Colorado’s HB18-1258 that would have permitted marijuana “tasting rooms” passed the legislature but was vetoed by Governor HIckenlooper. The Governor cited concerns with increased impaired driving as a reason for his veto.
We wrote the Governor requesting that he veto the bill, pointing out that marijuana tasting rooms were fundamentally more dangerous than a neighborhood bar. If an impaired driver leaves a bar and is arrested by an officer for impaired driving, Colorado laws ensure that the driver will be convicted. That is not true for a marijuana-impaired driver. If a patron becomes impaired from consuming a marijuana edible at a marijuana tasting room, Colorado law ensures that that patron will not be convicted.
Blood THC levels never rise above 3 ng/ml due to consumption of a marijuana edible, and that’s for an edible five times the standard dose that would have been permitted under HB 1258. Colorado’s 5 ng/ml permissible inference law makes it all-but-impossible to convict an impaired driver of DUI if they test below 5 ng/ml.
It appears that our argument carried some weight!