CAPITOL CANNABIS CONUNDRUM

When the Legislature started this year I introduced in the Senate a
bill designed to begin regulating medical marijuana growers. It was
obvious that the activity had become a big business -- certainly not
what was intended when we passed the initiative in 2004, but reality
by January of 2011. I wanted to know how much was grown, where it
went, and to tax the industry to cover cost of regulation and provide
some support for basic social service programs.

The federal government had in effect given the states a wink and a nod
and indicated it was up to the states to control medical marijuana.
The trafficking of the product was certainly not legal under federal
law but the definition of what wasand was not acceptable to the
federal government was, at best, unclear. My bill did not address the
distribution of the product or the medical aspects of the
determination of the need for the use of medical marijuana. Other
bills addressed those issues.

As I worked to make the bill acceptable to the various medical
marijuana interest groups, I figured out that I was in real trouble.
The groups were simply so diverse in their objectives that a consensus
was not going to be possible.

I found that there were at least three major operable factions. There
was the "chamber of commerce" faction that wanted to be treated and
regulated as if they were a large, legitimate business. There was
another group whose members have a semi-mystical belief that the use
of the drug would solve all of the medical problems of mankind and
make everyone feel better as well. Then there were and are the
anarchists who do not want regulation and would just as soon operate
underground and deal on the street.

The other influences were members of the public and law enforcement,
those who want the growing and use of medical marijuana outlawed, the
growers destroyed, and the use in any form treated as a violation of
law. Many members of the Legislature supported this view and were
simply not willing to look at any control measure. Repeal was their
only option.

Given the inability to bring the factions together, I finally decided
to vote for the repeal measure. We could not go along with a continued
uncontrolled explosion of the growth and distribution of marijuana. I
was concerned that would bring the federal government down on us and,
in fact, it did. We still do not know how big is too big as far as the
feds are concerned, but we obviously passed the limit. Repeal would
give us a couple of years to step back and try to do it right. The
governor vetoed repeal, and the Legislature passed a bill that
everyone hates but that is better than nothing.

There will be a lot of money spent on lawyers and initiative drives in
the next couple of years. Until the federal government determines what
will be acceptable, we are probably wasting our time. Arizona and
Washington are going through this as well. Colorado has developed a
controlled system which is generating a lot of tax dollars for the
state. But we have to reconcile our warring factions before we can go
there. This is just the beginning.