{"id":8326,"date":"2018-06-07T17:57:34","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T17:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3075818"},"modified":"2018-06-07T17:57:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T17:57:34","slug":"marijuana-advocates-state-lawmakers-blast-hickenlooper-over-his-veto-of-three-cannabis-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/marijuana-advocates-state-lawmakers-blast-hickenlooper-over-his-veto-of-three-cannabis-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana advocates, state lawmakers blast Hickenlooper over his veto of three cannabis bills"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/marijuana-advocates-state-lawmakers-blast-hickenlooper-over-his-veto-of-three-cannabis-bills\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/marijuana-advocates-state-lawmakers-blast-hickenlooper-over-his-veto-of-three-cannabis-bills.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Four state lawmakers joined a group of marijuana advocates Thursday in blasting Gov. John Hickenlooper over his veto of three pot bills, saying the term-limited Democrat\u2019s decisions threaten\u00a0Colorado\u2019s place as a leader on cannabis and hurt patients, consumers and businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is just a travesty,\u201d said Rep. Edie Hooton, D-Denver, speaking to reporters outside the Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>Hickenlooper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2018\/06\/05\/hickenlooper-vetoes-autism-medical-marijuana-bill\/\">turned down legislation<\/a> that would have added autism to the list of conditions eligible for medical marijuana, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2018\/06\/04\/marijuana-tasting-room-bill-veto\/\">allowed for pot \u201ctasting rooms\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and opened up the cannabis industry to investment by public companies.<\/p>\n<p>Hooton was a prime sponsor of <a href=\"http:\/\/leg.colorado.gov\/bills\/hb18-1263\">House Bill 1263<\/a>, the medical marijuana for those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders legislation,and said she was especially upset by Hickenlooper\u2019s decision since a bipartisan group of lawmakers spent months working on the measure. She called its veto \u201cabsolutely devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hooton vowed to bring the legislation back next year.<\/p>\n<p>The governor said he vetoed House Bill 1263 because he couldn\u2019t \u201cignore such overwhelming concerns from the medical community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kristi Kelly, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, said another veto, which keeps in place a block on investment from public companies in cannabis businesses, could help proliferate the black market for pot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne incredibly effective tool to mitigate this problem is to allow for legal markets to thrive,\u201d she said of House Bill 1011. \u201cThe legal cannabis business industry, despite record high sales and record high taxes being paid, is not thriving. Businesses of all sizes, large and small, are today begging for traditional access to capital.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The governor said that bill threatened to \u201cdegrade the robust regulatory system that Colorado worked so hard to establish.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>The marijuana tasting rooms bill,\u00a0House Bill 1258, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2018\/05\/03\/colorado-marijuana-tasting-rooms-bill\/\">would have allowed adults at current recreational marijuana retailers<\/a>\u00a0to consume small amounts of pot through edibles or by vaping. The pot advocates who rallied against Hickenlooper on Thursday said the governor\u2019s veto was hypocritical, given his history in the beer industry and running bars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI realize that I\u2019m being overly cautious,\u201d the governor <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kierannicholson\/status\/1003831375152197633\">said earlier this week<\/a>, \u201cbut let\u2019s take a step at a time. This is a big experiment. Let\u2019s treat it like one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In all, Hickenlooper vetoed nine bills from the recently ended 2018 legislative session \u2014 the most he has ever turned down in a single year since becoming governor in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Four state lawmakers joined a group of marijuana advocates on Thursday in blasting Gov. John Hickenlooper over his veto of three pot bills, saying the term-limited Democrat&#8217;s decisions threaten\u00a0Colorado&#8217;s place as a leader on cannabis and hurt patients, consumers and businesses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1228,5062,52,7337,6907,6811,6857,376,6892,7317,2097,77,56,9,5019,441,1,3,2379,61,1736],"tags":[3798,5063,2632,7338,6909,6816,6859,2954,6893,7318,4665,2655,2636,5022,3015,4974],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}