Last Week's Program - The Business of Marijuana
Calling himself "her old friend," Rotarian Dave Stewart introduced Meg Collins, now Vice-President of Public Affairs for Good Chemistry and former president or chair of numerous statewide associations. Meg began her talk on the effects and nature of Colorado's legalization of marijuana by noting that today's date, 4/20, was also the traditional code-word for the smoking of cannabis. Citing her position as head of the Cannabis Business Alliance, she stated that we have moved from the past to the present and praised Colorado for doing a wonderful job since 2013, especially in creating a 25 percent tax on recreational marijuana.
The Federal Government, Meg stated, will not interfere if the 24 states have good regulations for protection of minors, limitations for criminal involvement, and prevention of sales to non-regulated states. Details include parental roles, underage compliance, video surveillance, and locations for smoking. The bottom line is local control. If you don't want licensing, it can be denied in your area. In all, the legal sales so far have been just under a billion dollars, with taxes producing $131,000,000.
"Where is the industry going?" Meg asked, then said that we still have a large black market and there are ways for people to educate themselves. She then answered questions, stating that Denver is working hard on quality control. That medical marijuana is not available in pharmacies because of Federal prohibition, that examination for doped driving is extremely difficult but is being worked on, that there is indeed a large problem with banks because only cash is used for purchase, and finally that use by high school students is not covered by all sides because most of the buys are from the black market. As noted by President Stacy Plemmons, this talk was indeed informative.