I’ve been spending time at two websites, State Bill Colorado and the legislative section of Colorado State Government. Both are good places to find the bills that are being considered in the current legislative session. The state website is all business, and lists information about each bill, including who is sponsoring, which committee is reviewing, and detail about votes. State Bill Colorado provides the same information with a little editorial comment and quotes from legislators. They also print the governor’s schedule and tips for dining.

Already the list is long, but one that caught my eye was a bill requiring drug testing as a condition of eligibility under the Colorado Works Progam. If the worker fails the drug test, they would be eligible to reapply in a year, 6-months if they go through a substance abuse program. This is HB 12-1046, and the sponsors are Rep. Sonnenberg in the House and Senator Brophy in the Senate. Jerry Sonnenberg is a rancher with experience in land and water issues.  Senator Brophy also represents a rural district. Both are Republicans.

I have to wonder if this legislation wasn’t handed to the two Republicans over the summer by ALEC. They have been trying to increase drug testing both in the workplace and for people on welfare. A similar bill was passed in Florida, where it became under attack for two reasons: The Governor owned a company that did drug testing and 96% of all people tested passed the test.

In Colorado, there is another wrinkle—medical marijuana. Does this mean that if someone has a medical marijuana card they need not ever apply for any assistance programs, because they will fail the drug test? Medical marijuana may not be legal under U.S. codes, but it is legal under the Colorado Constitution. The state has even been balancing its budget thanks to fees paid by cardholders and dispensaries.

The proposed bill tries to soften any blow to the innocent children of people who fail the drug test. Their benefits would be continued if there was someone who could pass the test and manage the family’s finances. And you thought the GOP was about small government? What have you been smoking?

Homework

State Bill Colorado

Legislature Home Page for the State of Colorado

HB 12-1046

Colorado Works Program

Blogger Writes About ALEC workforce drug testing legislation

Florida Newspaper Story About ALEC legislation supporting welfare drug testing

Nashville Blogger Reports on Results of Welfare Drug Testing in Florida

By nature I am an optimist, so it was amusing this morning to have a story about how optimistic Democrats are about the coming year be the first thing to pop into my in-box. Then the second bit of news I came across was a story about Colorado asking the Drug Enforcement Administration to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule 2 drug.

Moving the classification from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 2 would change how the drug is prescribed in Colorado, and allow it to be sold by pharmacies. At first I thought the world had gone topsy-turvey while I slept, because I couldn’t imagine Colorado’s Attorney General signing on to any lawsuit that would make it easier to use medical marijuana.

He didn’t. The letter representing Colorado’s position, which is joining forces with Rhode Island and Washington, came from Colorado’s Department of Revenue. That made a lot of sense given that Colorado has been using fees on both care-givers and marijuana card-holders to balance the state’s budget since Ritter was governor.

After reading the story, I’m wondering what took the Department of Revenue so long. Evidently the 2010 law, signed by Ritter, which set up marijuana regulations for Colorado required that the state ask the DEA to reclassify marijuana by January 1, 2012. It took them two years to write a letter!

Given that this letter was mandated by law, I’m now wondering why the letter didn’t come from the Attorney General. Could it be that this has been a political hot potato, and the last agency to catch the potato was Revenue? Did they issue the letter because they were the last agency with lights on, with everyone else gone for the holidays?

Homework

Democrats Are Optimistic

MSNBC Report on Colorado and Pot