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Colorado Marijuana Commerce Bills Approved

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #783)

The Colorado legislature Wednesday approved a pair of bills that will establish a regulated marijuana market for adults. The legislature was charged with doing so when voters approved the marijuana legalization Amendment 64 last November.

On the down side, the legislature earlier approved another bill, House Bill 1325, which would set a level of THC in the blood above which drivers would be presumed to be impaired. Drivers with 5 milligrams or more of THC per milliliter of blood would be considered to be impaired, but could challenge that presumption in court.

The marijuana regulation bills are House Bill 1317 and House Bill 1318. The former creates the framework for regulations governing marijuana retail sales, cultivation, and product manufacturing, while the latter enacts a 10% special sales tax (above and beyond standard sales taxes) and a 15% excise tax on wholesale sales.

Under Colorado law, the tax bill will have to be approved by voters in November. But three-quarters of Colorado voters support such pot taxation, according a Public Policy Polling survey.

"The adoption of these bills is a truly historic milestone and brings Colorado one step closer to establishing the world's first legal, regulated, and taxed marijuana market for adults," said Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, who served as an official proponent and campaign co-director for the ballot measure approved by Colorado voters in November. "Facilitating the shift from the failed policy of prohibition to a more sensible system of regulation has been a huge undertaking, and we applaud the many task force members, legislators, and others who have helped effect this change," Tvert said. "We are confident that this legislation will allow state and local officials to implement a comprehensive, robust, and sufficiently funded regulatory system that will effectively control marijuana in Colorado."

Look for an in-depth analysis of the new regulations coming soon.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Uncle Bob (not verified)

I think most of us realize.. how Colorado and Washington go about actually regulating their programs will probably determine the Federal response, and probably influence the future of this entire movement.

Wed, 05/08/2013 - 8:58pm Permalink
Mike d (not verified)

In reply to by Uncle Bob (not verified)

I agree with 'determining' ' in the future of this entire movement', but not the 'Federal Response' as the response will not change, imo, till a majority of the States legalize. While anything is possible, and many think a sitting President might change things... as H. Clinton said in response to whether prohibition would end, "No, there's too much money in it". Meaning too many tax dollars going into prohibition and too much valuation in those companies which find legalization too much of a competitive allowance.

 

This is a fight, tooth and nail, down to the wire on a State by State basis because we are talking many billions, hundreds of billions of dollars on the line and unfortunately, from the ONDCP and election Campaign Fund raisers on down to municipalities have a monetary and political interest to fight back even harder to maintain those 'connections' and cash flows.

 

Get out and vote!

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 1:10pm Permalink
David W. (not verified)

The amount under which one would be considered impaired in House Bill 1325 is 5 NANOGRAMS per milliliter, NOT MILLIGRAMS, which is two orders of magnitude smaller.

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 1:05pm Permalink
Anonymoose (not verified)

The amount under which one would be considered impaired in House Bill 1325 is 5 NANOGRAMS per milliliter, NOT MILLIGRAMS, which is two orders of magnitude smaller.

 

 

CORRECTION!!!  4 orders of magnitude

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 3:06pm Permalink
sicntired (not verified)

There's going to be a lot of really weird stuff coming out of this.Doesn't THC remain in the blood for as much as 45 days?How long does it take to decrease in levels?I mean if you smoked at noon you're not high at midnight but the THC levels are probably about the same.This will be a huge problem and is going to come down to the opinion of the arresting officer.That'll never get past the supreme court.Can a person grow for their own consumption?Are they going to tax sales like they should or tax the plant?It should be like beer and wine.Make your own if you want and just pay taxes if you sell any surplus.

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 11:14pm Permalink
mexweeds (not verified)

@astekenofen asks, how do no harm to children, and the answer is make sure they learn how to VAPE rather than "smoke" (avoid heat shock, carbon monoxide, combustion toxins etc.).  Vape Literacy begins at earliest age, and a child is then life-immunized against hot burning overdose cultism behaviors (such as nicotine $igarette addiction, 6,000,000 deaths a year, and binge-drinking too).

Under the adults-only sales procedure as described it would in fact be left up to the parents to understand and meet this education responsibility.  What Washington and Colorado can do to support The Movement?  If 700-mg $igarettes and 500-mg joints speedily disappear there and are replaced by e-cigs, vaporizers, 25-mg-serving-size one-hitters, etc., that will eliminate worldwide the strongest prohib argument, alleged harms caused by "smoking" until now being conveniently attributed to cannabis (or tobacco) .

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 5:32pm Permalink
Bongstar420 (not verified)

What ever happened to impairment testing? I rather some loaded folk on the road over some of these sober people!

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 2:59pm Permalink

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