I am the spokesperson for Colorado NORML. Attached please find our legislative priorities for the 2014 Colorado General Assembly. Contact me if you have questions.
Sean T. McAllister, Esq.
McAllister Law Office, P.C.
36 Steele St., Suite 200
Denver, CO 80206
(Ph)
720-722-0048
(Fax)
720-542-8391
(Em)
sean@mcallisterlawoffice.com
www.mcallisterlawoffice.com
Offices in Denver and Summit County
Colorado
Chapter
National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Media Contacts:
December 5, 2013
14 State Legislative Priorities for Colorado NORML in 2014 Session
Denver, CO – The Colorado Chapter of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)
announces its priorities for legislative change in the 2014 session of the Colorado General Assembly:
Public
Use/In-home Cultivation
1. Define public use to exclude
consumption on one's own property, either residential or commercial property,
including outside in places open to public view. This protection should also
extend friends and invitees on people’s property who are authorized by the
owner to use marijuana on that property.
2. Prohibit local governments from
limiting plant counts in homes. Each adult in Colorado has the right to grow 6
marijuana plants. If 4 adults live in a house, they should be able to grow 24
plants. Any attempt by local governments to infringe on these rights is
unconstitutional.
3. Explicitly allow for social clubs
where marijuana consumers can use marijuana in a responsible manner outside of
the home.
Criminal
Code
4. Modify the Colorado criminal code
to conform with Amendment 64 so that display of marijuana is no longer a crime.
State statutes still criminalize display, while the Constitution allows it.
5. Modify the criminal law to reduce
the severity of minor overages of the limits in Amendment 64. Currently, if an
adult possesses more than 12 ounces of marijuana or more than 6 plants over the
legal limit of 6 plant, then the person is committing a felony. NORML
recommends that marijuana not become a felony matter until a person has more
than 30 plants over the limit or more than 5 pounds over the possession limit,
these matters should remain misdemeanors. In addition, Amendment 64 allows for the
lawful possession of the entire amount harvested from an adults home
cultivation and NORML opposes any attempts to limit the amount legally kept on
hand following a harvest. Similarly, the
Legislature should explicitly make legal the entire resulting harvest for
medical marijuana patients of all of their legal plants.
6. Allow marijuana use on probation
as it is legal under state law. Last year, a Colorado Court of Appeals decision
made it illegal for any probationer to use marijuana, even in medical marijuana
circumstances. This rule forces people to use addictive and harmful
prescription narcotic drugs. At a minimum, medical marijuana patients should be
exempt from this rule and recreational users should not be prohibited as a
blanket rule from using marijuana because it is legal under Colorado law.
7. NORML objects to any attempt to define
a “drug endangered child: to include parents growing in a home where children
are not exposed, consistent with the requirements under Amendment 64 that grows
occur in locked and enclosed spaces. Parents should not be criminalized for any
activity that is legal under Amendment 64.
8.
Repeal the 5 ng/ml DUID-marijuana standard. This standard is based on
incomplete science and it is unfair to chronic users and medical marijuana
patients who will likely test over that limit many hours after use when they
are no longer impaired.
Marijuana
Business Regulation
9. Modify the rules for medical
marijuana employees, allowing individuals with drug felonies to be eligible to
apply to work at a medical marijuana dispensary. The Legislature made this
change for recreational marijuana last year, but failed to extend the change to
the medical system. These two systems should be harmonized to allow individuals
with old convictions to get a fresh start and work in the industry.
10. Harmonize the rules for medical
and recreational marijuana by removing the requirement for “vertical
integration” in the medical marijuana system. Vertical integration artificially
limits the options of entrepreneurs and harms consumers by limiting production
and choice. Similarly, vertically
integrated companies, either medical or recreational, should not be limited by
the 70/30 rule which inhibits a true free market.
11. Modify the rules for medical
marijuana so that the number of plants a dispensary may grow is no longer tied
directly to patients who designate that dispensary. This creates record keeping
problems and the number of patients that designates a dispensary is not
necessarily reflective of the demand for that dispensary. Both medical and
recreational retail marijuana should merely have a tiered permitting system to
allow companies to grow specific quantities of marijuana based on their permit
limit. This system will ensure more competition and lower prices for consumers.
12. Modify the residency rules for
ownership of medical or recreational retail marijuana businesses. Prohibiting
out of state ownership severely restricts investment in these businesses at a
time when it is nearly impossible to get normal bank financing because of
federal banking issues.
Employment
13. Amend the drug testing rules for
all state employers and contractors so that marijuana use off the job, without
any impairment at work, is not grounds for termination.
Taxes
14. Create a citizen’s oversight
board to review the collection and distribution of taxes authorized in
Proposition AA. If it appears the taxes are reaping a windfall, the Legislature
should lower the 10% special sales tax so that marijuana consumers are not
paying excessive taxes.
Since its founding in 1970, NORML
has provided a voice in the public policy debate for those Americans who oppose
marijuana prohibition and favor an end to the practice of arresting marijuana
smokers. A non-profit public-interest advocacy group, NORML represents the
interests of the millions of Americans who smoke marijuana responsibly.
