Americans For Safe Access – ASA National

DENVER, CO – The agency charged with regulating Colorado’s medical marijuana industry has not adequately defined its mission, squandered money on capital projects and underreported tax revenues, state auditors said in a scathing report released on Tuesday.

The Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division, a division of Colorado’s Department of Revenue, failed to follow the framework laid out by the state legislature when lawmakers approved the program in 2010, auditors said in the 96-page report.

“The division has not adequately defined the oversight activities it must perform or determined the resources it needs to implement the regulatory system envisioned by the General Assembly,” the report said.

The Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on the report. But revenue department officials agreed with its recommendations, the report said.

The report noted that the agency experienced 19 straight months of net losses, including a $2.3 million loss in June 2011 because of “large capital purchases,” including furniture, computers and a software program that failed to materialize.

Funding for the division has “fluctuated significantly,” since it was established, auditors said, as revenues have declined by 56 percent from $8.6 million to $3.8 million. Expenditures during the same time have increased by 11 percent from $4.7 million to $5.2 million.

The drop in revenue was largely due to a moratorium on new dispensaries from mid-2010 through 2012, which meant the division collected fewer fees.

“Weaknesses in the division’s fee-setting, strategic planning and expense controls contributed to its funding problems,” the report said.

Colorado voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 2000, and last fall voted to legalize small amounts of pot for recreational use. State lawmakers are in the process of crafting a bill that would establish a regulatory framework for the use of recreational marijuana.

Staff layoffs at the revenue department contributed to the underreporting of about $760,000 due the state in tax revenues from 56 of Colorado’s more than 1,400 medical marijuana dispensaries, auditors said.

Additionally, regulators spent $1.1 million in 2011 and 2012 on a marijuana plant tracking computer system that “not does currently exist” because the agency lacked the remaining $400,000 to pay the vendor to implement the system.

Michael Elliott, executive director of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, blamed the legislature for the oversight problems identified in the report.

“Our members follow the law and expect state officials to give the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division the budget it needs to ensure proper enforcement,” Elliot said in a statement. “We want more inspectors and oversight of the industry.”

Auditors recommended the revenue department streamline its licensing procedures, step up monitoring activities, and improve the way it seizes and disposes of unauthorized marijuana.

The report also said the division should impose spending controls over expenses and the staff use of state-owned vehicles.

Source: http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/16614/colorados-medical-marijuana-enforcement-division-fails-audit/

Jeremy P. Meyer, The Denver Post

Denver City Council over the next few months will be faced with decisions over recreational pot that one councilman believes could change the face of the city forever.

Should Denver allow private marijuana-smoking clubs that could make the city a mecca for pot users from around the world?

“That is the key issue,” said Councilman Charlie Brown, who leads a special committee looking at licensing recreational-marijuana sales in Denver. “Do we want Denver to become a pot-tourist spot? Is that going to be a reality? What do you think when you think ‘Amsterdam’? You think marijuana. And there is no doubt that is what Denver will become.”

On Monday afternoon, the Amendment 64 committee is scheduled to hear from opponents and proponents of allowing commercial sales of recreational marijuana. Fifteen minutes are being set aside to hear public comments.

In May, the committee will take an informal vote on whether Denver should opt out on licensing recreational-marijuana sales, something several surrounding communities already have done.

Brown doesn’t think that will occur in Denver.

Two-thirds of the city’s voters in November approved Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana for adults older than 21. The city also has become a leader in the regulation of medical marijuana. Now, 207 licensed medical-marijuana dispensaries operate in Denver; the city has 204 liquor stores.

“I just can’t imagine the council opting out on what the city voted for,” Brown said.

This week, recommendations from Colorado’s Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force are expected to be released. And the council will hear from city officials who were on the task force: council members Mary Beth Susman and Chris Nevitt, and Tom Downey, director of excise and licensing.

Council members also will hear from Dr. Christian Thurstone, president of the Colorado Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Society and medical director of one of Colorado’s largest youth substance-abuse-treatment clinics. Then, Christian Sederberg, a lawyer who helped write Amendment 64, will present his side.

Finally, Diane Carlson-Robinson, co-founder of Bravetracks, a nonprofit that helps Colorado high school students with professional and personal opportunities, will give her views.

Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367, jpmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jpmeyerdpost

By KRISTEN WYATT Associated Press
DENVER February 20, 2013 (AP)
Marijuana tourism is on the way to Colorado, under a recommendation made Tuesday by a state task force to regulate the drug made legal by voters last year.

But Colorado should erect signs in airports and borders telling visitors they can’t take pot home, the task force recommended.

