COLORADO MEDICAL MARIJUANA MAKING WAY INTO NEBRASKA

Dude, you're not in Colorado anymore.

So you can put your license for legal marijuana away. Because that
stopped being legal, oh, about the time you passed Julesburg and
crossed the Nebraska border.

A gap in Colorado law is allowing growers to produce far more medical
marijuana than patients can legally possess. And some of the surplus
is finding its way into Nebraska.

"We've seen it here in the city of Scottsbluff, and we've seen it in
the southern Panhandle, and we've seen it around the Sidney area,"
said Scottsbluff Police Chief Alex Moreno, also a coordinator of an
11-county drug task force.

It's showing up during traffic stops, in drug busts and in cases a
prosecutor won't yet discuss. And while it's not pouring over the
border, there is enough for law officers to take notice.

"It's not like it's a tidal wave, but it's here and there based on
reports I received from officers assigned to the drug task force,"
Moreno said.

Colorado is making national news for its efforts to regulate the
production of medical marijuana, considering, for instance, whether
the pot's potency should be tested and labeled. It's also considering
standards for pesticide use and rules for organic labeling.

But none of that addresses the legal loophole leading to surplus
supplies of medical marijuana.

Licensed patients -- and there were more than 90,000 of them this
summer, according to the state of Colorado -- are allowed to have 2
ounces of usable marijuana and up to three mature plants.

The problem? A single mature plant can produce up to a pound of usable
marijuana under ideal conditions, according to Colorado's I-News Network.

And even if each plant produced just 3 to 8 ounces, the statewide
surplus could reach 64 tons.

Which has to go somewhere.

So why not Nebraska's Panhandle?

"I know there's actually medicinal marijuana that's come into our
county," said Scotts Bluff Deputy County Attorney Scott Blaha. In
fact, he's getting ready to prosecute a case involving Colorado pot,
but that's all he'll say about that.

Officers are finding it on the highway, too.

"They'll have a card that says they can possess it in Colorado," said
Lt. Lance Rogers of the Nebraska State Patrol. "But we don't have that
law, so we cite them. Does it happen on a regular basis? Sure."

And by regular basis, he said, he means sometimes once a week,
sometimes twice a month.

Because of the small amounts, his troopers typically seize the pot,
write a ticket and send drivers on their way.

"They're not smugglers," Rogers said. "It's mainly for personal
use."

Moreno, the Scottsbluff chief, said his officers are seeing Colorado
pot on two fronts -- small amounts intended for personal use, and
larger amounts intended to be sold.

And in at least one case, it might not be the higher grade medical
marijuana at all.

In July, investigators searched a Scottsbluff trailer and found more
than 100 Ecstasy tablets, a bag of illegal mushrooms and several bags
of marijuana in so-called smelly-proof bags, according to court documents.

Sgt. Dana Korell of the Nebraska State Patrol said an informant told
officers the pot was medical marijuana.

But the prosecutor wasn't so sure. One of the bags was simply labeled
"medical" with a black Sharpie.

Maybe just a dealer's attempt, said Blaha, to upsell his lower-grade
pot.