Bipartisan bill would create stricter regulations for medical marijuana industry

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A Colorado Bill making its way through the legislature would limit the amount of marijuana concentrates patients could buy and also change the way those products are sold.

This week House Bill 1317 passed unanimously in the House Public & Behavioral Health & Human Services Committee. Both Democrats and Republicans support the bill, saying it is mostly aimed at education and studying high potency marijuana.

“The bill seeks to research and understand that, it seeks to set some safety rails and guard rails around what’s going around currently," says Republican Senator Paul Lundeen of the Ninth District.

At a press conference, many speakers of the bill discussed issues they've seen with high THC products. Saying marijuana concentrates are creating problems for high school students who are getting their hands on it. Lundeen says there have been cases of teenagers having psychotic breaks who have taken high potency marijuana.

“The bill seeks to research and understand that," Lundeen says, "it seeks to set some safety rails and guard rails around what’s going around currently.”

If signed by the Governor as is, it would create more restrictions for medical marijuana users between 18 and 20-years-old. Two physicians from different practices would have to diagnose the patient and that patient would have to attend follow-up appointments every six months after their initial visit. The bill would also only allow those specific patients to purchase up to two grams of marijuana concentrates in a day.

However, the bill would also impact medical marijuana users who are 21 and older. As of now, they can purchase 40 grams of concentrates a day. This bill would limit that to eight grams a day. Not only that, but it would also change the packaging for those products. Lundeen says, “A gram of high potency THC instead of being sold as a chunk a gram it would be, based on this bill, be broken down into ten one-tenth of a gram portion."

Patients who want to purchase a total of eight grams would receive 80 containers, which would be double the amount they get now with purchasing 40 grams.

“It’s going to kill business," says Kaleigh Patten a budtender at Bobby Brown Best Buds in Colorado Springs. She and other medical shops say because of so many extra containers, it's going to cost suppliers more to create and that cost will be passed down to customers. “Then the patients are going to spending even more than all of us," Patten says.

Storage concerns are also an issue for shops. For businesses buying grams in bulk, 100 grams would turn into 1,000 packages.