Pubdate: Sat, 09 Apr 2016
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2016 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

PANEL REJECTS POT POTENCY LIMIT

But the Effort Will Have Additional Opportunities This Legislative Session.

Colorado lawmakers have rejected an initial effort to cap the potency 
of marijuana that customers can buy at recreational pot stores.

Rep. Kathleen Conti, R-Littleton, had proposed barring stores from 
selling marijuana and marijuana products - including concentrates - 
that contain more than 15 percent THC. That amount is below the 
average potency of products currently sold in recreational stores.

Late Wednesday, lawmakers on the House Finance Committee voted down 
the proposal on a 6-5 vote. But that decision may not be the end of 
the debate - for this year or for next.

The proposed limit was pitched in an amendment to a bill - House Bill 
1261 - reauthorizing Colorado's rules for recreational marijuana 
stores. Wednesday's hearing was the bill's first, meaning there will 
be multiple other opportunities this legislative session to try again 
to insert the amendment.

And even those who voted against the amendment on Wednesday expressed 
support for some type of potency cap, after more study.

"We'll be revisiting this next year, for sure," Rep. KC Becker, a 
Boulder Democrat who was a no vote on the amendment, said at 
Wednesday's hearing.

The available potency of marijuana products has boomed in Colorado's 
commercial market. A study by the state last year found that the 
average potency of raw marijuana sold in Colorado stores is 17.1 
percent THC. The average potency of concentrated marijuana - a form 
increasingly popular with experienced consumers - is 62.1 percent THC.

Those numbers concern lawmakers and others who worry about the 
impacts of such potencies, especially on teens who may be acquiring 
the products illegally.

"We do not know how this affects the brain, especially the developing 
brain of our kids," Conti said Wednesday.

"I think we need to proceed with caution."

Marijuana industry supporters, though, testified during Wednesday's 
four-hour hearing that capping potency could drive consumers to the 
black market or could lead to people trying to make volatile 
concentrates at home, creating the risk of explosions. Another 
possibility, they said, is that consumers simply would consume more 
of the lower-potency marijuana.

After rejecting the potency cap, lawmakers on the Finance Committee 
unanimously passed the rules bill.

The bill is scheduled to be heard next in the House Appropriations Committee.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom