Amendment 64: Will pot discourage companies abroad from expanding to Colorado?
As a senior partner with a Colorado law firm, Dick Clark works with international companies looking to expand their operations here. But since the passage of Amendment 64, which legalizes small amounts of recreational marijuana, some companies are reconsidering doing business with Colorado,he says, and he expects that problem will only get worse.
Dick Clark
With A64, Colorado's Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol measure, now officially law, business groups and others who opposed the amendment have expressed a wide range of concerns about potential negative consequences. Some of these questions are being discussed in Governor John Hickenlooper's recently formed task force, which is charged with coming up with policy recommendations for implementation.
Photo by Brandon Marshall Supporters of A64 celebrating its passage on Election Day.
While the backers of legalization in Colorado have long argued that the measure will be a boost to the economy, some say they are worried that legalized pot can only hurt the state financially, and for a variety of reasons.
Supporters of the new law argue that legalized pot could be a huge help for tourism, attracting visitors to the state. But Clark, a senior partner with Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP, says he fears that legalization will have the opposite effect -- and suggests that he's already seen clear signs of that.
We connected with Clark after we spoke with aDenver CEO whose major gripe with legalization was that he would still have to drug test his employees and job candidates, even though it's now legal for adults to smoke marijuana in the state.
Clark, whose company is based in Denver, Colorado Springs and Casper, says that he has helped bring more than a hundred companies to Colorado from overseas, and that some of the ones he is working with now are not happy about A64.
"Our firm has been working with two companies to expand their operations and buy land and set up...North American headquarters here and hire local workers and bring in people from their countries," he says. "And I was frankly surprised -- within the week following the vote, I had phone calls from both of them saying, 'What is going on there? Are you crazy?'"
Negotiating these business expansions into Colorado is typically a long, arduous process, he explains, and the global companies take a lot of different factors into consideration. "We are talking about huge investments by them -- millions upon millions of dollars. They don't want to come in and set up a business operation and have to close it in a year," Clark says.
The two companies he is currently working with are based in Asia; one is in the biotech field and the other in health care. He says that both of them consider Amendment 64 a negative for Colorado as they try to decide where they want to set up shop in the United States.
Continue for more of our interview with Dick Clark.
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
