Activists and industry advocates alike in Colorado are closely watching a slew of measures now before the state\u2019s\u00a0General Assembly\u00a0concerning several aspects of the state\u2019s new cannabis economy and the unfolding norms for use of the herb, which has been officially legal there since 2012.<\/p>\n
One bill currently proposed in Colorado is meeting with some open controversy because of its implications for the involvement of large pharmaceutical companies in the cannabis industry.\u00a0HB\u00a018-1187<\/a>, which concerns pharmaceutical products containing the non-psychoactive cannabidiol (CBD),\u00a0states that if the federal Food & Drug Administration\u00a0\u201capproves a prescription medicine that contains cannabidiol, thereafter, prescribing, dispensing, transporting, possessing, and using that prescription drug is legal in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n This is clearly a reference to Epidiolex, a CBD-based pharmaceutical from the UK-based GW Pharmaceuticals<\/a>, which producers expect to win FDA approval this year, as the\u00a0In-Pharma website notes.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The Southern Colorado Cannabis Council (SoCoCC<\/a>) has been closely following the legislation. The organization\u2019s executive director Jason Warf told Cannabis Now that he wants legislation that will make sure the little guy is protected. While about 30 percent of the retail cannabis outlets in Colorado are \u201cconglomerates or chain stores,\u201d Warf says, \u201cthe majority of our industry is mom-and-pop, and the truth is there are still some financial restraints on most of them.\u201d<\/p>\n The SoCoCC met with lawmakers and pharmaceutical industry lobbyists to work out protections in the bill for local CBD producers. Warf says his organization is walking the fine line of supporting those changes to the legislation while remaining neutral on the bill itself.<\/p>\n On March 21, the revised bill was passed unanimously by House Public Healthcare and Human Services committee.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The Colorado Hemp Industries Association\u00a0(COHIA<\/a>)\u00a0says it opposed the initial draft of the bill, but is now supporting it with caveats. A COHIA statement<\/a> says the organization \u201cis working to include language that guarantees protection for hemp-based CBD companies operating lawfully in the state of Colorado. As the hemp industry continues to mature across the country, we will have to work with pharma companies seeking market space.\u201d<\/p>\n At issue here appears to be the role of GW Pharmaceuticals, a UK-based multinational with globe-spanning ambitions<\/a>. GW\u2019s industrial-scale operations in Britain are cultivating prodigious quantities of cannabis for production of its pharmaceuticals. There are evidently concerns that if the medical cannabis industry comes to be dominated by such giants, there could be little room for smaller producers in places like Colorado \u2014 part of the more generalized fear that legalization could lead to \u201ccorporate cannabis\u201d or \u201cBig Bud.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward said that his organization has \u201csome trepidation\u201d about GW Pharmaceuticals entering the market. \u201cBut they are coming,\u201d he said. \u201cThe best we can hope for is strong protections for our current industry as GW comes into Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe sat down with GW lobbyists to work out these provisions,\u201d Warf said. \u201cNow the law makes clear that they\u2019re only going to offer their products through pharmacies. That\u2019s a limited makret focusing on Medicare and Medicaid, while locally produced CBD already has a widespread custumer base.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward added that he did see an upside to this sort of legislation: Cannabis has clearly become normalized.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Meanwhile, the COHIA is opposing the more openly restrictive\u00a0Senate Bill 18-029<\/a> \u2014 which has been dubbed the \u201cMarijuana Tracking Bill.\u201d The COHIA writes<\/a> that the bill \u201cunfairly groups hemp in with marijuana. It will force rural farmers to purchase an unproven tracking technology in order for law enforcement to track and trace hemp and hemp products as though they are illicit drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the other bills before the Colorado legislature are being greeted with widespread support. Even the\u00a0Denver Post editorialized in favor<\/a> of a measure to allow cannabis \u201ctasting rooms\u201d at retail outlets.\u00a0House Bill 1258<\/a>\u00a0would open up the existing law\u2019s restrictions on public use, and potentially pave the way for Amsterdam-style coffee shops or smoking lounges in Colorado.<\/p>\n Another bill is a sure sign of fast-eroding stigma;\u00a0HB\u00a018-1286<\/a>\u00a0would allow school nurses to legally administer non-smokable cannabis preparations to students on school property. Under current law, only primary caregivers can administer cannabis-derived medicines in the state\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n Likely to meet with more mixed reviews is\u00a0HB 1011<\/a>, which would allow out-of-state companies and individual investors to have ownership interest in state-licensed cannabis businesses. As\u00a0Inlander notes<\/a>, the bill would drop current prohibition on publicly traded owners for Colorado canna-businesses, and lift a 15-person cap on out-of-state ownership.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> are you worried about big pharmaceutical companies entering the cannabis industry?<\/p>\n The post Big Pharma Bill Considered in Colorado<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Activists and industry advocates alike in Colorado are closely watching a slew of measures now before the state\u2019s\u00a0General Assembly\u00a0concerning several aspects of the state\u2019s new cannabis economy and the unfolding norms for use of the herb, which has been officially legal there since 2012. One bill currently proposed in ColoradoContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2284,50,21,3157,81,3732],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24642,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24641\/revisions\/24642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Big Pharma Bill Considered in Colorado<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"