Marijuana Policy

Denver Voters Pass Onsite Consumption Initiative

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The New Regulation Will Enable Some Local Businesses To Apply For “Social Use” Permits

Passed this election cycle, Denver Initiative 300, the “Neighborhood-Supported Social Cannabis Consumption Initiative,” a policy type known industry-wide as “Social Use,” allows businesses to seek a permit for cannabis consumption on premises. This makes Denver one of the first cities in the United States to manifest something remotely similar to Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes.

Beginning in January 2017, Denver businesses can apply for annual temporary permits enabling regular businesses to allow bring-your-own cannabis and over-21 indoor vaping and edible consumption, and/or outdoor cannabis smoking. The new initiative is structured as an early pilot program which could eventually template the implementation of social use regulations state-wide.

Still, a few caveats exist.

The new Denver initiative will not allow businesses that serve alcohol, or activities requiring a liquor license, to apply. This rules out most bars, restaurants, some event venues and even public events which plan to serve alcohol. However, talks of yoga studios, galleries, cafes and private clubs able to apply are motivating these local businesses and others to seek permits. As it remains under state law, licensed recreational cannabis businesses, like dispensaries, still can’t allow social use consumption on premises.

Business seeking an onsite Social Use permit will have to obtain the approval of nearby neighbors plus the support of their local business association in order to apply. At this time, it’s uncertain just how many businesses will attempt licensure and how long it will take to receive local support and subsequent permitting. It may be several months into 2017 before social use comes online throughout Denver. Nonetheless, “Amsterdam-style” coffee shops, yoga studios, maybe even movie theaters should soon be reality, so long as they don’t sell cannabis or alcohol.

Additionally, all Social Use permitted businesses will have to adhere to the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, a state regulation that prohibits smoking in nearly all public indoor areas. Businesses may create indoor consumption areas so long as they are not for smoking; vaporizing cannabis and consuming BYO edibles is permissible. Businesses will be able to designate outdoor consumption areas so long as the business prevents unwanted odors of cannabis from reaching people outside.

It’s also possible businesses may be able to push for traditional “cigar bar” licensing and designate an indoor smoking section with an added cigar bar permit.

Participating businesses are required to develop operations plans outlining training and security protocols meant to prevent the underage use of cannabis. Written policy and procedures for handling and preventing highly intoxicated consumers must exist as well.

While early regulations may complicate permitting, many of the particulars will play out as the permitting process begins to take effect. The initiative is open to change and amendments as Denver’s early pilot program rolls out.

Elsewhere, Alaska currently has Social Use regulations in place to allow on-site consumption at retail cannabis stores. However, Alaska initiatives are still quite young, the first cannabis retailers only began opening throughout the state in October 2016. The implementation of Alaska’s onsite consumption regulations are still under review.

California, Massachusetts, and Maine all have new recreational cannabis regulations about to set in place and each will soon consider how to implement Social Use consumption. At this time, Social Use remains prohibited throughout Oregon, Washington and Nevada.

With an expedient implementation of the new Social Use initiative, Denver will be the first U.S. city where people can legally consume cannabis in traditional business establishments.

Photo Credit: David Rodriguez

Contrast and Compare – Dispensary Process in Legalized States

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Editor’s note: Have you ever wondered how the states differ in dispensary visits? This blog is a “how to” that describes the dispensary process in legalized states. We will update this list as more states legalize recreational marijuana.

COLORADO

Inspection

Every dispensary has its own company policy regarding workers or customers handling the product. Some dispensaries allow you to inspect the buds you’re shopping with tongs and/or under a magnifier. Other dispensaries have a jar on the counter but only sell pre-packed nugs of that strain, rather than straight out of the jar. And while you can’t exactly TOUCH the buds yourself in any scenario, you can get pretty up close and personal with the marijuana before you purchase it.

