Marijuana: Activist Rico Colibri on creating Amendment 64 Shadow Task Force
On the day Governor John Hickenlooper signed Amendment 64, he also announced the formation of a task force intended to make recommendations about the measure's implementation. Since then, some observers have complained about the task force's membership. Hence, a number of reformers are announcing today the creation of an A64 Shadow Task Force intended to help influence the official group, as well as legislators and regulators working to put the measure into effect.
Rico Colibri.
The Shadow Task Force is a joint effort of the Cannabis Alliance for Regulation and Education (CARE), led by Rico Colibri, and the Miguel Lopez's Denver 420 Rally organization. According to Colibri, the idea for such a panel emerged during discussions between him and fellow activist Kathleen Chippi.
"We've attended some meetings and reviewed the public information that's been made available so far, and we noticed that the [governor's] task force, albeit made up of people who are highly intelligent in their respective fields, are mulling over stuff that's already been done in 1284," says Colibri, referencing HB-1284, the law that established the structure of the state's medical marijuana industry. "Our concern is that some advocates, like Christian Sederberg and Lauren Davis, are being bogged down in conversations that aren't very productive."
Kathleen Chippi.
An example? "Some people are still discussing state-run stores," he notes -- and indeed, this approach was touted in Westword earlier this week by task force member Dr. Christian Thurstone. "Anyone who has read the amendment knows that has absolutely nothing to do with it. And there's also been a discussion that somehow marijuana plants should cooperate and stop at 15 percent THC. I helped co-write some of the cultivation rules for 1284, and when I hear things like that, it's concerning to me that some task force members don't understand marijuana as a plant."
Some of these questions may simply be borne out of ignorance, Colibri believes -- but not all of them.
"We have some task force members who don't fully support the idea of regulating marijuana like alcohol," he maintains. "In fact, they don't seem to support regulating it in any fashion and appear to be trying to derail the process rather than implementing the will of the voters."
Continue for more of our interview with Rico Colibri about the Amendment 64 Shadow Task Force.
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