All Things A64 with Jessica LeRoux - February 3, 2013
Hey Now,
Well we are 1/2 way through the 9 week A-64 task force process and i have personally witnessed some extremely encouraging developments and some that are so insanely punitive to the voters and industry members that my mind is permanently blown now. Each workgroup seems to be on its own agenda and under its own set of egos. I have some serious doubts that this bunch will be able to fabricate a meaningful and consensus building set of recommendations that actually pass the legislature and end up with Cannabis being regulated similarly to alcohol. Read all about the meetings for the final week of january 2013, and past week in CO cannabis news *** be sure to read the attached scans of meeting templates... and of course if you want to show us some love, be our valentine... we think it would be really sweet of you to order some of our delicious Love Bites & Kissy Cakes, new valentine flavors to offer your patients! info is at the bottom with the sales data!
Also a heads up Reminder that this month will be the 6th anniversary of the unresolved murder of my mentor Ken Gorman. Please take a minute to burn a joint in Ken's memory on the 17th, and offer a prayer of thanks, because not one bit of the changes to cannabis laws would have happened in CO with out the ground work Ken laid down... learn more at kengorman.org
If you can attend the general Task Force meeting on Tuedsday the 5th at 1pm at the new Carr justice center 1300 Broadway please be there and give your two minutes of testimony against vertical integration because we know MMIG & CBA will make a last ditch effort to stack the attendees to defend their unworkable protectionist policy to allow them to continue to be viable businesses when the product the massive warehouses they've leased is mediocre at best. Point out if you can that nobody is taking anything away from these folks, but that if they truly had an amazing crop which everybody in the state was clamoring to stock their shelves with as some of my clients are, these people would be screaming bloody murder to be able to expand their wholesale and increase recognition of their brand rather than spinning their oversized grow down into a ton of cheap poisonous butane infusions.
On monday there were no Task force meetings, but on Tuesday there was a legislative children's causus on marijuana. We went down to represent, but they did not let the public speak. the presenters were a grab bag of prohibitionists with an array of financial incentives to find new ways to criminalize the citizenry. the presentations included an exploitative slide show of dead abused children set to cheesy rock music sone about angels. a presentation of the risks of childhood exposure to the molds in home grows which the Dr presenting admitted that no known cases of children being hospitalized over were currently known but that is simply because the doctors arent sure which symptoms to look for and pin the blame on. Studies had been done of mold counts in grow operations that were quote "quasi legal" ie two operations were owned by alleged MMED licensed business owners who claimed the residence was their legal OPC??? these mold counts were only done inside the home, no comparative study of levels outside the home nor of homes in the neighborhood. Thus it was determined that these children are "drug enadngered children" and the proposed solution was to screen every family in the state and remove children "at risk" from their families.. there was some modest traction against this proposal, but Jim Gerhardt the Metro Denver Drug Task force cop says that the testimony rings true to him re the worries of discovering too late that a child should have been removed from the home before they were killed or worse... and that law enforcement needs an automatic triggering mechanism (ie cannabis use or cultivation which is now legal, but still a "big risk") to report substance abuse because they currently rely on officer discretion, but he would prefer that any officer called to the scene be forced to report cannabis in a home with kids. If you can, please take a minute to call your representative to say that you support the rights of parents to safely use a substance approved by the voters. Try to mention this link where children in canadian investigations of grow homes were evaluated and determined to be healthy and well developed http://www.medizinkongress.com/iatdmct2011/ws/WS3_GideonKoren.PDF
Wednesday there was a meeting of the Criminal Working Group, (shockingly these cops and cronies are only the 2nd most offensive bunch of the workgroups) they discussed a number of templates, but none was fully completed. The first up was a report from the definitions working group on what the parameters of enclosed locked space meant, and the parameters of Open & Public.
proposed definition of enclosed/locked is fully enclosed permanent or semi permanent structure with walls and a ROOF, or ceiling and an engaged locking mechanism w a combo or key lock. with all access points locked allowing for ordinary time for egress and ingress. (that means coming and going with supplies etc) big debate about use of ordinary vs reasonable... why is a roof needed? locked fenced yard ok? dictionary says enclosed is within walls or a fence... does that include a split rail fence? from Chief Jackson. Larry Abrahamson says that due to "peculiar nature" of product being regulated they have the right to define encloure how ever they would like. This spilled to a discussion of how open and public applies to a grow, as in can it be visible to passers by in a fenced locked yard, can it be visible on a private balcony of a locked 3rd/4th floor apartment, can smoke drift from the apartment be reasonable grounds for child endangerment charge in cases of drifting to a nearby residence with kids, can it be seen in a backyard from persons in a nearby apartment block or hot air balloon (alright i interjected the balloon comment, and it wont be my only insertion of hot air today) Rachel Obrien wants a total ban on outdoor grows, and double locks inside every home whether there are kids or not...Brian Conners good retort asking if the goal is to criminalize cultivation by statute to the point of making it prohibitively expensive? not one mention by all these front rangers that many parts of our state have residences on 2 to 200 acres and trespassing there is grounds to shoot a person... nor that any trespassing into a persons home is a greater crime than possessing a legal pain relieving substance in an unsecured manor in your residence.
