Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
Members of Gov. Matt Mead's Marijuana Impact Assessment Council met Friday morning to give updates on their investigation into how legalizing the drug could affect the state.
Meeting at the Herschler Building in Cheyenne, council members gave reports from each of six subcommittees considering marijuana's impact on different aspects of the state, including education, health, criminal justice and revenue.
Perhaps the most compelling points came from Dan Noble, director of the Wyoming Department of Revenue. Noble conceded that it is difficult to properly assess the impact of legal marijuana on Wyoming's revenue forecasts, particularly as it pertains to medical marijuana.
As a baseline, Noble calculated revenues using an average retail price of $160 per ounce and an estimated 10,000 medical marijuana patients in Wyoming smoking two pot cigarettes a day. Based on that, he said, about 120,000 ounces would be consumed each year, amounting to $19 million in gross revenue.
"The sales tax on that, if that was all that was allowed to be assessed, would be a little over $1 million, of which the state would get $540,000," Noble said.
"But administration of the program is going to be expensive. Colorado has 55 people on staff to handle facilities in their state, and they've authorized for up to 85 people to cover recreational plus medical."
As with Colorado, Noble said that if medical marijuana were to be legalized in Wyoming, facilities would need to be established to audit any marijuana grown and distributed in the state, as well as any ancillary facilities like infused product manufacturers.
"There's no current facility in Wyoming capable of testing the strength of marijuana, and we can't cross the border into Colorado to test it," Noble said.
"And the Department of Agriculture can test for some pesticides, but there aren't any approved by the (Food and Drug Administration) as it relates to the growth of marijuana."
With those caveats in place, Noble estimated that the cost of hiring state employees to audit marijuana growers across the state and establish proper testing facilities could run $2 million, plus an additional $1.7 million a year in salary, administrative and upkeep costs.
Council member Dr. Charles Ksir with the University of Wyoming noted that the total number of medical marijuana patients in the state would ultimately depend on whether chronic pain is, on its own, considered a viable reason for prescribing the drug. Ksir said his reading of the state's medical marijuana ballot initiative currently making the rounds suggests a much more restrictive definition, tying chronic pain to a formal diagnosis of a disease such as cancer.
"That is really a key provision; if this is administered only for specific conditions, the size of this business will be miniscule," Ksir said.
"We'd have maybe 1,000 qualified patients."
Lt. Col. Shannon Ratliff with the Wyoming Highway Patrol also addressed some of the issues that will face state law enforcement if marijuana is made legal in some respect. Though he had no direct estimates, Ratliff said law enforcement agencies likely would have to spend a considerable amount on new training, both at the academy level and for experienced officers, on how to handle legal medical marijuana versus its illegal recreational counterpart.
"What sort of legal ramification will we have if we see marijuana?" Ratliff said. "It may no longer be a probable cause for a search. If a K9 alerts on a vehicle, what search and seizure ramifications will we have? We just don't know."
Ratliff said law enforcement also would have to employ more sophisticated kinds of roadside testing for the drug, which would add to the expense.
Oral swabs alone average $50 to $75 each, he said, while more sophisticated devices run in the thousands.
Council members agreed that, going forward, it would be a good idea to focus on multiple legalization scenarios as individual subcommittees contemplate impacts to Wyoming.
Those scenarios would include: the current illegal-across-the-board status quo, the more restrictive Vermont medical marijuana model, the model proposed by Wyoming's current ballot initiative, the more-permissive Colorado medical marijuana model used prior to 2014, and the full legalization that has been in effect in Colorado since January 2014.
Council subcommittees will now have until Dec. 1 to draw up individual reports on how each of those scenarios would play out in Wyoming, and how it would impact each subcommittee's area of expertise: What new regulations would need to be adopted, how it could impact primary and secondary education, how many new pot users would result and so on.
Once those reports have been submitted, they will be compiled into a draft summary for the governor.
