This law firm is a leader in providing legal advice for businesses in the medical cannabis industry. Attorney Clifton L. Black, partner of Law Offices of Clifton Black, PC, is legal council for NORML (National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws), a board member of the Colorado Springs Medical Cannabis Council, appointed on the Colorado Springs Medical Marijuana task force to create local ordinances and has taught numerous classes and at seminars on the laws regarding medical cannabis in Colorado.
Medical Cannabis was approved by the voters of Colorado in 2000 as an amendment to Colorado’s Constitution. Patients were allowed to apply for a medical marijuana registry card with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in 2001.
The basics of the constitutional amendment are that a patient and the patient’s primary caregiver may collectively be in possession of 6 plants, with no more than 3 flowering, and up to 2 ounces of usable cannabis.
However, cannabis remains illegal under Federal law. Since Federal law trumps Colorado state law many people were not willing to become a patient or caregiver.
In October 2009 the Federal Government issued a memo stating that its limited Federal resources should not be used to go after patients and their primary caregivers in states that allow medical cannabis as long as the patients and primary caregivers were in complete and unambiguous compliance with the state law. This memo created the first rush to the marketplace for people that wanted to be primary caregivers, providing medical cannabis to patients. In Colorado, dispensaries were opening at a rapid pace throughout Colorado.
The Colorado legislature became concerned that the business was out of control. To gain control of the flourishing industry, the Colorado Legislature approved HB 10-1284 which was signed by the Governor in June of 2010. This was the first attempt by a state in the United States to regulate the medical cannabis industry. One of the provisions of HB 10-1284 required medical cannabis businesses to be in business by July 1, 2010. There was a moratorium that prevents new medical cannabis businesses from entering the marketplace. The July deadline created the second rush to the market place creating market saturation.
In 2011 the Colorado Department of Revenue created 73 pages of rules that medical cannabis businesses must comply with. Additionally, HB 11-1043 became law changing some of the legalities in HB 10-1143.
Because the laws regarding the cultivation, possession, and distribution of cannabis are so complex and cumbersome, it is vitally important to have competent legal counsel before even considering entering into this industry. This firm represents countless people who have been charged with offenses relating to cannabis. The main reason people get charged is because they do not seek competent legal counsel, get bad advice from attorneys that do not understand the medical cannabis laws, rely on rumors of what a person is allowed to do regarding medical cannabis, or attempt to reach a legal conclusion based on internet research. Do not risk your liberty by entering into the cannabis industry without completely competent legal advice from an attorney that focuses on this area of law.