the definition of Open and Public re smoking edibles vapes etc was next, work group defined this as : consumption (the act of smoking, inhaling, eating, drinking, or otherwise causing marijuana to enter your body) on any public streets, sidewalks, parks, or in any other place generally open or accessible to members of the public, including consumption in any vehicle located in any of the above listed areas.
ensuing discussion of adding visible to passers by to the language, questions about smell from residential grow violating O&P, questions about camping/hiking on state land, far from any person, (but accessible to any potential person) questions about use in a private leased office building. (no state or federal buildings eligible) In my public comment I asked about RVs since they are both a vehicle and a private residence, used for camping and tailgating etc... and has an oven inside to make edibles in if the owner wanted to do so and share them inside the RV at a game or concert... this stumped em...
we heard reports from the child safety subgroup and they had a few issues that they want to template and are drafting such as adding no use of cannabis during hours of operation to child care facility rules, (like alcohol) as well as ammending the current rules for selling alcohol to minors to expand to cover underage resale to a minor regarding stripping those caught reselling of their driver's license in addition of the felony charges. Define child abuse in homes with cultivation, consumption. and lastly changes to statutes regarding 19 & 20 y/o's minor in possession charges...
Charles garcia shocked me with an interesting proposal to protect their own lil rich kids from legal ramifications if they experiment with cannabis... in a nut shell they will change CO minor in possession laws to allow a 1st time user who is under 18 to be issued a summons to civil not criminal court, as a uniform state wide system equally applied to all kids, to prevent loss of scholarships, student loans, etc from ruining their lives... Larry Abrahamson did not like this as it sends the message that it is no big deal to experiment and bad choices should have consequences wants kids to have fear of god factor to prevent trying pot. the goal is consistent treatment for all kids no matter where they live in the state.
we also reviewed 5 potential but unfinished templates from the enforcement group, #1. limit plant counts for commercial cultivations, with a tiered licensing system for different levels of plants, ammounts not defined but they cant believe anybody would ever need more than 3000 plants. Goal is accountability on inventory, desired clarity for enforcement agents doing investigations. passed buck on this template to regulatory WG*** read the results below on Thursday's notes... #2 Residential grows limited and allowed a limited amount of the product of the 6 plants to be stored on site (in direct conflict with the language of A-64) to ideally a "few 2-3" ounces per household as that is plenty for personal use.... they are worried about a garage full of stored weed being stolen and diverted. This is being passed on to the legislature to decide, lets hope they understand constitutional ammendments over there... #3 "Contraband" cannabis in the possession of person's being booked into a local jail on non-cannabis charges shall be treated as contraband by the jail facility and destroyed rather than held and returned with the arrestee's personal possessions. NO monetary ammount set for reimbursment, no recourse for those found innocent, you can get a court order to return the destroyed meds, but the LEOs have immunity from liability. #4 seizure of live plants in grows under investigation "law enforcement shall not be liable to keep plants alive during any investigation and plants seized in investigation may be immediately destroyed with no monitory consequences to the LEOs," ie they want to revoke due process and not be financially liable, because they were "in good faith" They wont pay for destroyed plants because that is a defacto purchase of those plants, a violation of federal law and their rational for wanton destruction of personal or commercial
property. LEo's want Judicial Cover to break the new laws with these 2 issues, but they dont want to attach an honest fiscal note to this when sending it to the legislature because and I quote here "legislature will shit over the fiscal note attached to this one." rachel Obrein jumped in with the observation that since a home grown plant cant be sold it has no monetary value, so problem solved. Except there is a replacement cost if your garden's tomatoes get eaten by deer and the same applies here. #5 the workgroup will not reccomend the CCJJ DUID bill, because members of this workgroup feel 5 nanograms is too liberal.
