Pot limits for Colorado tourists could be on the way out

Pot limits for Colorado tourists could be on the way out
Published May 02, 2016 Associated Press                 


An attendant at the Breckenridge Cannabis Club, which sells recreational marijuana products in the ski town of Breckenridge, Colo., shows the store's wares. (AP)
Colorado's tourists would be able to buy as much marijuana as residents, if a bill moving through the state Legislature passes.

The measure repeals Colorado's unique-in-the-nation tiered purchasing system for marijuana. All adults over 21 here are allowed to possess an ounce of marijuana — but retail pot shops can't sell more than a quarter ounce in one day to people without Colorado IDs.
The purchasing limits were established in 2013 to prevent marijuana diversion out of state. Lawmakers figured that visiting tourists wouldn't blaze through a full ounce before heading home. An ounce of pot is sometimes compared to a keg of beer because it's difficult for most users to finish in a few days.
"We don't want people taking it out of state," said Sen. Cheri Jahn, a Democrat sponsoring a bill that includes the change. "What we found was, that's really not happening."
Colorado pot regulators now say that tourists carrying small amounts of pot home aren't Colorado's main marijuana-diversion problem.
Instead, state regulators and local law enforcement point to underground pot growers as the most likely source of sending pot to states where the drug isn't legal.
Earlier this month, police and federal agents arrested more than 40 people and seized piles of pot plants and elaborate growing equipment during raids of homes and warehouses throughout the Denver area.
Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division, which oversees pot shops, has never cited a retailer for selling a tourist more than a quarter-ounce of pot.
But the industry fears that new possession limits on concentrated and edible pot due to take effect this fall would make it harder for retailers to keep track of two limits. That's because the new rules don't consider leafy pot amounts to be the same as, say, pot brownies or hash oil or a skin lotion infused with marijuana's active ingredient.
"We'd have to hire math professors to work in the dispensaries" to keep track of purchasing limits, said Mark Slaugh, head of the Colorado Cannabis Business Alliance. Another pot seller said the tiered purchasing system makes it harder to complete the detailed inventory requirements Colorado requires.
"It complicates everything," said Mike Lord, director of business operations for LivWell, which has 14 marijuana dispensaries.
The top marijuana adviser to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Andrew Freedman, said the governor had not yet reviewed the proposed change.
But Freedman pointed out that the changes could complicate enforcement of different limits for tourists and residents.
"Having an enforceable standard is important to us," Freedman said.
Removal of the tiered purchase limits is part of a routine renewal of Colorado's pot regulations. That renewal has passed the state House and is awaiting approval in the state Senate, where an initial committee approved the change Wednesday.
http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2016/05/02/pot-limits-for-colorado-tourists-could-be-on-way-out.html 

Cass wrote:I sense a road trip coming very soon...

4EVER2 wrote:

Cass wrote:I sense a road trip coming very soon...

If only~~~my little neighbor girl {5 brain surgeries} had tried that Charolettes Web Oil and had great success with it but it was quite the detailed method for smuggling that back into this state from Colorado, due to the Federal & State Reg's that are enforced here by my ignorant Gov.  They're in the process of moving to Colorado, just to get her off of all those adult sized meds she's been taking since she was 3yrs old for her epilepsy seizures --- so many holistic ointments & meds have been made from marijuana and my government made sure it was considered a banned drug back in the 30's