The Grey Area
Colorado’s permissive rules surrounding grow operations are well-known, however, the state is now adopting a more restrictive approach. The abundance of legal loopholes that cultivators were able to work with and around will soon be coming to an end.
Recently, the Colorado Senate passed a benchmark bill that makes it a crime for people to cultivate recreational cannabis for other people—specifically, those who have been taking advantage of a loophole in Colorado law that did not specify how to deal with cultivation cooperatives. In co-ops, only one individual is authorized as a farmer and he or she shares the costs of water, electricity and anything else that they might need with the other members of the co-op.
“Colorado has one of the most wide open abuses of our home grow laws in the country.”
The Grey and Black Market Marijuana Enforcement Efforts, or House Bill 17-1221, is the sister bill to House Bill 17-1220, which would set the limit at 12 plants for a single home in an area zoned as residential area. Recent changes to the bill extended that number to 16. Colorado’s 99-plant limit is legitimately beneficial for some patients with extreme illnesses. HB-17-1221 would appropriate state funding for local law enforcement to police the new plant limit. The bill appropriates $5,945,392 in cannabis tax revenues to give to law enforcement to crack down on illegal cannabis growing operations. HB-17-1221 passed the House 54-9 in March and passed the Senate unanimously on April 10. Both bills have passed the House and Senate and are awaiting signature from Gov. John Hickenlooper.
Hickenlooper’s office addressed the issue publicly, stating “In some cases the home grow provisions have been exploited by criminals, seemingly organized, to create black and grey markets that threaten the safety of Coloradans and undermine our regulatory system. These markets have emerged from Constitutional loopholes and exist outside the intent of the law.”
Rep. KC Becker, Rep. Cole Wist, Sen. Rhonda Fields and Sen. Bob Gardner sponsored HB-17-1220. Rep. Jonathan Singer, however, voted against the bill, citing that the law is unnecessary. A rule in already in effect states that primary caregivers growing 36 or more plants must be listed on a state registry. Under HB-17-1220, the penalties for going over the limit would include a level 1 drug petty offense for a first-time offense and is punishable by a fine of up to one thousand dollars; A Level 4 drug felony for a second or subsequent offense if the offense involves more than 12 but less than 30 plants; Or a Level 3 drug felony for a second or subsequent offense if the offense involves more than 30 plants.
Representative Yeulin Willet, Representative Dan Pabon, Sen. John Cooke and Sen. Irene Aguilar sponsored HB-17-1221. “Colorado has one of the most wide open abuses of our home grow laws in the country,” Rep. Pabon told CULTURE. “We are by far the anomaly when it comes to be grown at a residence at 99 plants. And this bill essentially says that the days of growing that many plants in your home are over, and if you want to grow more than 12 plants you permission from your local jurisdiction and they can approve or deny that. If they deny that, you have to go to a commercial setting, and that’s the only place you can grow.”
The bill would also set up a grant program to reimburse smaller local communities for funding spent on enforcing the plant limit. Rural communities that don’t have the means to enforce the limit have priority over the grants.
The Grey and Black Market Marijuana Enforcement Efforts bill was intended to stop co-ops that take advantage by sharing electricity and other utilities in order to provide cultivation for groups of people in residential areas.
Only primary caregivers who are assigned to an individual and who are in compliance are permitted to grow more than 16 cannabis plants for an individual. Those who are caught wrongfully growing cannabis for another person or persons will be subject to criminal offenses and penalties. In order to be compliant, a grower must abide by the requirements listed in the state constitution, Section 25-1.5-106.
The set of bills is both good and bad for cannabis caregivers and patients. On one hand, it prevents grey and black market cooperatives that are taking advantage of the system, and on the other, it makes it harder for patients with severe illnesses that need more than 16 plants to have such at home. At the time of this writing, Hickenlooper has yet to sign this bill into law, but plans to review it very soon.
