Colorado marijuana industry regulators under fire as underage sales checks nosedive

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The Marijuana Enforcement Division is being criticized for the drop in the number of checks on underage weed sales. They dropped from 600 checks in 2019 to 118 in 2020, 80 last year and just 52 slated for this year.

On about 600 occasions in 2019, state marijuana industry regulators sent hired operatives, aged 18 to 20, into Colorado dispensaries to check that the law barring sales to people under 21 was being followed.

“It sounds like you guys are too busy to get the work done,” said state Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat. “You’re just throwing your hands up… with whatever fire that’s in your face. And some things are dropping through the cracks.” They said that in 2021, the division’s 80 underage compliance checks were supplemented by 160 other times in which, rather than send in an operative, investigators checked that dispensaries had tools like ID scanners and working surveillance cameras. These investigators, they said, also reviewed surveillance footage to ensure compliance.Added Lambert, “One tool is the underage compliance checks… and we plan on ramping back up, but we’re also employing a more comprehensive strategy.

“The other enforcement divisions have come back to what looks more like a pre-pandemic level of checks. MED has not done that and they don’t seem to be on that trajectory. It’s falling even further,” Hansen said. “That, to me, is not fulfilling their mission of carefully regulating that industry.” During the hearing on this bill, many who opposed it noted that the marijuana industry is already subject to myriad regulations, and that the rulebook for the sector is about four times thicker than for those in the liquor business.

 

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Underage cannabis purchases straight from licensed dispensaries are not a big problem in our community.

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