On Monday, May 18, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law a bill that lawmakers claim will strengthen the state’s medical marijuana laws and weed out folks who illegally use and sell untaxed pot.

Sponsored by Senator Irene Aguilar (D-Denver) and Representative Jonathan Singer (D-Longmont), SB15-014 chiefly establishes new guidelines for primary caregivers — folks who grow pot on behalf of registered patients.

The term caregiver encompasses a number of relationships, including that of a parent who grows marijuana for and assists an underage patient; someone who advises a patient on which marijuana products to use and at what doses; someone who purchases and transports marijuana to a homebound patient; or a person who cultivates medical marijuana for a patient.

The new law encourages, but doesn’t require, caregivers to register with the state Department of Revenue — the state’s licensing agency — and limits the amount of plants they can cultivate to 99. It also requires caregivers who dispense pot to inform patients that the product may contain contamination and that THC levels may not be verified.

The law also sets up a task force that will address setting up public access to the state’s limited number of marijuana testing labs.

The recreational pot industry has argued that lax regulations on primary caregivers has created a black-market business because such marijuana growers don’t face the same residency requirements, background checks or commercial “seed-to-sale” tracking that recreational growers are subject to. These checks on the recreational industry are intended to guarantee pot is grown and sold legally.

Early language in SB15-014 required caregivers to register with the state Department of Revenue within 10 days or face criminal penalties and a lifetime ban on serving as a caregiver.

“Ultimately, it was too much to try to figure out when that 10-day clock started and how it started,” Singer says. “It was more work than any side wanted to do so we decided to leave it as is for now.”

The law provides concessions that benefit some caregivers, such as the elimination of a requirement that parents of underage marijuana patients grow the drug instead of being able to seek the help of an experienced grower.

However, Singer acknowledges that the 99-plant limit may hinder some patients from being able to get the medicine they need.

“If a physician writes a recommendation and gives a patient an extended plant count of 85 plants, a single caregiver has hard cap of 99 plants, so that caregiver can’t grow more than another 14 plants for anybody,” Singer says. “So the limitation there is pretty significant. It’s not a big deal in Denver necessarily, but it’s a big deal in Lamar because there are no medical dispensaries in Lamar. So how far you have to drive if you live in Lamar, if you’re in that much severe pain, how are you going to be able to get access to your medication?” For Singer, the most important part of the bill was an “11th-hour” addition known as Jake’s Amendment, which permits school districts to allow student patients to use medical marijuana on school property as long as it is administered by a medical professional or guardian.

“There were some people who wanted to push people out of medical marijuana completely and end medical marijuana as we know it,” he says. “That’s why I put my name on this. I think there are people who would have taken this bill a lot further and really hurt patients in process. Some of these patients are not 21. If we went to a completely recreational market tomorrow, these kids, by any stretch of imagination, would not be able to get access to their medicine.”

Singer says that additional oversight and requirements for physicians will come this summer.

— Caitlin Rockett