The Colorado House on Wednesday advanced a bill seeking to keep high-potency marijuana products out of the hands of teens after a rigorous debate on data collection and patient privacy.

House Bill 1317 from Speaker Alec Garnett, D-Denver, and Reps. Yadira Caraveo, D-Thornton and Tim Geitner, R-Falcon, seeks to achieve that goal by:

• sending the Colorado School of Public Health $1 million per year for three years to conduct an analysis of existing research on the impact of high-potency THC marijuana and concentrates on physical and mental health, find gaps in that research and conduct studies to fill those gaps. The legislation also creates a scientific review council to review the findings in that analysis and make recommendations to lawmakers;
• directing the state Department of Public Health and Environment to compile a report on hospital and emergency room discharge data reflecting patients who display “conditions or diagnosis that reflect marijuana use;”
• directing coroners to order a toxicology screen to test for THC in non-natural deaths of those under 25 years old. The results of those screens would be required to be reported to CDPHE’s Colorado Violent Death Reporting System and the agency would be required to compile a report on those screens;
• lowering the purchase limit on concentrates for medical patients and recreational consumers to 8 grams per day, down from the 40-gram threshold adults are currently allowed to possess. For medical patients between ages 18 and 20, that limit drops to two grams per day
• updating the seed-to-sale tracking system for medical patients to ensure compliance with the new limits; and
• requiring medical patients ages 18 to 20 to consult with two doctors who diagnose “a debilitating or disabling medical condition,” and schedule follow up appointments every six months before receiving their medical cards.

The main objection raised by some Republican lawmakers came to the provision updating the Metrc seed-to-sale tracking system. Under that provision, the tracking system would be updated with information tying purchases to a medical patient’s identification number in real time, rather than at the end of each day.

That’s the main provision of the bill designed to prevent “looping,” when a patient buys up to their daily limit at one dispensary before heading to another to again buy up to their daily limit before the system updated.

According to Garnett, looping by 18-year-old medical card holders is the main way high-potency THC products are making their way into the hands of underage students.

“All we’re asking is that we update the interface so that we prevent 18-year-olds or anybody from purchasing over their daily limit,” he said.

Geitner, meanwhile, emphasized that the provision wasn’t an expansion of the Metrc system.

“1317 does not disrupt what is currently already happening, it does not expand what is currently already happening. It is just more of a continuation of the same,” he said.

Some of his GOP colleagues strongly disagreed.

“I think it is a clear expansion of the database from tracking the plant and the product to now tying that product to an individual,” said Rep. Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch. “This is a bill I want to support, but this is a piece of it that greatly worries me — that this informational will build up for years and years and years.”

To that end, he introduced an amendment seeking to mandate the information entered in the system be kept confidential and deleted on a weekly basis. Rep. Kim Ransom, R-Littleton, also proposed an amendment seeking to delete data on a monthly interval.

Those measures drew support from a handful of Republicans skeptical on data collection.

“Many of us within the military with really high-level security clearances had all of our data stolen,” said Rep. Andres Pico, R-Colorado Springs, a retired Naval flight officer. “CDOT has been hacked. These things do happen, and so it’s an extra level of security.”

Geitner countered that to his knowledge, the Metrc system had not been hacked in its 20 years of use in the state. And, like Geitner, Garnett pushed back on the notion that the bill expanded the system.

“We’re not asking for more information to be collected, we’re just changing the time that it’s entered into Metrc,” he said. “All we’re asking … is don’t wait until the end of the day to do it, just do it per transaction to prevent those kids from creating a gray market and diverting the product onto high school campuses.”

Both amendments failed after the bill sponsors opposed them, though they indicated they would be open to further discussions on the issue.

A second amendment from Ransom was approved by the chamber though. That removed the time element and instead focused on ensuring the data was kept confidential. The bill sponsors said that element was already required in the state constitution but added they would be fine with reinforcing it with what they described as a “belt and suspenders” provision.

Though the bill passed on a voice vote Wednesday, it still must pass a recorded roll call vote then work its way through the legislative process in the Senate before the session adjourns.