Prohibitionist measure being considered by Colorado Legislature, hearing Tuesday

Click here to send a message opposing this bill to your lawmakers.

Colorado lawmakers are now considering a bill that is bad for patients and bad for consumers, and we would like your help opposing this prohibitionist measure. Now referred to as HB21-1317, this bill would require the state to gather skewed data on the supposed harms of cannabis use, which could be used to ban cannabis products. Yep, here we go again.

Please take action. The best and easiest thing is to send a message to your legislators, which you can do by clicking here. It takes half a minute and really does make a difference.

Collecting objective data on the risks and benefits of cannabis use should be lauded. That's a policy that MPP has always supported. But this bill uses an old trick to stack the deck — something the DEA and the National Institute on Drug Abuse have been doing for years. They authorize research, but only when it substantiates their false beliefs that cannabis is bad, and then point to that research to stick to the claim that there is no medical use for marijuana. Sound familiar? Now legalization opponents in Colorado are trying the same thing. It needs to be stopped.

This bill requires coroners to test for THC in the case of suicide, overdose, or accidental death, without screening for other more harmful drugs, and regardless of whether cannabis was even related! The purpose is to generate dire-sounding numbers to connect cannabis with these tragic incidents. There are similar requirements for emergency room visits.

A hearing is scheduled on this measure, which will be held at the State Capitol by the Public and Behavioral Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday, May 18 at 1:30 p.m. If you would like to attend and provide testimony on the measure, you can sign up for that here. Testimony can be given in person or online.

Again, we hope you will take less than a minute to send a piece of your mind to your lawmakers, who really should hear from you on it.

Onward!