Senate Bill 149, a nonpartisan bill introduced on March 7, proposes new reporting requirements for such marijuana business violations as sales to underage minors, contaminated product recalls and black market activity. The measure also calls on the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, the state's regulator of marijuana businesses, to "balance the amount of influence that the marijuana industry has" on pot-related policy and rulemaking.
Proponents of the bill say that it's intended to better protect Colorado children and align state policies more closely with alcohol and tobacco enforcement, but marijuana industry stakeholders worry that it's an attempt to push for more restrictions on the business.
Colorado marijuana dispensaries passed underage sales checks at a 95 percent rate in 2021, according to the MED, slightly down from 97 percent in 2020 and 2019. But it's not the pass-fail rate that concerns state Senator Chris Hansen. He wants more compliance checks at dispensaries, and he wants the names of offending stores to be made public.
"It doesn't change regulation. It's about making sure the MED has the resources they need to do these checks," Hansen says. "It's the availability and accessibility [of violation information], and putting it on par with what we're doing in tobacco and alcohol."
The MED conducted 604 underage compliance checks at dispensaries in 2019, according to department data, but that number dropped to 118 in 2020 and 80 in 2021. A MED memo sent to Hansen says the number of checks dropped because of "COVID-related impacts," and that the department "intends to increase the number of underage sales checks to align more closely with prior years."
But Hansen, as well as state Senator Kevin Priola and state Representatives Judy Ambile and Mike Lynch, all co-sponsors of SB 149, want that increase written into law. Their proposal would require the MED to conduct underage sales checks twice a year at every dispensary in Colorado.
According to the MED, there are slightly over 1,000 stores licensed for marijuana sales in Colorado, although not all of them are currently operating.
Under the bill, the MED would also have to publish a new annual report and create a public database and website that details marijuana business violations, including information on the business licensee, what the violation was for, and the resulting discipline.
The MED doesn't comment on pending legislation (outside of testifying on some bills), and communications director Shannon Gray says the department is still reviewing SB 149 for its potential fiscal impact. However, she notes that the MED already issues annual reports "that appear to align with some of the proposed requirements."
State Senator Chris Hansen
colorado.gov
But Hansen points out that the MED's current annual reports don't list the specific violations of businesses, as the state Liquor and Tobacco Enforcement Division does. "I don't see it as an overhaul, but more as a continuation of constantly trying to improve our regulatory setup in Colorado," he says. "I think the [marijuana] industry does, by and large, do a really good job. I don't think industry is falling short in a systematic way."
But the marijuana industry isn't buying that explanation.
Peter Marcus, communications director for Boulder-based dispensary chain Terrapin Care Station, calls the bill a "solution in search of a problem," and takes issue with increasing undercover enforcement at dispensaries.
“As written, the bill would do nothing to increase accountability in terms of access for children. The fact is this: Fewer kids are using cannabis in Colorado since legalization. Responsible messaging works," Marcus says. "You can’t in one breath say your goal is to keep marijuana out of the hands of kids, and then write a bill that literally requires that kids be used as pawns in sting operations."
Those "sting operations" included in the bill are a requirement that the MED engage people under 21 years of age to enter a retail dispensary and attempt to purchase medical or recreational marijuana. Hansen says this is a typical practice for state alcohol and tobacco enforcement and doesn't violate entrapment laws.
The number of Colorado teenagers using marijuana over the past thirty days has stayed around 20 percent since 2013, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Marcus also argues that the MED's current reports on violations are adequate both in content and public accessibility, and says he's worried that SB 149's language about future MED rulemaking is an effort to push more opponents of legal marijuana on policy boards.
"The cannabis industry has always supported more education on the subject of responsibility as it pertains to access for children," Marcus says.
The makeup of the rulemaking groups became an issue during the MED's implementation of House Bill 1317, a controversial 2021 bill that restricted medical marijuana patient access and doctors' rights, as well as all commercial marijuana concentrate purchases. After the HB 1317 passed and rulemaking meetings began, the bill's proponents complained that the marijuana industry's influence on the board was too large.
Hansen, a sponsor of HB 1317 along with Priola, says the format of such boards is "unbalanced."
An earlier version of SB 149 would have barred marijuana licensees from state rulemaking boards if they'd violated MED rules in the past, but that language was stricken before the bill was introduced, Hansen says.
SB 149 would also require the state to open bidding for Colorado's marijuana seed-to-sale tracking system, which is currently operated by a private firm, METRC. Intended to monitor all stages of commercial marijuana production and limit black market diversion, Colorado's seed-to-sale tracking has been overseen by METRC since recreational pot sales began in 2014. Bidding for the contract would be a public process, according to the bill.
Marijuana Industry Group, one of Colorado's largest cannabis business groups, is on record as opposing the bill and will lobby against it, according to the Colorado Secretary of State.
SB 149 has been assigned to the Senate Health & Human Services Committee, but no hearing date has yet been set.
