back the customer purchase limit for high-potency concentrates to 8 grams per day, roughly a fifth of the current limit.
• Require warnings on packages for concentrates as well as guidance on serving sizes.
• Authorize a new real-time tracking system to monitor the concentrate purchase limits.
• Mandate that the state School of Public Health examine existing cannabis research to look for “physical and mental health effects of high-potency THC marijuana and concentrates.”
• Add more rules to ensure patients 18-20 years old have a “substantial” relationship with their physician so it’s more difficult for them to obtain medical marijuana registrations.

 

[CarolKing]

I know CO was having a difficult time with folks selling to others out of state. Where I live (legal state) we have a limit of I believe 7 grams per purchase. Not a daily total of product. You would b lucky to use one gr in a day unless you were having company. These stores want the money, they don’t care if it looks suspicious is the bottom line. I personally will buy four grams of concentrates if it’s on sale and its the brand that I like. It will last me a long time though.

If it were legal everywhere it wouldn’t matter what folks did concerning concentrates.

edit
I mean the next thing you know they will be making all drugs legal. That’s right some states are already doing that.

 

[Baron23]

Colorado just released a big report on how cannabis legalization is going. Here’s what it found.​

As expected, marijuana-related arrests are down and tax revenue is up, but other trends are less clear.


More than seven years since Colorado became the first state to allow cannabis to be sold at stores for recreational use, pot arrests are down, marijuana-impaired driving cases are up and school expulsions are both up and down.


Those numbers — and a whole lot more — come from a new report released Monday by the state Department of Public Safety, which is required by law to study the impacts of cannabis legalization. In a new 180-page report, a statistical analyst from the department’s Division of Criminal Justice painstakingly goes through the numbers to provide the most comprehensive summary available about what has happened since voters in 2012 approved a state constitutional amendment legalizing possession and sales of small amounts marijuana. (Recreational cannabis stores opened during a New Year’s Day snowstorm in 2014.)


But the analyst, a longtime tracker of marijuana data named Jack Reed, is also hesitant about drawing conclusions from this mountain of information. He cited inconsistencies in how data was collected and other limitations that make it difficult to draw hard conclusions.

“The lack of pre-commercialization data, the decreasing social stigma, and challenges to law enforcement combine to make it difficult to translate these preliminary findings into definitive statements of outcomes,” he wrote.


Here’s what Reed found:

Marijuana-related arrests are down​

The total number of arrests of adults for marijuana-related crimes decreased by 68% between 2012 and 2019, Reed found. Arrests for marijuana possession dropped by 71%, while arrests related to marijuana production increased by 3%.


However, there remains a racial disparity in arrests for cannabis-related offenses. Arrests for white individuals decreased by 72%, while arrests for people who are Hispanic declined by only 55% and arrests for people who are Black declined by 63%. The arrest rate for people who are Black — 160 arrests for every 100,000 people — is still more than double the arrest rate for people who are white, 76 arrests per 100,000 people.


Juvenile arrests also declined, although they dropped more for kids who are white than for those who are Hispanic or Black.

Major marijuana-related crime has been on a rollercoaster​

Reed also looked at two measurements of large-scale black market activity: criminal cases brought under organized crime statutes and reports of diversion to other states.


The number of court filings charging a violation of the Colorado Organization Crime Control Act related to marijuana jumped sharply after legalization, from 31 in 2009 to 119 in 2017. But they declined to 34 in 2019.


Meanwhile, reports of Colorado cannabis being illegally diverted to other states has followed a similar path. In 2012, there were 286 reports to a federal database of cannabis that could be traced back to Colorado being seized in other states. By 2017, there were 673, but the number declined to 266 in 2019.

Marijuana DUIs are up​

The number of DUI summonses issued by the Colorado State Patrol in which marijuana was listed as at least one of the impairing substances increased 120% between 2014 and 2020, and cases involving just marijuana rose to 8.7% of all DUIs in 2020, from 6.3% of all DUIs in 2014. DUIs involving marijuana in combination with other substances, like alcohol, rose to 22.7% of all DUIs in 2020, from 5.7% of all DUIs in 2014.


However, Reed urges extra caution here. The numbers come only from the State Patrol — leaving out figures from local law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies statewide have also nearly doubled the number of officers who are trained drug recognition experts, meaning that agencies might be better at spotting marijuana impairment than they were before.


Fatalities involving marijuana-impaired drivers were flat. There was a slight increase in the number of fatalities in which a driver tested positive for more than 5 milligrams of Delta-9 THC, marijuana’s intoxicating compound, per milliliter of whole blood — 56 in 2019, up from 52 in 2016. But the prevalence of those instances declined to 13% of total traffic fatalities in 2019, from 14% in 2016.

Adults are using cannabis more — especially older adults​

The percentage of adults who reported using cannabis in the prior 30 days rose to 19% in 2019, from 13.4% in 2014. But usage among people ages 65 and older has tripled.


Fewer people are reporting smoking marijuana flower — think joints and bongs and pipes — though it’s still the most common route of consumption. More are vaping (32% in 2019), consuming infused drinks or edibles (43% in 2019), and dabbing high-potency concentrates (19.6% in 2019).

Hospitalizations have leveled off​

The number of people being hospitalized after consuming marijuana — intentionally or mistakenly — boomed during the early 2010s, when medical marijuana stores flourished. But hospitalizations for cannabis-related reasons have been flat since 2016, according to Reed’s report.


