Your Colorado legislature needs to hear from you today!
A bill has been introduced in the Colorado legislature that would significantly weaken smokefree air protections. We need your help to defeat this bill!Â
Senate Bill 63 would roll back protections to public health that were set in place by the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act (CCIA) by creating an exemption to the CCIAA so that licensed marijuana clubs could allow the public to use marijuana indoors: smoking, aerosolizing (vaping), or eating it. SB 63 states that these new marijuana clubs would have to be “fully ventilated,†but ventilation is not the answer. Ventilation cannot control for the health risks from secondhand smoke, including marijuana secondhand smoke.
SB 63 is currently in the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee and is scheduled for hearing, Wednesday, February 22nd.
Here’s what you can do to oppose this bill:
Call or email the following members of the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee to ask them to OPPOSE SB 63. (Please see sample talking points below.)
Please see the fact sheet on SB 63 for talking points.
Additional Sample Talking Points:
 1. The Colorado Legislature should join with Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, Children’s Hospital of Colorado, National Jewish Health, ALA, AHA, ACS CAN and other national and state health groups to oppose Senate Bill 63.
2. For over 10 years now, workers in Colorado have benefited from working in a healthier, smokefree workplace thanks to the CCIA. Many municipalities in Colorado have gone further by strengthening their local smokefree laws to include electronic smoking devices and marijuana smoking in their ordinances. If passed, SB 63 would erode the current public health protections by undermining the Colorado Clean Air Act.
3. Smoke is Smoke: Secondhand smoke from marijuana has many of the same chemicals as smoke from tobacco, and can have similar harmful health effects. See our factsheet to learn more about the health hazards of secondhand marijuana smoke.
4. People should not have to breathe secondhand marijuana smoke at work or in public places. Legalizing marijuana should not mean exposing other people to secondhand smoke or emissions from electronic smoking devices.
5. The American Society for Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), affirms that mechanical solutions like ventilation cannot control for the health hazards of secondhand smoke. ASHRAE’s ventilation standard (62.1) for acceptable indoor air quality is based on an environment that is completely free from secondhand tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke and electronic smoking devices.
6. Regardless of how one may feel about marijuana, it should not be smoked or vaped indoors or in ways that harm other people.
Do One More Thing
After you submit your comments, let your friends and neighbors know about this issue and ask them to also send a message to their legislator to oppose Senate Bill 63 for Marijuana Clubs Statewide.
Thanks!
Read the full alert at http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/51299/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1339038. |