Later that same day there was a tax/funding workgroup meeting, which i unfortunately missed, but my friend Ronn was nice enough to share his notes with me so I could review the audio portion and give you the highlights
Lastly on wednesday was the consumer safety meeting (by far the most offensive group of prohibitionists led by sunshine law violating condesending fuck wad urbina) where we MIPS owners were completely sold out by our so called industry representative... the new packaging guidlines are draconian at best.... opaque, no images, no logos (except one uniform pot leaf that will be forced on us all) no product or health claims, forced testing from labs with no standards or oversight., and good luck to try fitting a nutritional label on a chew or sucker.. and then the generic unit must go into a "child proof resealable safety sack" like used in big Pharma) and the costs of these bags are being burdened on the backs of the least profitable segment of this industry, as well as the costs being forced on patients and elderly persons who have no children and may be on fixed income... and then the environmental costs of a land fill. when you talk against this proposal to your representative be sure to ask where in their district they think voters would like to add the needed landfill this will generate in wasteful plastics.... this was all backed by a couple doctors from children's hospital and the poison control center of their study of 14 children admitted to area hospitals since 2009 with symptoms associated with eaten cannabis... no distinction was made if the edibles they ate might have been prepared in the home though... one guy wants a warning of the liability for sharing with minors on the labels (but this work group rejected my solution that the liability be on the reciept for all cannabis purchased with a signatory line for the consumer to sign off on their responsibilty in the presence of the seller, but they would keep the signed receipt and there would be no record kept. cost to implement is minimal so they dont like it) and even though every other product regulated by the PPPA (post prevention packaging act) is lethal they feel the cannabis edibles should be added to that list. This is not needed to prevent kids from eating edibles, parenting is needed for that, these measures are simply punitive and designed to empty the pockets of the businesses that are already in tenuous operation.
a discussion of testing was brief but telling.... everybody is up in arms about potency, mean while the state has NO established parameters nor oversight for potency testing nor regulation there of, and it was shocking to them that somebody thought that accurate testing for deadly molds and pesticides was a more important priority than potency testing, but he was ignored of course...
thursday was the Regulatory workgroup meeting, a very encouraging group who seem to actually intend to create a workable implementation plan, lets hope they can get their progressive ideas through the rest of the task force. MMIG & CBA have shown their true colors as selfish greed mongers by flogging their protectionist plans in the face of complete opposition from all sides. I am glad to say that it looks like we are finally on the cusp of killing the vertical integration that has kept us locked into a market of mediocrity. honestly based on two viewings of the hybrid model so far, nobody is taking anything away from these folks, but if Meg & Norton truly had an amazing crop which everybody in the state was clamoring to stock their shelves with as some of my clients are, these people would be screaming bloody murder to be able to expand their wholesale offerings and increase statewide recognition of their brand rather than spinning their oversized sub-average-ish grow down into a ton of cheap poisonous butane infusions. We once again heard two templated proposals, one Hybrid model from Ron K of DOR, (my new favorite "cop") the new info we got about the hybrid model is that an owner can own any combo of any 5 licenses (the # limited at 5 is not set in stone, I can live with it, but if you all dont like it, I will go to bat for you, Ron set that number to prevent monopolization and diversion from a business too big to regulate.) between MIPs, Retail, OPC, and Labs.... ( I am very uncomfortable about having a lab that I am forced to have my product tested by owning a competitor business, Labs should stand alone to prevent conflict of interests) all licenses entities will be required to meet strict standards re surveillance, inventory, seed to sale tracking (basically all that's required under MMED, but not forced to be vertical) this was put to a vote and only Norton and Meg voted against it (even though they would loose nothing that they currently have by giving flexibilty to their competition) so since it passed by a huge margin it became the template the workgroup will present on Tuesday... *** Best of all there may be a model where MIPs can operate a "factory outlet" type store in their facility if it meets all security and retail requirements for the industry.
despite the obvious writing on the wall, the lobbyists continued with their futile pitch for vertical integration from norton & meg (our so-called representatives for the whole MMJ industry) Ron had really fleshed out the bones he presented us with last week, Norton just re-presented the same materials from last week... and lil mikey e had his fear filled peons lined up to testify that VI works for them, (must suck to be reduced to reading a pre-prepped statement in defense of a concept that has just been voted to be flushed down the toilet) This was defeated with the only people who supported it being again Meg & Norton. I am certain that this wont be the last we've heard about the topic, and I suspect they are already working the representatives to push the VI issue legislatively. I am not resting on my laurels here, gonna stay on this until it is a done deal!
there was a second regulatory template that passed unanimously that will give all control of "time place manor and number" of licensees to local authority so that each region can set rules on hours of operation etc.. that match the desires of the community.
a vote was taken on residency again.... and residency for owners & licensees will be exactly the same as under MMED rules, no out of state financial interests... that passed easily, and seems all want to keep money and jobs local...
but the good news is that they accept the constitutionality of allowing out of state visitors to purchase from a retailer while enjoying their CO vacation, so that passed and will move to the whole task force and likely get beat up to hell over there...