Hospitalizations are especially tricky to track because the medical industry changed its billing codes right around the time recreational marijuana stores opened in Colorado. This means there’s not direct comparisons that can be made between current numbers and pre-legalization numbers. It’s possible that some hospitalizations that would be reported as marijuana related now wouldn’t have been then and vice versa.


Calls to poison control related to marijuana have increased. People being admitted for substance abuse treatment related to marijuana use have declined since 2012, to 182 admissions per 100,000 population in 2019 from 222 in 2019.

It’s not clear if kids are using cannabis more​

The Healthy Kids Colorado Survey is generally regarded as the best measurement of Colorado kids’ substance use. It has shown no increase in the percentage of Colorado kids using marijuana in the prior 30 days.


In 2019, the rates of marijuana use reported for Colorado kids — 20.6% of high schoolers said they had used cannabis in the prior 30 days — were not statistically different from national rates, Reed found.


A different survey — the National Survey on Drug Use and Health — reported that use among Colorado youth is slightly higher now than it was in 2006, but it has also declined since a peak around 2013.

Among kids in treatment for substance use, 73.5% report marijuana as their primary substance. The report does not say what percentage of these youth are in treatment voluntarily or as a result of disciplinary proceedings.

School expulsions were way up, then way down​

The rate of kids who were expelled from Colorado schools for drugs was 65 expulsions per 100,000 registered students in the 2008-09 school year. It then jumped to 91 expulsions per 100,000 students in the 2010-11 school year and decreased to 23 expulsions per 100,000 students in the 2019-20 school year.


Suspensions followed a somewhat similar pattern. Drug-related suspensions went from 391 per 100,000 registered students in 2008-09, to 551 in 2010-11 to 426 in 2019-20.


Both of these numbers cover expulsions and suspensions related to all drugs. Marijuana accounted for about 30% of all expulsions in the 2019-20 year and about 34% of all law enforcement referrals. Reed writes that most of these were likely related to marijuana possession.

Tax revenue has grown​

Since recreational cannabis stores opened, government revenue has skyrocketed.


A total of $387 million was taken in in 2020 from taxes, licenses and fees. That’s a 473% increase from 2014, when governments collected $67 million.

 

[momofthegoons]

Colorado Will Vote On Raising Marijuana Taxes To Fund Education Programs This November, Officials Confirm​

Colorado voters will decide on an initiative in November that would raise marijuana taxes to fund programs that are meant to reduce the education gap for low-income students.

The secretary of state confirmed on Wednesday that the campaign behind the measure collected more than the required 124,632 valid signatures to make the ballot.

The Colorado Learning Enrichment and Academic Progress (LEAP) measure would give low- and middle-income families a $1,500 stipend to have school-aged children participate in after-school programs, tutoring and summer learning activities.

If Initiative 25 is approved, the state excise tax on sales adult-use cannabis products would be gradually increased from 15 percent to 20 percent to fund the effort. Starting January 1, there would be a three percent increase in the current excise tax. That would increase to a five percent increase beginning in January 2024.

Colorado would collect an additional $138 million per year to fund the measure once the final tax rate is set, according to a fiscal analysis.

Supporters say this policy is especially needed as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has exacerbated income-related learning gaps for students. But some marijuana industry stakeholders—and even the state’s largest teachers union—have expressed concerns about the proposal.

Beyond imposing the extra five percent tax on cannabis, the initiative also calls for a repurposing of state revenue that it generates from leases and rents for operations held on state land.

Some stakeholders and cannabis advocates have come out strongly against the proposal, arguing that it would detract from social equity efforts.

The measure is being endorsed by a two former governors, about 20 sitting state lawmakers, several former legislative leaders and several other educational organizations.

But in June, the Colorado Education Association withdrew its support for the proposal over concerns about how it would be implemented.

This development comes weeks after Colorado officials announced the launch of a new office to provide economic support for the state’s marijuana industry.

The division, which was created as part of a bill signed into law in March, is being funded by cannabis tax revenue. It will focus on creating “new economic development opportunities, local job creation, and community growth for the diverse population across Colorado.”

Gov. Jared Polis (D) had initially asked lawmakers back in January to create a new cannabis advancement program as part of his budget proposal.

Beyond this program, the state has worked to achieve equity and repair the harms of prohibition in other ways.

For example, Polis signed a bill in May to double the marijuana possession limit for adults in the state—and he directed state law enforcement to identify people with prior convictions for the new limit who he may be able to pardon.

The governor signed an executive order last year that granted clemency to almost 3,000 people convicted of possessing one ounce or less of marijuana.

Funding for the new office is made possible by tax revenue from a booming cannabis market in the state. In the first three months of 2021 alone, the state saw more than half a billion dollars in marijuana sales.

The lack of access to federal financial support for marijuana businesses became a pronounced issue amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the Small Business Administration saying it’s unable to offer those companies its services, as well as those that provide ancillary services such as accounting and law firms.

Polis wrote a letter to a member of the Colorado congressional delegation last year seeking a policy change to give the industry the same resources that were made available to other legal markets.

Meanwhile, the state’s attorney general on Wednesday sent a letter urging congressional leaders to ensure that small marijuana businesses are protected from being overtaken by Big Tobacco and other major industries as federal cannabis reform legislation advances.