The issue came up Wednesday during the first meeting of the Cost-benefit Analysis of Legalized Marijuana in Colorado Committee. The interim committee is meeting at the request by the Legislature.
Lawmakers discussed the increasing concern, as more organized home-grows come to light, of marijuana diverted to the black market, largely in other states.
Several operations exposed in Colorado involved out-of-state individuals moving to Colorado to build large home-grows and transport marijuana out of state.
Other growers have used the cover of the medical marijuana caregiver model – in which growers are allowed to provide cannabis to patients – to justify large plant counts, in which at least some marijuana is diverted to the black market.
Four Colorado doctors – including one from Durango – had their medical licenses suspended Tuesday in connection with recommendations for higher-than-normal plant counts.
“People who grow marijuana to ship it out of state, who aren’t providing medicine for sick people, what do we refer to those people as?” asked Sen. Chris Holbert, R-Parker.
“Criminals,” answered Stacey Linn, the mother of Jack Splitt, a 15-year-old who suffers from spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy and dystonia.
Splitt’s story inspired lawmakers to pass laws allowing students to use medical marijuana at school, after Splitt saw remarkable benefits from using the drug.
Linn started a group, CannAbility, to support parents who want to learn about medical marijuana for kids.
“We need to find a way to crack down on the criminals and not the patients,” Linn said.
Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, questioned just how connected black market marijuana is to the caregiver system.
“We’ve had caregivers since 2000. ... It seems a little tenuous to me given the fact that we’ve had them for a long time. If this was really driving that much out-of-state diversion, we would have heard about it, ... and we wouldn’t just be talking about it now,” Singer said.
“My anecdotal suspicion is people from out-of-state are coming to move here, and either they’re calling themselves caregivers, or they’re not calling themselves anything, and law enforcement is frustrated.”
The committee will meet two more times before the Legislature convenes in January. Lawmakers plan to take comment from law enforcement, industry stakeholders and legalization skeptics before possibly drafting legislation for next year.
A host of other cannabis topics are likely to be discussed as well, including legal marijuana’s impact on tourism and children, possible health consequences, statistics on driving under the influence, potency concerns, and disproportionate results for minorities.
“We’re really trying to get our hands ultimately around where we want to go next, or what’s coming next, whether that’s planned or a reaction to what’s happening,” said Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, chairman of the committee. “People ask us all the time, ‘How’s it going?’ We don’t have a great comprehensive answer.”
[email protected]
