6-10 years

I am pleased to have maintained excellent relationships with the Governor Polis team since my time on his legislative staff. I also enjoy long term policy relationships with the incoming Speaker of the House, House Majority Caucus Chair and Senate Majority leader.

Curriculum Vitae

State of Colorado

Implementation of Amendment 64:

Notable policy achievements on behalf of 36 Solutions clients included; a sunset of required vertical integration, a repeal of the permanent ban on drug felons being licensed, an allowance for marijuana companies to advertise using mobile applications and reducing the time before new applicants could enter the market from 2 year to 6 months.

Retail Marijuana Sunset:

Notable policy achievements on behalf of 36 Solutions clients included; packaging and labeling became a matter of statewide concern and a badged employee may be in a licensed premises under reasonable supervision of the licensee, this discretion allowing for commercial tours of cannabis facilities and facilitated contractors who service the cannabis industry.

Medical Marijuana Sunset:

Notable policy achievements include; relief from 280e taxation at the state level, harmonization of the medical code and retail code and making the sunset period for both concurrent.

Permitted Economic Interests:

Under the medical and retail marijuana codes, all out-of-state investment was prohibited and required 2 years of Colorado residency for all beneficial owners. For the client, we passed a bill that would allow for marijuana businesses to offer convertible debt instruments to non-resident investors. This bill was subsequently followed by SB-40 which allowed those investors to convert those notes to equity, provided at least on natural person of the corporate board was a 1 year Colorado resident.

Marijuana Misdemeanor Record Sealing:

This legislation provided persons with a conviction of a misdemeanor that would now be legal under Amendment 64 a streamlined process for having that record sealed.

Allow Medical Marijuana Use while on probation:

This legislation provided that a person under court supervision, may at the discretion of a judge continue or begin medical marijuana treatment while on probation.

PTSD as a qualifying condition for Medical Marijuana:

After several attempts to pass legislation to allow PTSD as a qualifying condition failing based on constitutional grounds, on behalf of clients, 36 Solutions offered to lawmakers the solution of creating a separate statutory medical marijuana program. With the success of this initiative, the bill to add PTSD to the statutory medical marijuana program passed and was signed into law.

Adams County Special Marijuana Tax:

Citing lack of clarity in the law, Adams County was collecting a special retail marijuana tax within municipal boundaries. On behalf of the client and working with the Cities of Northglenn and Aurora, we passed legislation requiring Counties to enter in an inter-governmental agreement with Cities before imposing a special tax within the municipal boundary.

Autism as a qualifying condition for Medical Marijuana:

Following on the success with PTSD, this bill to create a statutory program for treating Autism with Medical Marijuana passed the bipartisan legislature 97-3 however was vetoed by the Governor.

Cannabis Tasting Rooms:

Amendment 64 neither established nor prohibited social use of cannabis. On behalf of the client and after several years of negotiations and compromise, we passed a bill to allow cannabis tasting rooms, however the bill was vetoed by the Governor.

County of Boulder

Revisions to regulatory resolution for marijuana businesses:

On behalf of clients, 36 Solutions assisted Boulder County in harmonizing its regulatory code with the state, and streamlining the County licensing process including de-coupling code violations of the property owner on separate parcels from the regulatory license of the tenant.

City of Boulder

Grandfathering of pending medical dispensary applications:
The City of Boulder was passing an ordinance at staff recommendation that would have immediately changed the zoning for medical marijuana businesses and their ability to become retail marijuana businesses. This change would have prevented the client from opening a dispensary that was under construction. 36 Solutions got the ordinance amended to grandfather all existing businesses as well as pending applications.

Prevented City of Boulder Moratorium on Retail Marijuana Sales:

The Boulder City Attorney drafted an ordinance to impose a 2 year moratorium on retail marijuana sales. 36 Solutions lobbied NO votes on the ordinance and got council to commit to a timely implementation schedule.

City of Boulder Retail Marijuana implementation:

On behalf of several clients, following the success of preventing a moratorium, 36 Solutions worked with City Council to ensure an implementation ordinance was passed and effective by January 2014.

Supply Chain:

A client could not meet their in-store volume demands as the City of Boulder, in contradiction to state law, prohibited onsite packaging. After City Staff held to their position, 36 Solutions had the Council amend the regulatory ordinance to allow onsite packaging.

Trademarking and apparel:

The City of Boulder prohibited the sale of marketing items for retail marijuana businesses. As a proximal result, a client became involved in a trademark dispute with a newer brand in Washington State. In order to demonstrate commerce, the client needed to be able to sell marketing merchandise with the trademarked logo. 36 Solutions lobbied the Council to amend the ordinance to permit the sale of logo-marketing items in the City.

Marijuana Advisory Panel:

After representing clients on several ordinances related to reducing regulatory burdens including but not limited: reducing advertising restrictions, allowing the sale of t-shirts, allowing packing per state regulations, water-based concentrate production per state regulation and removal of "zero-tolerance" language, the Council created an annual process, the Marijuana Advisory Panel (MAP), for the analysis and update of the City Marijuana Code.

Zoning change for Retail Marijuana businesses:

On behalf of the client, 36 Solutions lobbied the Marijuana Advisory Panel to include a provision changing zoning to permit the client's expansion and conversion of a medical marijuana center to a dual use retail marijuana store.


City of Fort Collins

Grandfather pending applications eligibility for Retail Marijuana Sales:

A client had a pending medical marijuana business applications as the City was drafting its retail marijuana ordinance. The draft ordinance limited retail marijuana conversion to existing businesses. 36 Solutions got the ordinance amended to allow all businesses with a pending application that has not been denied to continue their medical marijuana application and add a retail marijuana businesses, even if the pending businesses would be a non-conforming use under the new zoning ordinance.

City of Lafayette

Lift Moratorium and implement Retail Marijuana Sales:

A Client with medical marijuana operations in Boulder and Lafayette became out of compliance when Boulder amended its ordinance to prohibit an entity from operating more than one medical or retail marijuana dispensary. Although the City Council's intent was to encourage conversion to retail and prevent consolidation of the industry, our client found themselves unable to come into compliance due to at-the-time required vertical integration. The client would be unable to convert their Boulder dispensary while Lafayette had a moratorium, prohibiting the conversion of the client's medical cultivation facility to retail cultivation. Working with the Mayor and Council, 36 Solutions had the Moratorium ended 6 months early, while working with the City of Boulder to hold enforcement on its new policy pending the passage of the Lafayette Ordinance.

City of Longmont

Implementation of Retail Marijuana Sales:

36 Solutions worked with the City Council and City Staff, responding to Council concerns to have a limited license scheme and staff's interest in a legally defensible and equitable process. 36 Solutions helped craft provisions of the City Ordinance and requirements of the Request for Application. 36 Solutions worked with the client to develop their application and community engagement plan resulting in an award of one of the 4 retail marijuana licenses made available by the City.


Town of Lyons

Implementation of Retail Marijuana Sales:

Our client had a vibrant retail marijuana location in Boulder County, proximate and within the planning boundary of the Town of Lyons. Although the client was not a Town licensee, 36 Solutions worked closely with the Town Attorney and Board of Supervisors to ensure that the municipal regulatory ordinance was favorable to the client's interests, specifically, a limit on the number of centers, hours of operation equal to the county and the ability to annex the location into the Town without a special use review.