While HB 1317 Sits on Governor’s Desk, Colorado Consumers Push for Veto

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Before the Colorado legislature ended this week, House Law No. 1317 had been amended nearly thirty times. It’s now on Governor Jared Polis’s desk, along with many complaints from medical marijuana patients and cannabis industry advocates urging him to veto the law that would add many levels to this state’s marijuana regulations.

Proponents of MMJ are particularly concerned. “The sponsors of this law seem to believe that the 5 percent of registered medical marijuana patients between the ages of 18 and 20 are more likely to abuse cannabis concentrates and illegally give them to minors. Unfortunately, their solution is to restrict all medical marijuana “into the future,” wrote Cannabis Clinicians of Colorado in a letter to Polis.

In their comments on the Westword Facebook post of our story on the passage from HB 1317, readers offer further reasons to veto the law. Says Dan:

Veto it. We voted to legalize weed. Do not regulate too much.

Andrew adds:

HB 1317 is an embarrassment for Colorado’s years of work drafting the Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol Act, “which will impose stricter results on Colorado adults on an unproven problem backed by blatant lies Ban: Prosecutors and for-profit” drug counselors “are loudly calling for that However, passing law does not indicate empirical support because they want the system of punitive incarceration and court order and rehab.

It is disgusting for us, the Coloradans, who have adopted Amendment No 64. Obviously, a call for more research is one for more research that confirms your beliefs. Cool madness is scare tactics and coercion. You know better than to sign it, Governor Polis.

suggests Kyle:

This bill rightly craps patients. This state’s cannabis policy has fallen behind. This used to be a model for other states; I hope they don’t take our lead. HB 1317 was and is a shitty bill.

Notes Graeme:

Given that federal law prohibits doctors from providing dosage advice, it’s pretty clear that this does nothing but kill medical marijuana.

Barbara answers:

Exactly. Don’t sign the petition to add $ 137 million to the school budget for raising the recreational marijuana tax. This terrible law is meant to off-line patients to use recreational MJ.

And Tracy concludes:

Polis is a massive hypocrite if he doesn’t veto this absolute garbage bill. In the meantime, you could drive a semi-trailer truck to a liquor store and buy every bottle in the building. The only people who support this are ignorant pearl necklaces.

Republicans are red
Democrats are blue
None of them
Gives a fuck about you

When asked if he would veto HB 1317 at a press conference on June 10th, Polis said, “We don’t go into what we sign and what we don’t. What I generally say on every bill is something We’ll probably give that to you when you ask about a particular bill, and I’ll paraphrase it now. But we’ve put an analysis on every bill: it’s a legal analysis, a political analysis and a fiscal analysis, “he said. “We will then make an appropriate decision and will definitely notify you. It is certainly fair to say that the invoices that we supported during the process should be signed by us. I look forward to evaluating these in the next few weeks . “

What do you think Polis should do with HB 1317? Read the final version of the invoice here, then post a comment or email your thoughts to editor@westword.com.

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