People v. Lente

Citations

• 2017 CO 74
• 406 P.3d 829

Syllabus

The Supreme Court held that the prohibition on processing or manufacturing marijuana or marijuana concentrate under CRS § 18-18-406(2)(a)(I) is not unconstitutional as applied to Austin Lente, who used butane to extract hash oil from marijuana. Although \processing . . . marijuana plants\ is a protected personal activity under Colorado's Amendment 64, \manufacturing . . . marijuana\ is protected only as a facility-operation activity that requires a license. At the time Amendment 64 was approved, Colorado law established that extracting hash oil was manufacturing, not processing, and the Supreme Court assumes Amendment 64 adopted that settled meaning. Because Lente was unlicensed, he could not manufacture hash oil under cover of the constitution. Accordingly, the Court reversed the district court's order that ruled the statute is unconstitutional as applied to Lente.