The free-for-all that followed the legalization of retail marijuana in Colorado has come home to roost. Not only in terms of our state’s rising traffic casualties and our youths’ precarious mental health but also given the lack of accountability among pot’s peddlers. Which makes it all the easier for marijuana to get into kids’ hands.

That became clear this week with the release of startling findings about the state’s lax oversight of marijuana sales. An official audit of the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division – supposedly, the watchdog over pot and pot-laced products – gives the impression that, at times, no one is in the wheelhouse at the agency.

As reported Monday by The Gazette, the Colorado Office of the State Auditor uncovered wildly inconsistent inspections of Colorado marijuana businesses by the division. Dozens of dispensaries haven’t received targeted inspections or underage compliance checks since 2019, the audit found.

From 2019 to 2022, 567 licensed retail marijuana stores were flagged for targeted inspections in monthly reports. The division did not inspect 182 – 32% – of the stores during their respective months, and 75 stores were never inspected. Of the 629 stores flagged for monthly underage compliance checks, 75 (or 12%) were not checked.

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Alarmed at the prospect of your seventh grader buying a bag of THC-infused edibles? Perhaps, to pass around to friends after they finish their PBJs in the school lunchroom? It seems the Marijuana Enforcement Division doesn’t share your concern.

As The Gazette also reported, the audit found disciplinary actions against retailers caught in violation were inconsistent, too. Available penalties include fines, license suspensions and criminal summons.

The violations that turned up but went unaddressed by penalties included failing to verify an operative’s age; allowing an underaged operative into a restricted area, and transferring marijuana to a customer without a valid ID. 

Overall, the Marijuana Enforcement Division did not bring penalties against stores for 23 out of 44 reported violations, the audit found. Violations ranged from underage sales to inventory tracking issues.

In other words, only Big Marijuana – the successor to Big Tobacco in Colorado – thinks its industry is overregulated. No kidding; ever since marijuana sales began to ebb last year, industry reps have been calling on regulators to ease up. One was quoted in The Gazette last month hoping for “a regulatory overhaul.”

Not only should a relaxation of regulations be unthinkable to Colorado policymakers – but it’s also laughable in light of the audit’s findings. Lawmakers obviously ought to be tightening enforcement, instead.?

A former state official who oversaw the division defended it and blamed inadequate inspections and iffy enforcement on a soon-to-be-replaced licensing system that cannot report data on risk factors or types of violations, as well as on COVID-19 restrictions regarding in-person inspections. The official, onetime House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, headed the Department of Revenue – to which the Marijuana Enforcement Division answers – during some of the August 2022-July 2023 scope of the audit.

“We are held up as a gold standard in terms of the way we do this work,” Ferrandino told a legislative committee discussing the findings Monday.

But he added, “That does not mean there’s not room for improvement.”

To say the least.

Ferrandino also claimed the marijuana industry’s overall compliance with regulations exceeds that of tobacco and liquor vendors. That’s hardly comforting.

Kudos to Democratic state senators Chris Hansen of Denver and Kevin Priola of Henderson for requesting the audit. Now, let’s hope they and their fellow lawmakers crack down.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board