Pubdate: Fri, 22 Mar 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold
Page: 3A

POT-STORE RULES DEBATED

Two Lawmakers Question Task-Force Suggestions on Business Model

Colorado lawmakers yanked and tugged at the threads of the state's 
proposals for regulating recreational marijuana on Thursday, as one 
legislator hinted to his colleagues that pulling too hard could 
unravel the whole thing.

At its second meeting, the legislature's joint marijuana committee 
returned again to the question of how to structure the marijuana 
stores that Colorado voters authorized in November. A task force that 
suggested policies for lawmakers recommended the industry be 
vertically integrated as are medical-marijuana businesses - meaning 
stores would have to grow what they sell.

But two lawmakers questioned whether that runs against the intent of 
the marijuana-legalization measure, Amendment 64, which doesn't 
prescribe a system where growers are linked to retailers.

The recommendation would also provide a one-year window where only 
people who currently own medical-marijuana businesses would be 
allowed to apply to run recreational marijuana shops. Rep. Brian 
DelGrosso, R-Loveland, said he worries such a restriction "gives 
existing businesses a foothold, essentially a monopoly" on the new industry.

Other lawmakers raised concerns about one proposed requirement that 
people live in Colorado for two years before they be allowed to own a 
recreational marijuana business and about another that would block 
people convicted of a drug felony from ever owning a marijuana business.

Rep. Dan Pabon, a Denver Democrat who served on the task force and 
helped write the proposals, said the goal is to get the regulations 
running quickly and to prevent leakage of marijuana from the 
regulated system into the black market. For that reason, the task 
force borrowed heavily from medical-marijuana law and made selective 
compromises.

"I hope that the committee is appreciating the interconnectedness of 
all these recommendations," Pabon said. "If you push on one lever, it 
pushes on another piece of the overall package."

Sen. Cheri Jahn, a Wheat Ridge Democrat and another task force 
member, said some of the regulations - such as vertical integration - 
would be re-evaluated after a few years.

Despite the extensive debate Thursday morning, the committee did not 
take any formal votes. During a straw vote, a majority of committee 
members supported requiring recreational marijuana stores to have to 
grow only 70 percent of what they sell under a possible vertical 
integration model. The remaining 30 percent could be bought from 
other stores, in a model similar to medical marijuana.

The committee's next meeting is Friday at 1:30 p.m. The group has 
until the end of the month to work the task force's 58 
recommendations into a bill, which would have to clear the entire 
legislature by the end of the session on May 8.

The state must begin taking applications for recreational marijuana 
stores this fall. The first shops could open around Jan. 1, 2014.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom