Ask a Stoner: Do Home Grows Break the One-Ounce Possession Limit?

Westword

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "12017618",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17242653",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261320",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18838239",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17261321",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

Dear Stoner: If I can only possess an ounce, how am I not breaking the law with my home grow? Three flowering plants produce way more than that. Hell, one plant does.
Marty

Dear Marty: Helluva question you got there, Marty. On the surface, it does look like a contradiction: Skilled home growers can attain yields of around eight ounces of cannabis from one plant alone. But don't worry, your home grow isn't breaking the possession limit as long as only three plants are flowering. Here's why: While you’re correct in saying that the state's personal possession limit for cannabis is one ounce (two ounces for medical patients), there is a caveat in the state constitution that allows you to possess more than that at your growing location, because of precisely what you're worried about.

click to enlarge

Jacqueline Collins

According to cannabis attorney Warren Edson, Amendment 64, the voter-approved measure that legalized recreational pot in 2012, allows Coloradans 21 and up to possess whatever amount of bud their plants produce at their grow location, and the grow location only. Once you leave the grow location — in this case, your house — you can only have one ounce of pot on you. Seems ripe for manipulation and mistakes, but that's pot regulation in a nutshell. Don't get me started on local plant-count restrictions for medical patients.

Send questions to [email protected].