Politician straight answer gets him thrown to the dogs!

This week, the State of Colorado has made a change in the executive board for the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division. Dan Hartman, director of the MMED, has been reassigned to the Racing Events Division as its director. This division oversees greyhound and horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering on greyhound and horse racing. Since there has not been any live greyhound racing in the state of Colorado since 2008, my guess is that he will be spending a lot of time with the “adopt a greyhound” initiative.

With Mr. Hartman moving to the racing division, the former Director of the Racing Division, Don Burmania moves to . . . no to the MMED, he becomes the Director of the Tobacco Enforcement Division.  The Director of the Tobacco Enforcement Division, Laura Harris, is now the Director of the MMED. I sincerely hope that she changes the regulations so that we have to smoke our MMJ outside, 25 feet from any building entrance.

The real question is why make this move, and more importantly, why make this move now? It has seemed as though the MMED was finally moving in the direction of getting applications processed and licenses finally issued. Mr. Hartman was actively going to all MMJ associated meetings and making himself available to help explain the rules and regulations as well as the whys of those rules and regulations. Mr. Hartman was succeeding in reassuring those of us who have invested several years and hundreds and thousands of dollars in our businesses that progress is being made, our investments are being protected, and even that after the moratorium our efforts would not be wiped away by unbridled growth.

There have been many rumors spread around the social media outlets linking Hartman to different MMJ industry groups, both pro and con. Some also say the State was concerned that Mr. Hartman was “too close” to the MMJ industry. In reality, the reason quoted was simply that Mr. Hartman answered a direct question honestly. He did this at several meetings and in an op-ed piece in Steamboat Springs. When I first heard his comments at an MMBA meeting, the comments were received with applause. The comments seemed honest and logical. This is evidently not the way State Government works and punishment was soon meted out.

The question asked of Mr. Hartman was simply: “If Ft. Collins votes down dispensaries, do you think that this would create a domino affect to other cities.” Mr. Hartman answered that he hoped the Ft. Collins vote would not act as the first domino toppling the MMJ industry. He added that cities must realize that if they vote out the dispensaries, they are voting out the MMED. Since the MMED regulates the dispensaries, they would not be active in the cities that voted the dispensaries out. Therefore, any problems or issues a city had with Marijuana would fall under the purview of local law enforcement and the DEA. Mr. Hartman opined that those cities, after experiencing this, would change their minds about the vote. They would realize that it would be far more beneficial to have the MMED in their town to regulate MMJ.

The State decided that these comments were tantamount to campaigning to influence the cities and the population to vote against the ban. In fact the comments were an honest response to a direct question posed by the precise people that could be ruined by this vote. This one again proves that a politician should never be honest lest he be thrown to the dogs or in this case the Greyhounds.