Pubdate: Thu, 09 May 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

SESSION'S UP IN SMOKE

Pot Laws Make History, While a Hazy Future Has Some Legislators Anxious.

The Colorado legislature made history Wednesday, becoming the first 
in the country to pass laws regulating recreational marijuana sales and use.

But lawmakers arrived at the historic moment more with trepidation 
than with enthusiasm about the future in a state where anyone over 21 
will soon be able to buy marijuana in special retail stores.

"This is a true game-changer for our state," Sen. Mark Scheffel, 
R-Parker, said in raising concerns about the impact of marijuana 
legalization on kids. "And so I think it is important that we do our 
best to implement the right regulatory environment and fund it."

If Gov. John Hickenlooper signs the four major bills on marijuana 
that the legislature passed this year - and he has indicated he 
will-this is what the future will hold:

Marijuana will be sold in specially licensed stores that can also 
sell pot related items such as pipes. Only Colorado residents can own 
or invest in the stores, and only current medical-marijuana 
dispensary owners can apply to open recreational pot shops for the 
first nine months. The first stores will open around Jan. 1.

Colorado residents will be able to buy up to an ounce of marijuana- 
the maximum it is legal for non-medical-marijuana patients to possess 
- - at the stores. Out-of-staters can buy only a quarter-ounce at a 
time. Pot must be sold in child-resistant packages with labels that 
specify potency. Edible marijuana products will have serving-size limits.

Voters will have the option of imposing heavy taxes on pot sales. A 
ballot measure set for November will ask voters to approve a 15 
percent excise tax and an initial 10 percent sales tax on marijuana. 
The excise tax will fund school construction. The sales tax will pay 
for regulation of marijuana stores.

Incorporated marijuana collectives will be banned. So, too, will 
marijuana coffee shops, marijuana smoking in bars and government-run 
marijuana stores. And, though Colorado will have the most liberal 
laws for marijuana use and sales in the country, it will have the 
most restrictive laws in the country for marijuana-themed magazines, 
which, like pornography, will have to be kept behind the counter. 
Publications such as HighTimes andThe Daily Doobie have vowed to sue.

Finally, Colorado drivers for the first time will be subject to a 
stoned-driving limit. Juries will be allowed to presume that anyone 
testing above the limit was too high to drive.

The bills are the result of an arduous six-month, law-writing process 
that began in November, when Colorado voters passed a 
marijuana-legalization measure. With the bills' passage, a new 
rulemaking process for marijuana shops by the state Department of 
Revenue can begin. Prospective pot-shop owners can start applying for 
licenses in October.

"We are in uncharted territory," said Rep. Dan Pabon, a Denver 
Democrat involved in many of the marijuana bills.

Pabon said the bills will keep marijuana within Colorado's borders 
and provide a barrier between kids and pot - two important factors in 
keeping the federal government, which considers all marijuana 
possession and sales illegal, at bay.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Denver declined to say 
what kind of impact the bills will have on the office's position 
toward marijuana legalization in Colorado. Instead, Jeff Dorschner 
wrote in an e-mail that the office is looking at "all aspects of this 
issue" in its deliberations on how to respond.

A spokesman for Hickenlooper, a legalization opponent, praised the 
work of lawmakers on the marijuana bills, saying in a statement they 
"put in place a robust regulatory and enforcement framework, consumer 
safety measures and a dedicated funding source for state oversight of 
the industry."

State Attorney General John Suthers, who also opposed legalization, 
said the legislature did a "credible job" of creating marijuana 
regulations, despite "an aggressive and well-financed lobbying 
effort" by cannabis advocates that Suthers saw as trying to weaken the rules.

Those advocates, though, hardly had their run of the legislature. A 
citizens group worried about the consequences of marijuana 
legalization hired equally high-priced lobbyists. And, in the most 
dramatic showdown over marijuana at the Capitol this year, 
legalization proponents fought back an effort on the session's 
third-to-last day that could have stalled marijuana sales if the 
taxes on pot didn't pass.

On Wednesday, marijuana advocates hailed the legislature's final 
votes as momentous.

"The passage of these bills marks a major milestone toward the 
creation of the world's first legal, regulated and taxed marijuana 
market for adults," said Christian Sederberg, one of Amendment 64's authors.

Sederberg said the bills show that lawmakers can tackle big issues 
when they work together. The bills were written by a bipartisan 
committee and received support from both parties in the state Senate.

But the final votes on the bills in the House on Wednesday split 
along party lines- Democrats voting for the measures and Republicans 
voting against. That division occurred even as Republicans grudgingly 
accepted that the last two bills needed to be passed. One of those 
bills, House Bill 1317, contained the most significant regulations 
for marijuana stores. The other, House Bill 1318, held the marijuana 
tax provisions.

"We do need to do something," Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, 
said. "And that something is House Bill 1317."

But he joined his colleagues in voting against the bill's repassage.

The bill moved forward to the governor's desk anyway, while Colorado 
moved toward an unprecedented future.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom