{"id":11501,"date":"2016-05-12T19:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T19:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=11501"},"modified":"2016-09-20T20:28:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T20:28:34","slug":"trying-to-enforce-colorados-conflicting-marijuana-regulatory-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2016\/05\/trying-to-enforce-colorados-conflicting-marijuana-regulatory-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Trying to Enforce Colorado\u2019s Conflicting Marijuana Regulatory Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

Definition of a Nightmare: Trying to Enforce\u00a0<\/strong>Colorado\u2019s Conflicting Marijuana Regulatory Laws<\/strong>
\nThe Police Foundation and the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police released the above report this week to guide law enforcement about marijuana in other states. The report points to the Byzantine layers of regulations that evolved from constitutional amendments voters passed to legalize medical marijuana in 2000 (Amendment 20) and recreational marijuana in 2012 (Amendment 64).<\/p>\n

From June 1, 2001 to December 21, 2008, Colorado issued medical marijuana cards to 4,819 patients. Each cardholder could designate a caregiver to grow\u00a0marijuana for up to five patients. In 2009, a court decision overturned the limit of five patients per caregiver. That year, with virtually no limits on the number of patients caregivers could supply, 41,039 citizens obtained medical marijuana cards, an increase of 762 percent.<\/p>\n

The legislature responded by passing bills in 2010 and 2011 to create the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code. Among other things, the Code legalized commercial medical marijuana centers to grow and sell medical marijuana, reinstated the five-patient limit for caregivers, set up a business-licensing regimen, and allowed for marijuana-infused products to be sold to patients. In 2012, citizens passed Amendment 64, legalizing recreational marijuana, and new sets or regulations were created for both home growers and commercial growers, processors, and retail sales outlets. This resulted in four models of regulation.<\/p>\n

Caregiver\/Patient<\/strong>
\nCaregivers can grow medical marijuana for up to five patients and themselves.
\nPatients licensed by the Department of Public Health and Environment
\nRegulatory authorities: Department of Public Health and Environment & local law enforcement<\/p>\n

Medical Commercial<\/strong>
\nBusinesses, owners, and employees licensed
\nRegulatory authority: Department of Revenue, Marijuana Enforcement Division<\/p>\n

Recreational Commercial<\/strong>
\nBusinesses, owners, and employees licensed
\nRegulatory authority: Department of Revenue, Marijuana Enforcement Division<\/p>\n

Recreational Home Grows<\/strong>
\nAnyone age 21 or older can grow up to six plants
\nLaw enforcement seeing \u201cco-op cultivations\u201d where many home growers are growing at one location
\nNo license required
\nRegulatory authority: local law enforcement<\/p>\n

Caregivers must register the location of their cultivation sites, but no punishment is specified for those who do not, and many don\u2019t. Because of privacy laws, patient information cannot be accessed to check for whom caregivers are growing. Caregivers have no cards and no sanctions if they fail to register. Attempting to establish probable cause under conflicting regulatory mechanisms makes it difficult to prosecute those who ignore the regulations.<\/p>\n

Data kept by the Denver Police Department and the Department of Revenue show the number of marijuana facilities in Denver and statewide:<\/p>\n

Medical Centers–Denver 198, Statewide 501
\nInfused Medical Product Factories–Denver\u00a078, Statewide 158
\nMedical Cultivations–Denver\u00a0376, Statewide 739<\/p>\n

Recreational Stores–Denver\u00a0126, Statewide 306
\nInfused Recreational Factories–Denver\u00a044, Statewide 92
\nRecreational Cultivations–Denver\u00a0190, Statewide 375
\nLabs Checking Recreational for THC–Denver\u00a09, Statewide 15<\/p>\n

Total Marijuana Facilities–Denver 1,021, statewide 2,186<\/strong><\/p>\n

The result of trying to enforce conflicting regulatory laws can be seen in another recently released Colorado report. It estimated that demand for marijuana in Colorado in 2014 was 130 metric tons but legal supplies could only account for 77 metric tons. The rest, according to press reports, came from criminals in the black market or legal cultivators selling under the table in the \u201cgrey\u201d market.<\/p>\n

“Colorado law enforcement officials . . . are convinced that the black and the grey markets are thriving in Colorado primarily through unregulated grows, large quantities of marijuana stashed in homes, and by undercutting the price of legitimate marijuana sales. In fact, police have stated that legalized marijuana may have increased the illegal drug trade<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Source: www.The Marijuana Report.Org\u00a0 February 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Definition of a Nightmare: Trying to Enforce\u00a0Colorado\u2019s Conflicting Marijuana Regulatory Laws The Police Foundation and the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police released the above report this week to guide law enforcement about marijuana in other states. The report points to the Byzantine layers of regulations that evolved from constitutional amendments voters passed to legalize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,90,12,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic","category-global-drug-legalisation-efforts","category-legal-sector","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}