Revised version of Colorado HB 1284

I just read the whole bill passed yesterday (4/20), this bill favors big dispensaries and screws everyone else. It now goes to the House and back to the Senate for a final vote and then on to the Governor.

There's plenty in this bill but here are some of the highlights:

They have removed the amendment barring cities and towns from banning dispensaries. Any city that wants to could ban them.

Anyone convicted of any drug felony EVER would be barred from having any ownership in a dispensary or a commercial grow. Any other felony conviction has to be more than 5 years old. So a rapist that was convicted 6 years ago could own a dispensary, whereas someone convicted 25 years ago for selling a joint would be barred forever.

Caregivers would be limited to 5 patients and must get fingerprinted and registered with the state along with a criminal background check. Anyone with a felony that is 5 years or less would be disqualified from being a caregiver.

Dispensaries must grow at least 70% of their own product and can only get the rest from other dispensaries.

They are shooting for July to get this bill passed, if you own a big dispensary great, for everyone else its fucked.

The complete bill can be found at http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2010a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/0C6B6577EC6DB1E8872576A80029D7E2?open&file=1284_eng.pdf

Does it have support in Senate? Or is this like most bills where it makes it part of the way and not the rest.............. I dont see how dispensaries COULD grow 70% of their product. They'd have to have 15,0000 sqft of growing space for every 1000sqft of retail or so!

Looks like it does have support. I was in a great meeting last night that lasted 6 hours. There was attorneys/lobiests/developer/dispensary owners/ and we had great discussions and formed a non-profit proffesional MMJ political group that will have a voice on HB1284. There are some serious issues that need to be addressed. As it stands dispensaries will have to provide 70% of their product and will only to able to recieve the other 30% from dispensaries that are legitimate,regulated,licenced and zoned under state and county regulation. Dispensaries will only be able to sell a max 30% of their surplus to other licienced dispensaries as well. Small growers and venders would have to own a dispesary, or be a registerd owning partner listed on the dispensary licence and fingerprinted with a background check tied to the original dispensary license application. Alot of dispensaries are scrambling to find space in correctley zoned areas to handle the 70% that will be required or retrofiiting space they have to handle the production. We can help you with state of the art turn-key facilities or retrofits to handle those needs in Boulder,Denver,Co Springs, and Co surounding areas. Call 719-570-1599 and ask for Steve,Robert, or Kurt.

Is the whole intent of this bill for accountability? Would one be able to subcontract with the dispensary to grow at another location and deliver the crop to the business or does the bill explicitly specify that the dispensary grow must be on premise?

The Bill allows for what it terms Optional Premises Grow licenses These would be basically extentions of the Dispensaries themselves, and growers would have to have somekind of legitimate interest in the dispensary i.e. partial ownership. I feel this is all leading up to the state handing over ALL growth and sales to the big guys...Phillip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, someone like that. To me it appears that a bureaucracy is being created which will require a corporate lawyer to find the legal path through all the legalese. Meantime, the state will eagerly fine the less experienced into non-existence, while siting the violations as just cause to further tighten regulation. Of course, we could all get together and vote the bastards out, provided you can get people to the polls.

Thats it in a nutshell. We have contacts with dispensaries that are looking for experianced growers that would be opportunities for ownership percentages in dispensaries. we can also retro-fit rooms to handle the demand of 100% of product needed for dispensaries. We also own a zoned 80 acre park that we are building 5000 to 20000 grow facilities built to suit...

So, all dispensaries having to grow 70% of their own medicine would mean they have to shut down for a while because it would take at least 4 months indoors to veg and flower....

MzHerbalistFarmer said:

So, all dispensaries having to grow 70% of their own medicine would mean they have to shut down for a while because it would take at least 4 months indoors to veg and flower....

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This means that all of these dispensary owners that know nothing about growing Cannabis who only have money to throw at a business are going to be tested. This is where the dispensaries who are actually dedicated to the medicine and cultivation thereof will stand out, and those who know nothing will be S.O.L.

Tyrannabudz said:

This means that all of these dispensary owners that know nothing about growing Cannabis who only have money to throw at a business are going to be tested. This is where the dispensaries who are actually dedicated to the medicine and cultivation thereof will stand out, and those who know nothing will be S.O.L.

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True - but everyone who is trying to support the local growers is going to be shut down? That would suck for a lot of us....

MzHerbalistFarmer said:

True - but everyone who is trying to support the local growers is going to be shut down? That would suck for a lot of us....

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Yes, Mz that is exactly what they are trying to do. They want to limit product availability thereby effectively shutting down MMJ in Colorado. What they don't get is MMJ is here. Nothing they do can stop it and they are worried about the press it going to create as the world is watching Colorado right now to see what we end up doing.

SB 109 passed and HB 1284 is very likely to pass as well. It will force 50%-80% of disps out of business and create up to 20k caregivers that would be needed to keep up with demand.

If 1284 passes you can bet yer bippy there will be litigation as I know, at least, Robb Corry will be filing a suit against the state as this bill is CLEARLY unconstitutional! I only know where Robb stands on the bill and have heard Warren Edson actually supports it but I haven't talked to him to find out his position on it. There are actually a group of people in the community who do support this bill. However, I, for the life of me, don't understand why.

The Senate, repeatedly, acknowledged the fact that if they pass this there will be litigation. They know it. It wasn't just one Senator who brought it up either.


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