Is it a conflict of interest when a member of the public at large who has been given the privilege of a seat on the A-64 task force local authority working group says to a fellow mother and member of the public in attendance "you feed your kids with Drug money"? Because it has been repeated by the task force Co-chairs that the members of the process are not there to debate the will of the voters, but rather to implement it in a way that reflects the intent of the amendment... please take a minute to write the governor's office (or better yet call 303-866-6390 ) and personally explain that you would like Gina Carbone/Fenton (she has used different names on different days) removed from the task force and banned from attendance for her hurtful intolerant behavior. also copy in these two addresses please dor.amendment64@state.co.us, lindsay.cox@state.co.us, http://www.colorado.gov/govhdir/requests/opinion.html
(and if that bony assed bitch tries to say anything salty to me, I will simply point out that #1 Cannabis spreads joy, so the fact that she once spread her legs and no longer wishes to accept the full responsibilities associated with the job, should not outrule the will of the voters #2 at least in the "drug money" house people were getting fed. #3 Cannabis has been shown in conjunction with talk therapy to help girls work through the self esteem/control issues tied to anorexia and maybe it could help her. #4 if she had devoted an equal amount of time to being at home after school and doing parenting as she spent attending meetings to promote her agenda of intolerance she could have made a much bigger impact on her own children's potential use of any controlled substance than she will by yelling at another parent who's kid goes to the same school.)
Hmmm isnt the top cop on the A-64 task force chief of police in this town... some people just dont get democracy. I predict hot air balloon ownership in the area will go through the roof! so I have at least 5 people now who I want to file complaints against the Governor's task force regarding to the Colorado Ethics Watch committee. who wants to help me?
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22500645/greenwood-village-ordinance-test-pot-legalization-law
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22500645/greenwood-village-ordinance-test-pot-legalization-law
if this new ordinance might affect you as a resident of Greenwood Village or employee there, contact Sean McCallister for some help! He posted this on FB Sean McAllister
Ok, Greenwood Village has passed a law banning what voters legalized in Amendment 64. If anyone is a resident of not so Greenwood Village, I'll represent u pro bono to sue the city and overturn this. Let's go!!!
I think this is fantastic, and an appropriate response from farmers to the Task Force pushing hemp regulation off until 2014. But I have serious concerns about our states medical crop that patients truly depend on being compromised by pollen if a hemp farm moves in before they can ensure their air filters are efficient enough to keep the kind from going to seed...
Interestingly enough this is not banned under the draconian proposed advertising guidelines.
A take on Monday's Children's caucus on Marijuana...
in case reading this every week hasnt already made you aware, according to Westword this newsletter is the preeminent source for knowledge about the A-64 implementation process...
looking for a new job? here's an interesting one!
lots of this type of story around the community these days... more to come as well...
some happy stoner's with their custom 9" 900 Mg full sized cheesecake... if your client would like one for any occassion please give us at least 1 week's notice!
Now on to the SALES!
here is a page of info on the offerings we are doing for V-day... please please print it, post it, sell the hell outta it!
this week's sales: if you order a minimum order of 18 units, in honor of Valentines day every blessed chocolate treat from german chocolate cheesecake to chocolate cherry Kinship Bars, we make will be 5% off if ordered by 7pm on Monday the 4th,(except the labor intensive love bites).
Kissy Cakes: Kissy Cakes = gluten free, 125 Mg THC, in 3 awesome flavors each toped with our new signature Love Bites! Fruity Tooty (raspberry & dark chocolate), Java Luva (coffee & Milk Chocolate), and Coco Loco (chocolate & white chocolate/peanut butter)� pucker up for Kissy Cakes!
Love Bites:Love Bites = 20 Mg gluten free Handmade heart shaped signature chocolates in Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, and Greenut Butter (white chocolate & peanut butter chips) served in a sweet 240 Mg dozen sack, perfect to share with the one you love... provided the one you love is over 21, that is�
Valentine packs... let us make you a special valentine's day care pack, with any combo of cheesecakes, chocolates, or healthy choices like Kinship bars, and heart smart nuts! Or maybe what you want is a full sized customized 9" cheesecake� Just ask us, we are happy to work with you and with your budget!
whether you are deeply in love, or planning to spend the 14th eating ice cream alone while you relax in your sweat pants, we have your emotional needs covered! We go over the top because the patients who support THC are all sweethearts� Thank YOU!
Thanks for reading, and thank you for supporting us while we work hard to support you!
Jessica LeRoux
Twirling Hippy Confections
2145 W Evans Denver CO
303 922 3661
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