Colorado legalized recreational marijuana just over a decade ago, and now a new report says the group in charge of inspecting pot stores hasn’t been enforcing the rules well enough…
(CO Cannabis Enforcement vxr :45)
That audit highlights multiple problems, including failure to check whether stores were selling weed to people under 21. The report finds several issues with work done by the Marijuana Enforcement Division. It’s responsible for regulating the cannabis industry, including licensing, store inspections, and looking into law violations. But between fiscal 2019 and ’22, the division failed to inspect nearly 40% of new stores, within a year of them getting a license. In-person inspections went down sharply during the pandemic. They’ve increased since ’21, but those inspections still haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. And auditors say division “investigators” haven’t been consistently applying what are supposed to be the rules. The two state Senators who requested the audit have made 6 recommendations on how to improve the inspection process. The marijuana division says it agrees with and will implement all 6.