Companies on Internet offer free marijuana
A local Colorado Springs company advertised free marijuana on the Internet posing the question if the move was legal under new Colorado law.
Under Amendment 64, a person older than 21 years old can give an ounce of marijuana for free to another person older than 21. Billygoatgreen Marijuana Delivery Service said in its ad on Craig’s List it will give you free marijuana; you just have to pay the delivery fee.
“The marijuana is free depending on how much you want, the delivery charge isn’t,” said a consultant for the company on the phone.
Clifton L. Black with Clifton & Graham, LLC said he’s seen companies advertising similar offers on the internet.
He said the legality of this is questionable. The company’s delivery fee falls in a gray area. He said the company could say it wasn’t selling marijuana; they were assisting someone else with getting their marijuana, which is protected under Amendment 64.If using that argument,it could say the delivery fee was just someone just filling up the tank to get from point A to point B.
He said ultimately the legality of this would be at the discretion of a judge or jury. He said the court would consider if the delivery fee is a realistic amount. He gave the example that if a company charged a $50 delivery fee for a delivery that was a block away, the court could decide the high fee was to cover the costs of the marijuana product. That interpretation would not be covered under Amendment 64 and it would be illegal.
Billygoatgreen Marijuana Delivery Service was open with talking to KRDO NewsChannel 13 but it would only release information approved by its lawyer. The consultant said over the phone that he hadn’t made any deliveries on Thursday but expected to. He said the money collected while making deliveries was put toward marijuana research and development.
Black said while the legality of this is unclear, he said these companies are taking on a huge amount of risk. He explained if is a business is exchanging marijuana for something of value, even if its not money, its illegal under Amendment 64.
“People can’t make an agreement to trade something of value so say, example someone couldn’t say, ‘I’ll give you an ounce of marijuana for a 10-speed [bike]. That’s still something of value, that’s remuneration, you’re getting paid for that,” said Black.
