A bipartisan effort aimed at keeping high-potency THC products out of the hands of teenagers has advanced on to the House floor after clearing its third committee on Tuesday morning.

But the bill that advanced through the House Appropriations committee on a 9-2 vote with two Republicans opposed included substantial changes from the version of House Bill 1317 that previously cleared the chamber’s Public and Behavioral Health and Human Services and Finance committees.

The bill sponsors — House Speaker Alec Garnett, D-Denver, and Rep. Yadira Caraveo, D-Thornton — added six amendments, plus one amendment to an amendment, aimed at addressing concerns raised by witnesses who testified against the bill before the two previous panels.

Among those concerns was a provision of the bill requiring both medical and recreational dispensaries to use packaging separating each gram of marijuana concentrate into at least 10 separate portions. A number of representatives from the marijuana industry said in testimony the provision was unworkable both economically and environmentally. Susannah Grossman, the sales and marketing director for Green Dot Labs, said the provision would drive up costs by nearly 500% and increase plastic pollution.

One of the amendments from the bill sponsors would remove that provision and instead require the Marijuana Enforcement Division to take up rulemaking on recommended serving sizes, individual servings and labeling requirements for concentrates.

Among the other provisions added by Garnett and Caraveo was one requiring the Colorado School of Public Health to lay out a timeline and budget for completing research to fill the gaps in existing research on the impact of high-potency THC on physical and mental health. Among others, the amendments also addressed some of the issues raised by witnesses on patient privacy and clarified a doctor does not need to conduct a mental health exam before recommending medical marijuana.

Rep. Kim Ransom, R-Littleton, quizzed Garnett on why the changes were being brought in Appropriations Committee hearing rather than in an earlier committee or on the floor “where it seems like we would have more time to dig into substantive amendments.”

Garnett said he wanted to have the changes added to the bill as quickly as possible to “show in good faith how much work that we have done through the legislative process.”

“I think being able to adopt these amendments today shows that good-faith stakeholding,” he said.

Ransom and fellow Republican Mark Baisley of Roxborough Park voted against the measure. Ransom said there were aspects of the bill she liked but still harbored reservations on the bill provisions on data collection and toxicology screens to test for THC in non-natural deaths, which she said represented an unfunded mandate on coroners.

The bill now heads to debate on the House floor.

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