New marijuana rules created by House bill 1317 is set to take effect on 1 January. But Cannabis Clinics Colorado (CCC), a professional non-profit organization that supports those who work with Colorado’s medical marijuana patients, is not eager to follow the new requirements.
From 1 January, adult patients will not be allowed to buy more than 8 grams of medical marijuana concentrate a day, with patients aged eighteen to twenty only having 2 grams. Other key rules that come into force include the required use of one Uniform certification form of medical marijuana stores and providers to document exceptions that allow patients to buy more than their daily limit. And under another new requirement, all medical purchases must be registered in the store through a new marijuana stock tracking system.
Patients and providers were so concerned about the provisions of 1317 that on July 1, nineteen-year-old medical marijuana patient Benjamin Wann Polis sued for having signed the bill; shortly after, a proposal for a temporary ban was submitted in hopes of delaying the implementation of the law. That request is still pending.
Earlier this month, CCC Director Martha Montemayor sent another letter Colorado Attorney General’s Office asks for help in giving the injunction. “Should HB 1317 continue without delay, approximately 7,000 current medical marijuana patients with expanded herb numbers and approximately 3,500 patients aged 18-20 will suddenly need new documentation from their physicians on January 1, 2022 to continue receiving their medication,” she wrote AG Phil Weiser. “If CDPHE [Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment] lack the resources to implement the bill on January 1, what happens to these patients? ”
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She reiterated this question during an emergency CCC Zoom meeting on 28 December. “The question is, what are we doing to protect our patients and our practices in the future from more attacks like this bill?” asked Montemayor. Among other things, she suggested allowing doctors to make written changes to their patient consent forms to keep them harmless from their patients’ “use or abuse of cannabis.”
But without the injunction, there will be no time to make changes to the new rules. So during the meeting, CCC members reviewed how to fill out the new uniform certification forms with the changed THC dosage amounts and reviewed the packaging requirements. And they were preparing for changes in a medical marijuana system that was once hailed as a leader in the nation and now seems to be going backwards.
“The general meeting delegated significant points to MED [Medical Enforcement Division] to tackle during rule-making this year, and we would not have been successful without the active commitment and practical effort we received from our stakeholder community, ”said Dominique Mendiola, MED Senior Director, in a reminder of the new rules issued on 30 December. “Although the parties did not always agree, the different perspectives of our stakeholders were crucial to ensure that we eventually came to a place of acceptable compromise that was in line with the regulatory direction. But our work is not done. We will continue to refine the rules and support the implementation of these new rules well into 2022 and beyond. ”
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