Is On-Site Consumption Allowed

Consumption while on site at a dispensary is NOT allowed in Colorado. Consumption in any public place is illegal. Colorado cannabis users are lucky though because while “public” use is out the door at the moment, the laws aren’t super clear – which leaves room for a lot of grey area. Cannabis events can advertise as private, sell tickets in advance thereby limiting entry so it isn’t open to the public. This method has been working for everyone so far and barring any raucous or violent incidents taking place at such an event (which hasn’t happened yet) it will continue to work for the foreseeable future.

Is On-Site Food, Drink or Alcohol Allowed

Don’t even try it. Maybe you can drink water from a water bottle while you’re in the waiting room, but don’t think of chowing down or popping a brewsky.

Location Restrictions

Generally, cannabis facilities are going to need to be 1,000 ft from any K-12 school. Not that anyone K-12 could get INTO one of these facilities, because to be allowed inside a person is carded and must be 21 or older… Education media outlet, Chalkbeat, covered the zoning requirements and discovered an interesting bit,

“State law recommends a 1,000-foot buffer between medical marijuana facilities and schools, drug rehabilitation centers and child care centers. But the law allowed local authorities to set their own rules.

So Colorado Springs, for example, allows marijuana facilities within 400 feet of schools while Denver has several closer than 1,000 feet. Those facilities have been allowed to continue operating because they opened before the state law was enacted.”

Worth Mentioning

Denver is getting its chance to legalize social use once and for all. Take a long hard look at Initiative 300 (also known as The Neighborhood-Supported Cannabis Consumption Pilot Program Initiative) and vote YES on 300 in November if you are a Denver resident!

WASHINGTON

Inspection

The inspection process in Washington is a fairly limited one. At Main Street Marijuana in Vancouver, Washington, customers are presented with a list of available strains and products that day. There is absolutely no green on the sales floor to look at or smell before purchase. The customer selects their strain and amount desired and a Main Street Marijuana employee retrieves your pre-packed order from a secured area and you’ve got your stash.

ALL cannabis in Washington is pre-packaged, right after it has been tested and approved for consumption by a lab. Testing helps prevent product containing mold, pesticides or other hazardous contaminants from circulating into the community. Only the best for Washingtonians!

Is On-Site Consumption Allowed

Initiative 502, the measure the legalized recreational cannabis in Washington, did not however, legalize on-site consumption. No dispensary can allow a client, patient or otherwise, to consume cannabis on their property. The laws regarding actual consumption are similar to Colorado’s – you can only smoke it if you are not in “view of the general public.”

Is On-Site Food, Drink or Alcohol Allowed

Licensed marijuana shops can only sell marijuana and marijuana infused products, as far as consumables go. And no other type of business, like a head shop or convenience store, will be able to apply for a license to sell pot within their current business.

Location Restrictions

“Retail cannabis shops must not be within 1000 feet of any K-12 school, playground, recreation center or facility, child care center, public park, public transit center, library, or game arcade that allows minors to enter.”

It is also an option for cities, town and/or counties in the State of Washington to relegate marijuana businesses to a specified area or zone or ban them altogether!

Worth Mentioning

If you are a data nerd (I am! I am!) check out this informative, weekly report  the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board puts out. It’s got info on licensing, locations, production, sales and compliance for cannabis businesses within the state.

OREGON

Check – In

The Cannabist reported on the unique, not so uptight way recreational dispensaries in Oregon handle check-in,

“Oregon dispensaries won’t be taking names as they do with registered medical marijuana patients, but they must record the customer’s birthdate and information about products purchased.”

Is On-Site Consumption Allowed

Measure 91 legalized cannabis for recreational use but,

“Public consumption is still prohibited under law.  Licensure for a cannabis café allowing public use would require a statutory change.  Also, cannabis falls under the regulation of Oregon’s Clean Air Act in 2016.”

Just like Washington and Colorado, Oregon does not allow in dispensary consumption – or any type of public consumption for that matter. Anyone surprised? All use of cannabis or cannabis products must take place out of view of the public.

There is one exception though! If you are an employee of the dispensary and a registered medical patient you CAN consume on property. However,

“it is important to note that as of March 1, 2016, an employee may not smoke or use a system that includes combusting, inhaling, vaporizing, or aerosolizing.”

