Many American farmers were handed seeds of opportunity in October, when the United States Department of Agriculture released its much-anticipated regulations for farming hemp. The new federal rules came nearly a year after Congress legalized hemp farming, and almost half a decade after the Colorado Department of Agriculture established its own program for farming hemp. And this state’s rules don’t exactly line up with the ones just announced by the feds.
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Congress made long-awaited history this week when it put language that would legalize industrial hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill, which President Donald Trump is expected to sign into law.
While touting data in a federal report showing that marijuana use among Colorado teens is falling, attorney Brian Vicente, who co-authored Amendment 64, the measure that legalized limited recreational cannabis sales in the state, predicted that weed haters would try to twist the numbers to their advantage, and he was right. Days later, Colorado’s most prominent anti-pot organization is acknowledging the stats regarding teen use but raising alarm about the level of consumption among young adults.
A new federal study shows that marijuana use among teens in Colorado has fallen below levels seen prior to the implementation of Amendment 64, the measure that legalized limited recreational cannabis sales in the state. Given the report’s origins, attorney and activist Brian Vicente, who co-authored Amendment 64, says haters of progressive marijuana laws, such as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, will find it more difficult than ever to suggest that these statistics are flawed.
Cannabis leaders and community members gathered this week to discuss details for the rollout of the voter-approved Initiative 300, which allows qualifying businesses to apply for cannabis consumption permits in Denver.
The campaign behind I-300 organized the public forum at the Denver law office of Vicente Sederberg on January 11. A panel of experts discussed implementation of the measure, responsible cannabis consumption, staff training and mitigation, then took questions.
Vicente Sederberg, Colorado’s first law firm to focus on marijuana, is expanding. Two of the firm’s partners were involved in crafting Amendment 64, the proposal to legalize recreational marijuana that Colorado voters approved in 2012, and the firm also had a hand in writing Denver’s social-use initiative, I-300, which was on the ballot this past November.
The firm represents all things cannabis, handling businesses and investors, while also providing corporate representation, offering full-service licensing and compliance departments, and dealing with real estate and legislative policies. And now it’s adding a hemp practice.
| Sean Azzariti. See more photos and a video below. |
Earlier this week, an effort to add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of conditions legally treatable by medical marijuana in Colorado failed — a development Colorado cannabis advocate Brian Vicente described as “shameful.”
Veteran Sean Azzariti offered emotional testimony in favor of the bill and admits to being frustrated that the effort fell short again, just as it did in 2010 and 2012. But while he’s disappointed, he has new reasons for hope for a change in the future.
| 707 Headband shatter oil. |
Earlier this month, lawmakers in the Colorado House approved a bill that would limit the amount of hash and other cannabis concentrates that retail marijuana stores can sell to both in-state and out-of-state customers.
State representative Jonathan Singer sponsored the legislation — partially in response to the March death of a Wyoming college student that was questionably linked to marijuana consumption. But Singer says the measure has another goal: to prevent marijuana products leaving the state by making them harder to buy in large quantities.
Yesterday, as we reported, a bill calling for post-traumatic stress disorder to be added to the conditions approved for treatment by medical marijuana came before the Colorado House committee on State, Military and Veterans Affairs. But it was rejected by a 6-5 vote.Sensible Colorado’s Brian Vicente, attorney and co-author of Amendment 64, has been fighting for this cause since at least 2010. He’s clearly frustrated by this turn of events, as well as some of the misinformation heard during testimony. But he’s not ready to give up.
“This is something Sensible Colorado has worked on for four years-plus,” Vicente notes, “and it seems that time and again, the government has acted to prevent PTSD sufferers from ready access to medical marijuana. We think the vote last night was just shameful.”
Last Thursday, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that Colorado’s Amendment 64 applies retroactively to defendants whose actions would have been legal under the measure and were appealing convictions when it became law. A64 co-author Brian Vicente has called the decision a huge victory, while Colorado Attorney General John Suthers suggests that it is largely inconsequential, although he’ll probably appeal it anyhow. Who’s right? One pot advocate sides with Suthers but wishes a pox on both his and Vicente’s houses.