Image credit: Greg O'Beirne

Colorado Bill to Create New Cannabis Restrictions Nears Governor’s Desk. Who Lobbied?

Dozens of entities registered to lobby on the bill, including national names like American Academy of Pediatrics, MADD, and PAX.

Jun 4, 2021 6:55AM EDT Colorado

Nushin Rashidian @nushinrashidian

Co-founder of Cannabis Wire.

In just over two weeks, Colorado’s House and Senate each swiftly voted in favor of a bill that establishes new restrictions and requirements for the state’s cannabis industry, one of the oldest in the United States.

The Senate vote on Thursday for HB 1317 was unanimous. In the House in late May, only eight state representatives voted no. Once the House signs off on the Senate’s amendments, the bill will head to the governor’s desk. Industry stakeholders, like lawmakers, have largely supported the bill, though they have lobbied for amendments.

“Colorado is going to lead the way on addressing youth access to high-potency cannabis,” House Speaker Alec Garnett, a main sponsor of the bill, told Cannabis Wire. “We are going to be at the forefront of looking at the science and the relationship between high-potency concentrates and the developing brain, taking on a role the federal government should have played years ago.”

While there have been numerous amendments to the bill, they have been mostly minor, and do not alter the broad aims of the bill, which are to curb underage consumption, educate consumers about high-THC products, prevent diversion, and collect and study data about cannabis-related hospital visits.

For example, the bill limits, with some exceptions, the amount of concentrated medical cannabis product that a patient who is 21 and older can legally purchase in one day to 8 grams (or, for patients aged 18-20, 2 grams). But, language was struck that would have required concentrates to be sold in “a package containing one gram separated into no less than 10 equal-portioned amounts.”

During the first hearing on the bill, as Cannabis Wire reported, several speakers testified that additional packaging requirements could increase costs for businesses, consumers, and patients, and lead to increased plastic waste.

The bill also aims to improve real-time data collection and reporting in an effort to curb “looping,” which is when a person purchases cannabis from multiple shops to obtain more than the legal limit, often in an effort to resell the product out of state. But, it was amended to remove language that would have required cannabis shops to “provide a notice at the time of sale regarding the criminal penalties associated with marijuana diversion.”

Governor Jared Polis has not yet said whether he will sign the bill.

The bill has drawn lobbyists from dozens of local and national entities, according to lobbying registrations reviewed by Cannabis Wire.

This includes:

(Not all entities are included below, for example, those listed as “monitoring” the bill were excluded.)

Supporting:

American Academy of Pediatrics ( AAP)

Boulder County

Colorado Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs

Colorado Association of School Executives

College of Emergency Physicians, Colorado Chapter

Colorado Psychological Association

Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO)