A bill that was supposed to put some guardrails on Colorado’s runaway medical marijuana train has been so watered down by recent amendments that it is a shadow of the original measure.
House Bill 1284 was flawed from the outset because it legitimizes dispensaries, which never were part of the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000.
But after changes made last week — much to the jubilation of medical marijuana entrepreneurs — the bill no longer gives local governments the ability to ask residents whether to ban dispensaries.
Even if lawmakers think dispensaries ought to exist, gutting that voter input provision ought to be a deal breaker.
State lawmakers need to get a grip on this issue, stop giving in to the marijuana industry’s phalanx of well-paid lobbyists and pass a bill that addresses the problems emerging as Colorado’s medical marijuana scene turns into a back door for marijuana legalization.
We never bought the argument that because so many people have gotten medical marijuana cards (via what we think is a flawed process), it ought to justify dispensaries, which have been springing up like Starbucks throughout the metro area.
Voters at the local level ought to have the ability to deny dispensaries a place in their communities. That would give communities a path back to what we had before the dispensary boom of the past year.
We believe that legislators ought to see the value of allowing voters, who after all approved the original amendment, a say in the matter.
If communities ban dispensaries, it wouldn’t mean they would be denying the use of medical marijuana. Patients could still get it from caregivers who each deal with a limited number of patients, as directed by the Colorado Constitution.
The 2000 constitutional amendment was written — and sold — as a small-bore solution for patients to grow their own, or if they’re too sick, have a caregiver grow it for them.
Instead, what we have is a vast commercialization that has taken advantage of an ill-defined measure. Voters did not approve legalization.
The other deletion from this bill that must be addressed is the loosening of criminal background checks on people who work in dispensaries.
Again, we think that even legislators who believe in the dispensary model ought to see the value in standing firm on having a clean rap sheet.
Previously, the bill had a provision prohibiting people with any drug conviction from being involved in dispensaries. The bill was changed to disqualify those who had convictions within the last five years.
That ought to be an easy call for lawmakers. People who have a record of criminal drug activity only make the medical marijuana industry even sketchier.
Laws defining the production and delivery of medical marijuana ought to remain close to the measure voters passed in 2000. The latest version of HB 1284 is a far cry from that.
