Bipartisan bill would create stricter regulations for medical marijuana industry

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (KRDO) – A Colorado bill making its way through law would limit the amount of marijuana concentrates patients could buy, as well as changing the way those products are sold.

In this week House bill 1317 Adopted unanimously in the House Public & Behavioral Health & Human Services Committee. Both Democrats and Republicans support the law, saying it is primarily aimed at education and the study of highly potent marijuana.

“The bill tries to investigate and understand this. It tries to put some safety and guard rails around what is currently going on,” says 9th District Republican Senator Paul Lundeen.

At a press conference, many speakers in the bill discussed issues they saw with high-THC products. To say that marijuana concentrates cause problems for students who get their hands on it. According to Lundeen, there have been cases of teenagers on psychotic breaks who have used highly potent marijuana.

“The bill seeks to research and understand that,” says Lundeen, “to put some safety and guard rails around what is currently going on.”

If signed by the governor as is, it would put more restrictions on medical marijuana users between the ages of 18 and 20. Two doctors from different practices would have to diagnose the patient and that patient would have to attend follow-up appointments every six months after their first visit. The bill would also only allow those specific patients to purchase up to two grams of marijuana concentrates per day.

However, the bill would also affect medical marijuana users who are 21 years of age and older. From now on you can buy 40 grams of concentrates per day. This bill would limit that to eight grams per day. Not only that, but it would also change the packaging for these products. Says Lundeen, “One gram of highly potent THC, rather than being sold in pieces per gram, would be broken down into ten-tenths of a gram servings based on this calculation.”

Patients who want to buy a total of eight grams would receive 80 containers, double the amount they would now get if they bought 40 grams.

“It’s going to ruin the business,” says Kaleigh Patten, a budtender at Bobby Brown Best Buds in Colorado Springs. You and other medical businesses say that because of the many additional containers, it will cost more to manufacture suppliers and that cost will be passed on to customers: “Then patients will spend even more than any of us,” says Patten.

Storage problems are also a problem for businesses. For businesses buying grams in bulk, 100 grams would get in 1,000 packages.