As one of the first states to approve the sale of recreational marijuana, Colorado served as the blueprint for marijuana policy, implementation, and regulation. The state legislature improved upon the original policy as issues and concerns arose as the industry evolved over the last two years.
Since the implementation of the original policy, the legislature has focused on public safety, consumer protection, and good business practices within the industry. The legislature approved a bill that requires the Department of Public Health and Environment to develop and maintain a marijuana laboratory testing reference library. Licensed labs will be required to provide materials for the reference library and the library must contain a catalog of methodologies for marijuana testing in the areas of potency, homogeneity, contaminants, and solvents. The law also created labeling requirement for edible marijuana products and other marijuana products in multi-serving packages.
Another bill created a permitted economic interest in both the regulated medical and retail marijuana systems. A third bill requires all transporting and cultivating primary caregivers to register with the state medical marijuana licensing authority and prohibits primary caregivers from cultivating more than 99 plants. Another bill allows retail marijuana testing facility licensees to test industrial hemp.
With the legalization of recreational marijuana usage, a 15-percent excise tax on recreational marijuana was approved for the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) fund. The BEST fund is a grant program that focuses on helping public schools with many capital construction needs, from new roofs and boilers to major renovations and new schools. During fiscal year 2014-15, the marijuana excise tax generated nearly $24 million for the fund.
The cannabis industry played a key role in the industrial real estate market recovery during the current business cycle. Between 2009 and 2014, the industry accounted for 35.8 percent of Denver’s total net absorption in industrial space. Marijuana cultivation accounts for 3.7 million square feet of occupied industrial space in Denver, or 2.6 percent of existing warehouse space.
Entrepreneurship and innovation continue to be important components of the cannabis industry. Boulder-based Surna engineers and manufactures innovative technology and products to improve the energy- and resource-intensive nature of indoor cultivation, including their signature liquid-cooled climate control platform. Black Dog LED, another Boulder company, produces LED lighting systems that were the first to combine a full spectrum from ultraviolet light to infrared light. The company produces the most powerful and effective LED plant lights available for commercial growing.
Production of industrial hemp in the state has grown in popularity over the last two years. The hemp plant has a wide variety of uses, including nutrition, clothing, cosmetics and building materials. A 132-acre farm in Pueblo is the nation’s largest hemp farm, with 50,000 hemp plants. In 2014, Colorado growers registered to plant 1,811 acres of hemp, but only 200 acres were harvested. Institutions such as Colorado State University and the University of Colorado started researching hemp when the U.S. Congress passed the 2014 farm bill.
The Colorado cannabis industry has evolved through new policy measures, technological advancement, and plant research to provide the state with enhanced public safety and better business practices. The industry will continue to advance and improve as the public, government, and producers become more informed.
