DENVER—Marijuana legalization has prompted an enormous amount of debate in the four months since it was approved in Colorado, but only Friday did the drug get consideration from the people who will decide how it should be grown, sold and taxed.
Ad ad-hoc committee of 10 House and Senate members started work reviewing 165 pages of recommended regulations from a task force that worked for more than three months to suggest rules for the newly legal drug.
The suggested rules cover the entire product cycle of pot—from how marijuana should be grown and labeled to how to tax the drug and spend the proceeds. The 10 lawmakers on the House-Senate pot committee will ultimately suggest a bill for the full Legislature.
“We’re going to have a lot of discussion, a lot of debate of what should or shouldn’t be included,” said Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver and head of the marijuana committee.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and Colorado has not yet heard whether the federal government will sue to block the marijuana law. The voter-approved pot measure requires pot regulations by July, a deadline that has prompted Colorado to move ahead planning the drug’s regulation.
No decisions were made Friday. Instead, the panel of six Democrats and four Republicans reviewed recommendations from the Amendment 64 Task Force, which consisted of pot advocates, law enforcement and government regulators.
The prospect of marijuana tourism dominated discussion Friday. Some lawmakers wanted to know why the task force recommended that the state not bar non-residents from buying marijuana.
“I’m, shall I say, concerned about the visitor recommendation,” said Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, who asked about potential border checkpoints and other measures to prevent marijuana from leaving the state.
Barbara Brohl, head of the agency that will regulate marijuana, the Department of Revenue, answered that the constitutional amendment approved by voters last year makes marijuana in small amounts legal for adults over 21, not just Coloradans. The task force suggested new signs at airports and on highways reminding visitors they break the law if they take pot across state lines.
She said the best regulators could hope for is a strong educational campaign to tell visitors something like, “what happens in Colorado, stays in Colorado.” Lawmakers chuckled.
Other recommendations:
— The task force recommended a 15 percent excise tax on marijuana, the maximum allowed under the amendment. The task force further suggested a new marijuana sales tax to be determined by lawmakers. Both taxes would need voter approval.
— The task force asked for state health or agriculture regulators to set standards for which pesticides, herbicides and fungicides would be permitted on marijuana. The task force also suggested potency testing and labels to show consumers the relative strength of the psychoactive ingredient in pot products.
— The task force said children need to be protected by requiring pot to be sold in child-proof containers. The task force also recommended advertising limits to curb youth exposure to marijuana messages.
Not all of this year’s marijuana regulations will come from the House-Senate marijuana committee. The Legislature is already considering a blood-limit marijuana standard for drivers, an analogy to blood-alcohol limits. The Legislature has tried and failed three times to set driving limits for pot.
The marijuana committee was told to plan on multiple meetings a week for the next few weeks to work on pot rules. Pabon warned that lawmakers won’t be called to a special session about pot if they can’t finish their work, in which case the Revenue Department would set rules without lawmakers’ input.
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Online:
Suggested Marijuana Regulations: http://1.usa.gov/ZLhIra
