cannabisnews.com: Mysterious Player Shakes Up Marijuana Game
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Mysterious Player Shakes Up Marijuana Game
Posted by CN Staff on April 19, 2013 at 05:11:15 PT
By Eric Gorski, The Denver Post
Source: Denver Post
Colorado -- The name appeared out of nowhere, unfamiliar to the players who have worked for months to influence how recreational marijuana will be regulated in Colorado. On March 28, someone named Matt Taylor hired high-powered lobbying firm Axiom Strategies to work on "marijuana issues," records show. Taylor has since expanded his lobbying team to rival that of anyone with a stake in adult-use marijuana legalized by Amendment 64 in November.
"No one knows who he is, and with a name like that, no one has been able to find out much," said Joe Megyesy, who lobbies for a law firm that specializes in marijuana and for the Marijuana Policy Project, the main funder of the Amendment 64 campaign. "I haven't seen anything like it — but we've never seen anything like Amendment 64."Colorado's marijuana mystery man, it turns out, describes himself as a former Marine and failed race-car driver who made his wealth in home heating oil on the East Coast and wants to get in on the ground floor of a budding industry worth untold millions in his home state.Big SpenderThe appearance of a new, big-spending character comes at a key moment as Colorado enters unchartered territory of legalized pot. Disparate interests and unlikely alliances are trying to shape the rules that will determine who can enter a highly lucrative business and how the market will be structured.Marijuana interests — led by medical marijuana business groups and dispensaries — already have paid at least $137,475 to lobbyists in the fiscal year that began in June, a Denver Post analysis found. And the real battle has not begun: Bills in the General Assembly to establish rules for recreational pot have yet to be introduced, and fewer than three weeks remain in the session. One issue has proven especially controversial: whether to let recreational pot stores and commercial growers operate independently.SnippedComplete Article: http://www.denverpost.com/news/marijuana/ci_23058748/Source: Denver Post (CO)Author:  Eric Gorski, The Denver PostPublished: April 19, 2013Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Website: http://www.denverpost.com/Contact: openforum denverpost.comCannabisNews  -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on April 19, 2013 at 07:45:36 PT
Don't exclude people from opening stores.
Medical cannabis businesses should not be the only people allowed to open stores which sell cannabis to the general public, for 3 months, 1 year or 2 years etc.B I N G O"I'm just a businessman trying to make his way into a business that apparently the other business owners don't want anyone else in," he (Taylor) said.Michael Elliott, director of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, said his group is disappointed collaborative efforts to create an effective regulatory structure "were subverted at the 13th hour by a new, anonymous and well-financed player."-0-From what I've been reading Michael Elliott is one of those greedy people who works to keep out competition and it's very easy to detect.
 I'm glad Taylor is calling them on it.I'm also pleased the article points out Taylor is a Republican. That's going to turn on a light bulb in other Repub's brain which is going to help further end the devil law in other states.
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