Colorado sends cannabis experts to help Massachusetts

Colorado calls on other U.S. states to legalize cannabis. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper is sending his cannabis regulation experts to Massachusetts to provide expertise to legal weed neophytes.

Regulating legal cannabis is no mean feat: it involves studying, analyzing, securing and then creating new guidelines for this open drug market. These experts are therefore major players in the sector, and can decide to ban products such as THC candies or to authorize cannabis consumption in bars.

Andrew Freedman, legal cannabis regulator

Andrew Freedman is one of the cannabis experts deployed in Massachusetts. Governor John Hickenlooper calls him «the most knowledgeable man in the United States on how to create a regulatory framework for recreational cannabis. There are many lessons to be learned from our case, and Andrew is the wisest to explain them. Three years after his appointment Andrew Freedman has only one motto: »Gather the data, see the problems, solve the problems, all with speed.«

For him, the first step to successful legalization is to re-inform people and overcome their preconceptions: «A lot of people were against voters at the start, especially in state organizations. The reluctance disappeared 6 months after the cannabis stores opened». For him, successful regulation must involve all state departments: Commerce, Agriculture, Health and Youth.

The hardest part," he says in the Boston Globe, It's a huge responsibility. «It's a huge responsibility, we mustn't make any mistakes, otherwise we might regret it in 20 years» time and we won't be able to do anything about it.« For example, when THC-infused candy was banned, Andrew Freedman had to convince entrepreneurs that it was in their own best interests. »He didn't have the whole industry behind him, but 80 % from the industrialists is enough to get a legislature through.".

Here are some of the tasks that experts will have to implement in Massachusetts:

How to curb the black market? What happens to cannabis growers who exceed the plant limit? How should cannabis marketing be regulated? Will the use of pesticides in cannabis cultivation be authorized?

These are questions that all countries wishing to legalize the sale of cannabis within their borders will have to ask themselves.

Théo Caillart