Some people might be surprised to learn that Colorado Democrats are no friend of legal cannabis.
But, it isn’t surprising for cannabis activists who witnessed the national Democratic Party Refuse to add the Decriminalization of Cannabis into their party platform in 2020.
Ever since cannabis was legalized in 2012 in Colorado, it has faced an onslaught of bad legislation.
Many people think Democrats are in support of legal cannabis because they often pay lip service to the cause, but in Colorado, they are often the first ones to support anti-cannabis proposals.
There are many Democrats who have voted against free market cannabis, but the following Colorado Politicians are some of the worst opponents of legal cannabis:
Yadira Caraveo (State House District 31 – Adams)
As a Pediatrician, Yadira Caraveo has no problem touting her medical credentials to justify restricting the rights of Colorado residents.
Her destructive anti-cannabis legislation is some of the worst Colorado has seen.
In 2021, Caraveo attempted to limit the amount of THC Coloradoans could legally buy or sell.
Her legislation would have outlawed cannabis with a THC amount higher than 15%, creating a whole new black market.
Thankfully, the THC cap portion of the bill was stopped.
But, Caraveo was able to pass a stripped down version of her initial bill, HB21-1317: Regulating Marijuana Concentrates.
This authoritarian bill restricts legal cannabis in multiple ways, including limits on concentrate purchases, making it more difficult for 18-to-20 year olds to acquire a medical marijuana card, and creating a tracking system for cannabis purchasers.
Thanks to Caraveo, sales of more than 8 grams of cannabis concentrate are now illegal if done in the same day.
1317 was one of the worst attacks on Colorado’s legal cannabis market last year, and Caraveo is to blame.
Colorado be warned, as long as Caravero is in the Legislature, your ability to buy, sell, or consume legal cannabis is under threat.
Beth McCann (Denver District Attorney)
Beth McCann can never be forgiven for her persecution of Sweet Leaf budtenders.
In 2017, her office helped arrest and charge 18 Cannabis Workers:
These budtenders were arrested for “looping,” which meant they sold more than 1 ounce of cannabis to the same customer in one day.
The budtenders eventually had their charges dropped, but two Sweet Leaf Executives Nichole West and Ashley Goldstein both were sentenced for 30-days in jail for felony drug charges related to their job at Sweet Leaf. The charges against those operating a legal cannabis business is outrageous and completely unnecessary.
If what Sweat Leaf was doing was wrong, why did the Denver PD wait a year to do anything about it?
Not only that, but in 2018, it was reported that the law that got the budtenders arrested “has since been changed to change vague wording that had arguably created a loophole (interpreting the one-ounce limit as ‘per transaction’ rather than per day), and charges were dropped against eighteen budtenders who’d been arrested.”
From a Leafly article on the Sweat Leaf case:
“Technically nobody bought more than an ounce at a time,” Douglas Berman, a law professor at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law and a long-time observer of marijuana policy, told Leafly.
“They just kept coming in again and again and again. And it seems like the operators of the dispensaries were perfectly comfortable with evading the spirit of the law, even though they claim that they didn’t violate the letter of the law.”
In 2019, Sweat Leaf owners Matthew Aiken, Christian Johnson, Anthony Sauro were sentenced to prison for a year under Beth McCann’s prosecution.
Last year Nichole West gave an interview to MJBizDaily, where she explains her story of the raid and attack on Sweat Leaf.
McCann’s attack on Sweat Leaf was despicable and she should be ashamed of her self.
Alec Garnett (State House District 2 – Denver)
This Westword headline sums it up:
As Speaker of the House, Alec Garnett has the power to push anti-cannabis bills like last years aforementioned HB21-1317.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), which I warned about last year, awarded Garnett for his role in passing restrictions on concentrate sales and hurting legal medical cannabis market.
Garnett is proud to working with an organization that opposes a Free Market in Cannabis:
According to the Westword article:
This is a distinct honor,” he said. “I am so proud to be affiliated with all of you and proud of the work you have been doing, and I think the sky really is the limit.”
Garnett has proven himself to be a major threat to legal cannabis in Colorado and his position as Speaker of the House should trouble Cannabis Advocates in Colorado.
John Hickenlooper (US Senator)
“Colorado is known for many great things —marijuana should not be one of them,” said Governor Hickenlooper in 2012 prior to the November election.
Denver Mayor, Colorado Governor, and now US Senator had no problem voicing his opposition to cannabis, both before and after it became legal.
From a 2018 Fortune article:
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper tells CNN he is not ruling out making marijuana illegal again, as the state’s crime rate has been rising since recreational use of the drug was made legal in 2014. As of yet, there’s no research that ties the increased crime rate to the Colorado’s recreational pot law.
“Trust me, if the data was coming back and we saw spikes in violent crime, we saw spikes in overall crime, there would be a lot of people looking for that bottle and figuring out how we get the genie back in,” he said. “It doesn’t seem likely to me, but I’m not ruling it out.”
Hickenlooper wasn’t in favor of legalizing marijuana, but he went along with it when constituents made it clear they were.
Hickenlooper’s anti-cannabis attitude translated to vetoing cannabis bills when he was Governor.
VETOED by Hickenlooper:
HB18-1011: Marijuana Business Allow Publicly Traded Owners was a bipartisan bill that would have lead to potentially millions of out-of-state money to flow into local cannabis businesses.
HB18-1258: Marijuana Accessory Consumption Establishments would have allowed cannabis businesses the ability to allow cannabis consumption.
HB18-1263: Medical Marijuana Use For Autism And Acute Pain was vetoed by Hickenlooper, but the 2019 version of the bill became one of the first bills signed by Governor Polis.
And in 2017, Hickenlooper signed HB17-1220: Prevent Marijuana Diversion To Illegal Market which limited the amount of plants that medical cannabis growers can grow.
This last bill was a major disruption to the medical cannabis market and put more cannabis growers at risk of jail.
Colorado deserves better from Democrats.
Let’s hope the Party and their grassroots base ensure that Colorado’s Democratic Party takes a 100% Pro-Cannabis position!
Any thoughts? Leave a comment below!
Sign up for the Free State Colorado Email Newsletter:
Recent Comments