Washington pot law delivers on Colorado promises

After Amendment 64 passed, activists celebrated across Colorado. Then the regulatory framework kept none of the promises made to excited voters.

By Calvin Thompson | Colorado Watchdog

When Amendment 64 was approved by Colorado residents last November, the language was clear: marijuana was to be legally treated like alcohol in age restrictions and taxation methods.

While Amendment 64 allowed for regulation and ?rational policies,? the ?emergency regulations? released July 1 do anything but treat marijuana like alcohol, and have created a maze of protectionism and red tape that future recreational marijuana growers must navigate.

Colorado?s new pot regulations build on a decade of bad ideas, starting with continued vertical integration. The new regulations still require that recreational dispensaries grow 70 percent of their product in-house, and may only sell 30 percent of their product to other dispensaries. Colorado Watchdog has already revealed how this requirement strangles small businesses by requiring an obscene amount of overhead costs.

This rule expires in a little over two years, in September 2014, but gives existing medical marijuana dispensaries a huge advantage if they wish to enter the recreational market.? After all, they already have the prerequisite growing facilities and other equipment.

New entries into the recreational marijuana market must also pay almost five times as much in application and license fees, in comparison to the existing medical dispensaries that wish to expand. Coloradan pot producers are not even allowed to grow their plants in the manner they wish, with all outdoor marijuana growth fiercely prohibited.

Marijuana sales are restricted significantly, as well. Internet sales are banned, and various types of mass media marketing are prohibited. No one can consume a marijuana product at the site of purchase, eliminating the possibility for bars and restaurants, and free samples are also forbidden. Then there is the rule that visitors from out-of-state can only purchase a quarter of the amount of pot Coloradans can ??a mere quarter ounce.

Colorado?s newly assembled marijuana regulations hardly resemble alcohol regulation, which allows for bars and restaurants, the separate production and sale of product, and doesn?t implement massive protectionist programs. For those who wish to see marijuana treated like alcohol in more than title, Washington?s I-502 is the only honest attempt at doing so.

Washington?s own marijuana policy framework, released July 3, show Colorado what the industry could look like if legislators placed any priority on a free market.

In addition to allowing more minor freedoms, such as giving growers permission to grow pot outside, and allowing new residents to participate in the industry, Washington does not demand exorbitant payouts from enterprising new pot growers. At just more than $1,200, Washington?s recreational marijuana license fees for new growers are less than one-fifteenth of Colorado?s fees.

Washington municipalities are not allowed to outright ban legitimate marijuana businesses either, while dozens of local Colorado governments already have.

Perhaps most importantly, vertical integration is forbidden, not required, in Washington. And while a government ban on free enterprise is not ideal, at least Washington?s ban does not defy all economic sense, and does resemble alcohol regulation.

While some practices, like the appallingly ineffective seed-to-sale standard are allowed to continue, Washington delivers on promises made to Coloradans, which they will likely never see in their own state. And with suffocating bureaucracy, protectionism, and unfulfilled promises, Colorado is becoming increasingly hostile to a blossoming industry.

Email Calvin Thompson at calvin@coloradowatchdog.org. Follow him on Twitter at @watchdogco.

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