With A Vengeance

Colorado’s diverse MMJ industry unites to fight superheroic battles

The summer blockbuster The Avengers works on a simple premise: take a group of talented, yet diverse heroes and use their skills to defeat a threat too large to tackle individually. If you followed what was happening in the Colorado legislature, you’d notice a similar story playing out: The medical marijuana industry is finally coalescing, and it’s seeing results.

Lobbying. To many, it’s a dirty word. In politics, it’s how most things get done. While medical marijuana may have been approved by voters in 2000, control over the program has fallen under the purview of the state legislature. Now, many dispensary owners find themselves needing a voice at the state level, organizing into a variety of different business associations.
When a bill was introduced this spring to make driving under the influence of 5 nanograms of cannabis a per se DUI (beyond reasonable doubt), it was a familiar story. A similar bill had been introduced in 2011 and initially had tremendous support before ultimately failing to pass. This time, a unified front would be necessary, bringing the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, the Association of Cannabis Trades for Colorado, the Cannabis Business Alliance and the United Food and Commercial Workers union together.
Together, they spread the message to patients to get involved and reach out to their representatives, making phone calls or sending e-mails. All of this appeared to work, as Republicans sacrificed the DUI bill in an attempt to kill a pro-civil unions bill.

“This time, we weren’t the priority,” notes Cannabis Business Alliance executive director Shawn Coleman.
Then Gov. John Hickenlooper called a special session. Suddenly, the bill had new life, and efforts had to be doubled. “We had killed this bill four and a half times only to see it back on the senate floor,” Medical Marijuana Industry Group executive director Michael Elliott recalls. In the end, the vote tied at 17-17, enough to shelve it until the next session.
Other measures are likely to reappear, such as a proposed diversion of the Department of Public Health and Environment’s Registry fees to cover operating expenses at the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division, which is currently operating with a significantly lower budget than had been anticipated. That agency is sustained through license fees that they collect when dispensaries get the final seal of approval, only complications at the local level and attrition have meant very few actual dollars were collected.
“Take used car dealerships, for example,” says Coleman. “If the Department of Revenue had to issue licenses to every dealer in the state, think about how long that would take.”
But never fear. Colorado’s Ganga-vengers, attempting to prop up the agency that’s directly responsible for regulating them, may just save the day.

But there are many battles still left to fight, and it looks like the DUI fight has just begun.

A Counter-Proposal

Because of the danger that a new DUI bill will rear up its ugly head for the next legislative session—“Rep. [Steve] King [R-Grand Junction] says he’ll bring it back next year, and I have every reason to believe him,” Medical Marijuana Industry Group executive director Michael Elliott tells CULTURE—a coalition of MMJ groups remains vigilant and have offered a counter-proposal to the aforementioned 5-nanogram limit. The alternative was born out of a DUI workgroup that brought state officials, law enforcement, and MMJ industry experts together to find a sensible approach to safe driving. The number they ultimately settled on: 15 nanograms.
“They kept saying that most people were impaired at 5 nanograms, but that’s not good enough for proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” argues Elliott. “The 15-nanogram level is one where everyone should be impaired.”