A medical marijuana bill months in the making could see more changes Tuesday when state lawmakers for the first time take up the complicated task of regulating the quickly growing industry.
In Senate Bill 109, sponsor Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, focuses on more closely linking doctors and their pot-seeking patients by breaking links between doctors and dispensaries, requiring doctors recommending marijuana to have licenses in good standing and requiring a bonafide doctor-patient relationship.
Romer said there are already four amendments ready for debate Tuesday. They would:
SB109 closely mirrors suggestions from Gov. Ritter and the law enforcement and medical communities, some of the only common ground in the medical marijuana debate.
Earlier this month, Romer jettisoned from his bill more controversial provisions that would have allowed dispensaries to remain open under new and complex regulations. A second bill dealing with those issues is still being drafted, and could limit pot providers to five patients each.
That strict a regulation would likely close most of the hundreds of pot dispensaries that have cropped up around Colorado.
Romer’s SB109 will be heard Tuesday by the Health and Human Services Committee in the Capitol’s Old Supreme Court Chambers, the largest hearing room available.
