Someone in Colorado who wrote this part of the law is obviously a moron. The state has a six plant per person rule in terms of what a private citizen gets to grow in their home for personal consumption. That means you'd need a house full of ten people to get sixty plants. While that's a nice chunk of change, you aren't going to retire off it or set up a large volume production facility. Then some dumb-ass did this:
Another reason the problem is particular to Colorado-and not in the other 22 states and the District of Columbia that have some form of legal marijuana-is that Colorado has uniquely loose medical marijuana laws, which are meant to allow the ailing to grow substantial crops at home. "In Colorado, if you go to a physician and you get a recommendation, you can grow 99 plants, so if you live with four others, you can grow almost 500,"
This is fucking stupid for a few reasons:
1) What makes bud medicinal or not is the ratio of THC to CBD to fuckloads of other things. Different ailments require different ratios. There are also thousands of different strains that vary on their output of the active chemical compounds which can be genetically crossed for even more interesting results.
2) Because of #1, you must possess basic botanical knowledge in general and specific knowledge of the plant in question.
3) You need somewhat pricy equipment to do this and a proper growing spot. Less scrupulous people spray their crops with toxic pesticides to cut corners and costs.
4) Guaranteeing a consistent product isn't easy, even with all the items in #2 and #3.
You might not be able to OD from weed but if someone's producing it under the guise of medicinal use, it has to be subject to external quality control in the same way other medicine is and that shit has to be enforced to the letter for a couple decades before you even think of mellowing out. Since no one thought this through, it has enticed small cells of gang members to set up suburban growing operations. Naturally, the DEA is there to spout alarmist and chemically ignorant sabre-rattling points instead of responding in a sane, rational manner:
Local, state, and federal officials believe it's not just isolated to Pueblo. "It's across the entire state of Colorado," DEA assistant special agent in charge Kevin Merrill says. "It's just basically taken over the state, these residential grows."
Merrill likens the danger to that of meth labs in homes. Besides the criminal element, turning a house into a greenhouse invariably destroys the home. "The destruction of the homes and neighborhoods is even greater."
Perhaps there are cultivation techniques I'm not up to date on, and maybe Agent Merrill has see marijuana farms that explode when you forget to water the plants at exactly the right time. All he had to say is, "I think 99 plants is too many for individuals to produce without regulation, especially if it's medicine." How the fuck hard is that?
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."