Colorado’s Failing Framework

Over the last 10 years, Colorado advocates watched as federal and corporate interests slowly choked their access. While touting recreational regulation in one hand, the other hand was removing the key components that kept their medical program viable. Cultivation and purchase amounts were merged with the adult-use framework while processing rights we banned through home rule. Medical card visits nearly tripled, clinics closed leaving 2/3 of the state without pediatric access, and the most at-risk patients lost access.

Colorado Rollbacks

“Americans for Safe Access said it downgraded Colorado this year because of a new law that limits
access to high-potency THC products — calling it “the single biggest rollback of patient rights” in the
country.” – Read more…

Clinics Close

“Then, House Speaker Alec Garnett pops up with this one,” she says. “They didn’t tell us about it, and they rushed it through so fast, the last hearing didn’t even have a 24-hour notice. Patients were left out of the stakeholder process completely.”

SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), an anti-marijuana industry political organization, was one of the biggest proponents of HB-1317. After it passed, Speaker Garnett was awarded SAM’s Patrick J. Kennedy Advocate of the Year award.” – Read More…

Medical Cannabis Funeral

“Medical marijuana patients staged a symbolic funeral in front of Governor Jared Polis’s office at the State Capitol on August 16, mourning what they view as the death of Colorado’s medical marijuana program.

Cards and cardboard gravestones with the faces and names of medical marijuana patients were placed on the ledges and a table outside of Polis’s office.” – Read more…

Medical Sales Decline

“At the state level, there’s also been a 24% decrease in marijuana sales from May 2021 to May 2022. That accounts for medical and recreational marijuana..” – Read more…

Lawsuits

“A family Gov. Jared Polis earlier this year touted as a model of civic engagement is now suing his administration in an effort to stop the implementation of a bill that seeks to regulate marijuana concentrates.

Nineteen-year-old high school student Ben Wann, along with his parents Brad and Amber, served as the champions and driving force behind Senate Bill 56, approved this session. The bipartisan bill led by Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, R-Douglas County, included provisions to expand students’ access to medical marijuana while at school.” – Read More…

Schools Lack Access

“But during the past school year, Durham had to drive to Austin’s school each day to administer his marijuana mediation, and she’ll probably have to do it again next year. Policy in her son’s school district, District 14 in Manitou Springs, still prohibits employees from administering medical marijuana to students. Medical marijuana cannot be stored at schools in the district, either, so Austin can’t use a THC-based nasal spray during emergency seizure episodes when Durham isn’t there; he instead uses a pharmaceutical rescue medication at school.” – Read more…

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