Colorado Governor Offers Advice to California on Cannabis Regulation

Now that voters have approved recreational cannabis in California, the state is tasked with addressing several daunting new challenges. On Tuesday, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper offered advice to California lawmakers at a legislative hearing at the state Capitol. The Colorado Governor shared examples of his hurdles, victories and most importantly, his unrivaled experience with implementing recreational cannabis law.

Governor Hickenlooper was scheduled to speak in front of California’s State Governance and Finance Committee about his experience with implementing recreational cannabis. The oversight hearing was titled “California Cannabis in a Turbulent Time.” Hickenlooper discussed how the state might go about juggling regulatory timelines. “We made an awful lot of mistakes as we were trying to wrestle with some of these issues,” Hickenlooper stated in the Capitol. For instance, it took a year for the Colorado officials to come up with a compromise on a driving standard. The Governor warned that setting a standard for impaired driving could create problems of coming to a consensus. California’s Proposition 64 currently has no impaired driving limit, however, Colorado eventually settled for the five nanogram per milliliter limit. “We think five nanograms is the right number,” Hickenlooper added. “We went through a lot of testing.”

Hickenlooper wasn’t a fan of cannabis when the plant was initially legalized in Colorado, but has since come around. Another hurdle that had risen in Colorado was the issue of edible labeling. Colorado has taken many strides to prevent children from getting into cannabis. Senator Mike McGuire (D-San Rafael), chairman of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, held the hearing, and was pleased with the helpful comments.

Hickenlooper’s success in Colorado is evident with the optimistic review of cannabis revenue reported by the Colorado Department of Revenue. Colorado’s revenue is reported to exceed the revenues of other entire nations. California has only until January 1, 2018, to come up with regulations, taxes and licensing for recreational stores, which could potentially funnel more revenue into the state.

Many of the questions at the hearing were directed towards the topic of the confirmation of Jess Sessions and the election of Donald Trump. “We’re optimistic that he’s going to let the experiment continue,” Hickenlooper said. “But they’re going to closely watch it, I’m sure.”