The recommendations include:
- Marijuana retailers must have both state and local approval.
- For the first year, retail licenses are restricted to operators of existing licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.
- For the first three years, retailers must grow 70% of the marijuana they sell, similar to existing medical marijuana regulations.
- Enact two taxes — a 15 percent excise tax paid by shops where cannabis is sold, and an additional sales tax for customers.
- Restrict access to the marijuana by minors.
- Provide law enforcement officers with new training to catch impaired drivers.
- Update the state’s Clean Air Act to include the effect of marijuana smoke.
- Allow employers to prohibit off the job marijuana use by employees.
- Allow marijuana to be sold to out-of-state visitors who are 21 or older.
- Limit the amount of marijuana sold to a customer in a single purchase, perhaps to an eighth at a time. Colorado’s law only allows possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by individuals.
- Limit marijuana advertising, similar to existing alcohol and tobacco advertising regulations.
- Require marijuana to have child-proof packaging.
- Emphasize that it’s illegal for marijuana to be given away in exchange for a donation.
- Make marijuana part of bar and restaurant smoking bans, possibly making so-called “cannabis clubs” or “smoking clubs” illegal.
- Prohibit growing marijuana outdoors.
- Create a regulatory system similar to that in medical marijuana dispensaries that follows recreational marijuana from seed to sale.
- Require that marijuana products have potency labeling, but there should be no restrictions on THC content.
The sales taxes were expected but 15% is a bit high especially when you are double dipping by asking the establishment AND the customer to pay it. Also, limiting the amount sold to a customer in a single purchase is one of those laws set up to fail. There are so many ways around it and no real way to enforce it. STUPID! I have no clue what they mean by "Emphasize that it’s illegal for marijuana to be given away in exchange for a donation." Huh? But two of the recommendations are so bad, it's hard to imagine how they even got from pen to paper. #1 By allowing employers to prohibit off the job marijuana use by employees, you are letting them invade your personal life. What I do on the weekend should be no business of my employer! And last but not least, making it illegal to grow marijuana outdoors is irresponsible. One of the big problems with the prohibition of marijuana was the huge carbon footprint that it made because of the need to hide your grow. Free sunlight is a good thing for everyone. Why do they want it to stay indoors? Is the sight of it so tempting that people would be helpless to resist it's powers? Ridiculous! It's time for regulators to grow up and let us grow out...side. If you think about it for two seconds, it's the only thing that makes sense. What do you think?
Read the full story here:
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/15882/colorados-amendment-64-task-force-finishes-recommendations/