The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Austin Joseph Lente, Defendant-Appellee

Summary

The court held that unlicensed butane extraction of hash oil from marijuana is manufacturing, not constitutionally protected personal processing under Amendment 64. Because the defendant's conduct was therefore prohibited by the statute, the statute was not unconstitutional as applied, and the district court erred by dismissing the charge; the case was reversed and remanded. The court also rejected the defendant's overbreadth and vagueness arguments. Chief Justice Rice, joined by Justice Gabriel, dissented, reasoning that the statutory terminology was ambiguous and that the defendant's conduct was protected processing or, alternatively, insufficiently clear to support criminal liability.