POT REGULATIONS IN FOR MORE CHANGES IN SENATE

DENVER (AP) - Proposed regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries
are in for more changes in the Senate, which will hold its first
hearing on the issue on Tuesday.

The bill sponsor, Sen. Chris Romer, wants to ban people under 21 from
going inside dispensaries and wants to bar people from out-of-state
from opening dispensaries.

The proposed regulations, approved by the House, would already
require owners to undergo criminal background checks and that
dispensaries grow most of their own marijuana. Romer thinks that
about 80 percent of the estimated 1,000 dispensaries in the state
would have to close as a result.

Meanwhile, a group of Republican lawmakers wants to ask voters to
just ban dispensaries altogether. Their proposed referendum would
require that only actual people - not shops - be able to provide
medical marijuana to patients and that those caregivers also help
patients with the daily necessities of life. They need to get support
from two-thirds of lawmakers to get it on the ballot.

Prosecutors and Attorney General John Suthers have been urging
lawmakers not to regulate dispensaries because they say that will
legitimize an industry that they say wasn't sanctioned under the
medical marijuana law passed by voters in 2000. Backers of Amendment
20 point out that the law does reference dispensing of the drug.

Lawmakers are close to passing a less controversial measure (Senate
Bill 109) that bars doctors from writing medical marijuana
recommendations if their medical license isn't active or has been
restricted by regulators of if they've lost their federal
certification to prescribe drugs.