So I guess that leaves…drinking cannabis, sublinguals (under the tongue method) or edibles, patches and topicals. It isn’t a joint on your lunch break, but it is some kind of bone thrown at the medical patients working in the cannabis industry.

Is On-Site Food, Drink or Alcohol Allowed

Nope. If someone has the ability to sell marijuana, they will not simultaneously have the ability to sell alcohol. If a business with a liquor license allows marijuana consumption, they could lose said license.

Location Restrictions

According to the Oregon Health Authority, dispensaries in Oregon follow the 1,000 foot rule when it comes to K-12 schools (or another dispensary). If a dispensary is opened within 1000 feet of a primary or secondary school, or within that proximity to another licensed dispensary the police are going to shut that down as soon as they catch wind of it.

Worth Mentioning

Very recently a dispensary in Portland was robbed. No one was hurt, because no one was there, but at least four of the robbers were reportedly wielding handguns. Read more over at The Oregonian (Live).

Can I Use My Credit Card to Buy Weed?

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The short answer is, No. Since credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover et. al., primarily offer their cards through partnerships with federally regulated national banks, credit card transactions involving the sale of cannabis fall under the US Controlled Substances Act. Under this act, cannabis has been listed as a Schedule I drug, prohibiting both its prescription and sale, alongside many illegal narcotics since 1970. This classification was intended to be provisional until research could prove cannabis does not cause “severe psychological or physical dependence.” Despite decades of repeated petitions to reschedule cannabis, including a 1972 report by the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse favoring decriminalization of the plant, today cannabis remains classified a federally prohibited drug.

While practices involving the sale of cannabis remain illegal at the federal level, the Obama administration recently loosened federal enforcement; largely allowing the current 25 US states which have medical marijuana laws–including 4 states and the nation’s capital which have legalized cannabis use for anyone over age 21–to govern themselves with regards to the growth, processing and sale of cannabis products.

You may find dispensaries accepting credit cards. These dispensaries–and oftentimes the merchant service providers that process their transactions–are operating using one of several loopholes, all federally illegal. These loopholes typically include falsifying critical banking information not sanctioned by major credit card providers or national banks. Using the loopholes can result in the blacklisting of retailers. Blacklisted businesses could lose access to banking and merchant services indefinitely, and can remain blacklisted long-after future regulations loosen cannabis banking restrictions.

In legal recreational states–Colorado, Oregon, Alaska and Washington–state level cannabis banking laws are a hot topic. Currently, cannabis businesses in these states pay state sales taxes upwards of 25% of their gross revenue. In most instances, cannabis businesses are forced to transport these payment in cash, either directly to their state department of revenue or to vulnerable banks and credit unions where cash is deposited in exchange for checking and savings accounts. Operating in a legal grey-area, these banks and credit unions often mandate excessive maintenance fees to mitigate risk.

This year, Oregon passed House Bill 4094 which removes criminal liability for banks and credit unions located within the state who wish to maintain cannabis business accounts. While the state voted to support cannabis banking, most banks and credit unions remain federally regulated – so the bill is mostly symbolic. Yet, Oregon lawmakers see it as a step in the right direction: as states signal their support of the cannabis industry, federal lawmakers could soon follow suit.

Will It Ever Change?

As long as cannabis remains Schedule I, federal banking laws pertaining to cannabis remain difficult to amend. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), administer drug scheduling under the Controlled Substances Act, deciding on the classification, addition and removal of drugs from the schedule list as they see fit. Just this August, in a widely anticipated DEA review of cannabis’s schedule status, the DEA rejected calls to reschedule, delaying the possibility of loosening federal cannabis banking regulations.

With less bureaucracy, states are generally more nimble than the federal government…and states are acting swiftly on cannabis law-making. Four additional states will vote this November on legalizing recreational cannabis. But the fact remains: until either the DEA reschedules cannabis or the federal government enacts new laws regulating the sale and production of the cannabis plant, federal regulations limit the cannabis banking industry, including the use of credit cards. For now, plan on using cash to purchase cannabis from dispensaries.