Council members also said they should meet again in December to go over their individual subcommittee findings before signing off on a final report to the governor's office.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marijuana Impact Assessment Council discusses revenues, costs of medical marijuana
Author: James Chilton
Photo Credit: The Associated Press
Website: Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Meeting at the Herschler Building in Cheyenne, council members gave reports from each of six subcommittees considering marijuana's impact on different aspects of the state, including education, health, criminal justice and revenue.
Perhaps the most compelling points came from Dan Noble, director of the Wyoming Department of Revenue. Noble conceded that it is difficult to properly assess the impact of legal marijuana on Wyoming's revenue forecasts, particularly as it pertains to medical marijuana.
As a baseline, Noble calculated revenues using an average retail price of $160 per ounce and an estimated 10,000 medical marijuana patients in Wyoming smoking two pot cigarettes a day. Based on that, he said, about 120,000 ounces would be consumed each year, amounting to $19 million in gross revenue.
"The sales tax on that, if that was all that was allowed to be assessed, would be a little over $1 million, of which the state would get $540,000," Noble said.
"But administration of the program is going to be expensive. Colorado has 55 people on staff to handle facilities in their state, and they've authorized for up to 85 people to cover recreational plus medical."
As with Colorado, Noble said that if medical marijuana were to be legalized in Wyoming, facilities would need to be established to audit any marijuana grown and distributed in the state, as well as any ancillary facilities like infused product manufacturers.
"There's no current facility in Wyoming capable of testing the strength of marijuana, and we can't cross the border into Colorado to test it," Noble said.
"And the Department of Agriculture can test for some pesticides, but there aren't any approved by the (Food and Drug Administration) as it relates to the growth of marijuana."
With those caveats in place, Noble estimated that the cost of hiring state employees to audit marijuana growers across the state and establish proper testing facilities could run $2 million, plus an additional $1.7 million a year in salary, administrative and upkeep costs.
Council member Dr. Charles Ksir with the University of Wyoming noted that the total number of medical marijuana patients in the state would ultimately depend on whether chronic pain is, on its own, considered a viable reason for prescribing the drug. Ksir said his reading of the state's medical marijuana ballot initiative currently making the rounds suggests a much more restrictive definition, tying chronic pain to a formal diagnosis of a disease such as cancer.
"That is really a key provision; if this is administered only for specific conditions, the size of this business will be miniscule," Ksir said.
"We'd have maybe 1,000 qualified patients."
Lt. Col. Shannon Ratliff with the Wyoming Highway Patrol also addressed some of the issues that will face state law enforcement if marijuana is made legal in some respect. Though he had no direct estimates, Ratliff said law enforcement agencies likely would have to spend a considerable amount on new training, both at the academy level and for experienced officers, on how to handle legal medical marijuana versus its illegal recreational counterpart.
"What sort of legal ramification will we have if we see marijuana?" Ratliff said. "It may no longer be a probable cause for a search. If a K9 alerts on a vehicle, what search and seizure ramifications will we have? We just don't know."
Ratliff said law enforcement also would have to employ more sophisticated kinds of roadside testing for the drug, which would add to the expense.
Oral swabs alone average $50 to $75 each, he said, while more sophisticated devices run in the thousands.
Council members agreed that, going forward, it would be a good idea to focus on multiple legalization scenarios as individual subcommittees contemplate impacts to Wyoming.
Those scenarios would include: the current illegal-across-the-board status quo, the more restrictive Vermont medical marijuana model, the model proposed by Wyoming's current ballot initiative, the more-permissive Colorado medical marijuana model used prior to 2014, and the full legalization that has been in effect in Colorado since January 2014.
Council subcommittees will now have until Dec. 1 to draw up individual reports on how each of those scenarios would play out in Wyoming, and how it would impact each subcommittee's area of expertise: What new regulations would need to be adopted, how it could impact primary and secondary education, how many new pot users would result and so on.
Once those reports have been submitted, they will be compiled into a draft summary for the governor.
Council members also said they should meet again in December to go over their individual subcommittee findings before signing off on a final report to the governor's office.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Marijuana Impact Assessment Council discusses revenues, costs of medical marijuana
Author: James Chilton
Photo Credit: The Associated Press
Website: Wyoming Tribune Eagle
