Based on industry feedback and an order from Governor Hickenlooper, Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division (MMED) has started to amend many of the rules governing the state’s dispensaries in order to improve upon the medical marijuana system.

The current goal of the MMED is to simplify the system so that it is easy for business owners to understand the rules they will be held to.  The MMED will work to ensure that rules are not redundant, are simple to understand, achieve the desired intent, determine if the rules can reduce regulatory burden while maintaining the desired benefits, and ensure that rules are implemented effectively.  The goal of the revamp is essentially to make the entire medical marijuana program more efficient for all parties involved.

An example of a rule that isn’t making the cut this time around is that in 2010, when the state’s medical marijuana law was initially passed, all dispensaries were required to put in a video surveillance system that could connect to the internet.  The idea was that state auditors could remotely monitor every collective in the state at any time of day.

Three years later, the state has admitted that they don’t access collectives’ surveillance systems.  So now the MMED is scrapping that requirement to save collective owners money and to set  more realistic expectations for how collectives will be monitored by the state.

The rewrite was prompted by experience; observations over the past three years have allowed the state to see what works and what doesn’t work.

“It’s about figuring out more efficient ways to make it work,” said Mike Elliott, the head of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, a trade association.

“We can see it now,” he said. “We have a much better idea of what works and what doesn’t work.”

“Overall, I think it’s a good thing for the industry,” Elliott continued. “It was in a sense over-regulation. … They’re still getting the security they need.”

In addition to the MMED, all Colorado state agencies are being required to make their rules more efficient.

[Source]