Presidential Canna-dates

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Where do our 2016 choices stand on cannabis?

HILLARY CLINTON – DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINEE

Hillary Clinton is the very first woman elected as nominee for a major political party. And because she is so familiar with pushing gender boundaries, the cannabis community hopes that she’ll push drug law boundaries as well. Clinton’s most recently recorded opinions show acceptance of medical marijuana but was singing a VERY different tune in 1996 when she said,

“Casual attitudes towards marijuana and minors’ access to cigarettes raise the likelihood that teenagers will make a sad progression to more serious drug use & earlier sexual activity.”

Thankfully, Clinton has changed her tune since, saying in 2015,

“What I do want is for us to support research into medical marijuana because a lot more states have passed medical marijuana than have legalized marijuana, so we have two different experiences or even experiments going on right now.”

She still does not support legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes at this point. But it appears as though there is hope for a change going forward.

The Democratic Party is well known for being the more liberal thinking party these day. But that is not how it began. In fact, in the 19th century the party was supportive of slavery. It was only later, in the middle of the 20th century, that the Dems went through a reformation of sorts and began the morph into  the party we know today.

DONALD TRUMP – REPUBLICAN PARTY NOMINEE

Donald Trump isn’t the most likely person you’d think of to approve of medical marijuana, but he sure does. Like Clinton though, he does not think that cannabis used for recreational purposes is legit. Not yet at least. In 2015 The Washington Post quotes,

“In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state. Marijuana is such a big thing. I think medical should. And then I really believe we should leave it up to the states.”

And, to be fair, he used to go so far as encourage the end of the drug war, stating to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 1990,

“We’re losing badly the war on drugs…You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars.”

Whaaaa? Where did THAT Donald go?

Trump has no former political votes to consider because, well, he has not been in the political world until recently. Interestingly, not having the political experience is a point many of his supporters appreciate about him. In their minds, his lack of time in the world of politics means he hasn’t formed any bad habits and isn’t the typical politician type who respectfully minds their p’s and q’s.

The Republican Party hasn’t always been the on the conservative side and their core values were actually historically much more similar to Dem values today. Republicans, also known as the Grand Ole Party or GOP, formed in the 1850’s to combat the expansion of slavery into Nebraska and Kansas territories. And it was a Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, that signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

GARY JOHNSON – LIBERTARIAN NOMINEE

Gary Johnson first spoke up as a marijuana legalization supporter as Governor of New Mexico in 1999. In the video below Johnson is shown answered a question about his most recent cannabis experience, saying that he had

“Some Cheeba Chews and it was, uh….it was pleasant.”

https://www.facebook.com/CheebaChews/videos/1211314092222614/

The Libertarian Party considers themselves tolerant, principled and caring. Part of their mission, gathered from their website, reads

“The Libertarian Party is for all who don’t want to push other people around and don’t want to be pushed around themselves. Live and let live is the Libertarian way.”

Libertarians didn’t formally become a party until the 1970’s in Colorado Springs of all places, making it still a very young party indeed. And according to their website, their beliefs are, “In a nutshell, we are advocates for a smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.” They don’t identify as either conservative or liberal and have adopted the “live and let live” motto as their own personal battle cry.

JILL STEIN – GREEN PARTY NOMINEE

Candidate Jill Stein is living up to the expectations of a “green” candidate. She supports both medical and recreationally used marijuana, much like Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

“I also support legalization of marijuana, ending war, and other bread-and-butter concerns for young people.” 2012

At its core, the Green Party is about the comfort, well being and equal rights of everyday people. Their webpage says all in just one sentence. “We are grassroots activists, environmentalists, advocates for social justice, nonviolent resisters and regular citizens who’ve had enough of corporate-dominated politics.”

Foreseeable Changes For States

It doesn’t appear, based on the current information, as though any of the candidates supports cutting off state’s rights. They’ve all spoken to states rights being top priority when it comes to medical marijuana, though Clinton and Trump have both referred to it as an experiment of sorts.

The proof is in the pudding folks, check out even more candidate viewpoints at ProCon.org’s election specific website.

 

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