Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
CHEYENNE (AP) — A Wyoming legislative committee on Thursday moved to make possession of marijuana brownies and other foods and beverages containing the drug a misdemeanor.
The Wyoming Senate earlier this week called for making it a felony to possess more than three ounces of food or drink containing marijuana or its active ingredients.
However, the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday stripped out the felony language, leaving the bill instead with a system of increasingly stiff misdemeanor penalties for repeated convictions of possessing food or beverages containing THC, the active compound in marijuana.
The full House still must act on the bill before a conference committee could try to resolve any differences between the House and Senate versions.
Wyoming has seen a spike in possession of marijuana edibles and beverages since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana use in 2014. Neighboring Montana allows medical use of marijuana.
District Judge Steven Sharpe of Cheyenne last year ruled that existing state law outlawing marijuana refers specifically to its plant form. He dismissed criminal charges against a man accused of possessing felony amounts of marijuana after the Wyoming Highway Patrol stopped him for an alleged traffic violation and found nearly 2 pounds of marijuana candies, cookies, bread and chocolate bars.
Lawmakers have disagreed in this legislative session over how to outlaw marijuana edibles that hold varying concentrations of THC.
Sen. Curt Meier, R-LaGrange, had proposed the language that the Senate adopted that increased penalties for repeated misdemeanor convictions of possessing more than 3 ounces of edibles, regardless of THC concentration, reaching the felony level if a person had a fourth conviction within three years.
“This primarily goes into the case of our visiting college students,” Meier told the House committee on Thursday. “They can be a dummy three times in three years, but they can’t be a dummy four times in three years.”