Colorado’s marijuana task force was assembled to suggest regulations for pot after voters chose to flout federal drug law and allow its use without a doctor’s recommendation. Made up of lawmakers, law enforcement authorities and marijuana activists, the task force agreed Tuesday that the constitutional amendment on marijuana simply says that adults over 21 can use the drug, not just Colorado residents. If lawmakers agree with the recommendation, tourists would be free to buy and smoke marijuana.

“Imposing a residency requirement would almost certainly create a black market for recreational marijuana in the state,” said Rep. Dan Pabon, a Denver Democrat who sits on the task force.

Tourists could see purchasing caps though, possibly as low as an eighth of an ounce per transaction.

Afraid that marijuana tourism could open the door for traffickers to load up and take it across state borders for illegal sale, task force members agreed that non-residents should be able to buy only limited amounts, though a specific amount wasn’t set.

“Marijuana purchased in Colorado must stay in Colorado,” Pabon warned.

“We could attract greater federal scrutiny and displeasure of our neighbors,” if marijuana flows across state lines, he said.

Task force members were less successful agreeing to recommendations on marijuana growing and public use. Colorado’s marijuana law allows home growing but requires plants to be in a locked, secure location out of public view. The task force couldn’t agree whether a “locked” and “secure” location would mean a backyard surrounded by a fence, or whether an enclosure such as a shed or greenhouse should be mandatory.

One of the task force’s most vocal marijuana critics, Greenwood Village Police Chief John Jackson, worried that backyard pot gardens would need more than a chain-link fence to keep kids out.

Not all task force members agreed. User advocate Meg Sanders said the covering requirement wouldn’t be fair to rural Coloradans.

“I think it goes too far in restricting what people can do on their own private property,” Sanders said.

Public use also prompted a dispute that wasn’t resolved Tuesday. Jackson and others wanted to ban marijuana use on publicly visible patios, porches and backyard. Marijuana activists chafed.

“So I can drink a beer on my porch? But I can’t smoke a joint?” asked marijuana advocate Christian Sederberg.

State Sen. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, said lawmakers would hesitate to regulate something legal people do on private property. What about backyard grills that send the smell of hamburgers into the nose of a neighbor who’s vegetarian?, she asked.

“I don’t know how far we want to go telling people what they can’t do on their own porches,” she said.

The porch marijuana question was left unsettled. Task force members also put off a decision on proposals from Jackson to exempt law enforcement from maintaining marijuana and marijuana plants seized during criminal investigations.

Potency and labeling recommendations for commercial marijuana will also be discussed later.

The task force has until Feb. 28 to recommend marijuana regulations, which will ultimately be set by the state Legislature and the Department of Revenue, the agency which oversees gambling and alcohol and will also regulate recreational pot.

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Kristen Wyatt can be found on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt

Jordan Steffen, The Denver Post, Denver Post

A healthy marijuana plant should have lots of shoots, healthy roots and plenty of leaves.

But the more than 20 people Saturday who attended THC University’s first class, Growing Marijuana 101, learned that growing a healthy and fruitful marijuana plant is far from easy.

The sold-out class offered students the basics of growing marijuana at home, including information about watering, proper lighting, different containers and optional accessories. At the end of the five-hour class, students had the option of touring the growing operation at the Denver dispensary Karmaceuticals.

THC University co-founders Matt Jones, 24, and Freeman LaFleur, 25, said they had been looking for a way to enter the industry for the past couple of years.

“When Amendment 64 passed, we saw this industry that is going to go boom and no education to go with it,” Jones said.

Under Amendment 64, people 21 and older in Colorado can legally use and possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and grow up to six marijuana plants.

Christopher and Ginger Grider drove to Colorado from New Mexico to take the class. Ginger Grider uses medical marijuana to help treat lupus, fibromyalgia and post-traumatic stress disorder. The couple wants to learn how to grow at home.

“I want to know what I am getting and how it is grown,” Ginger Grider said.

The class was held in a classroom in the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria campus but was not associated with any accredited university. As a condition of holding the class on campus, where the use and possession of marijuana are not allowed, students saw demonstrations on tomato plants instead of marijuana plants.

In addition to holding more classes in March, Jones and LaFleur are working to create Job Board, a system where students who complete certificate programs can connect with dispensaries and other marijuana businesses that are looking for employees. Currently, the law does not require any certification to grow marijuana plants.

Recreational stores, where legal recreational marijuana can be sold, will not open for about another year.

“We’re trying to create standards in the industry so people can get consistency,” LaFleur said.

Ian Banister, who attended Saturday’s class, said he is considering starting his own growing operation.

“Obviously, there’s an interest,” Banister said. “There’s a lot going on, and I want to make sure I get it right.”

Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jsteffendp