Senate Committee Hashes out MMJ Bill

By Ernest Luning
THE COLORADO STATESMAN

A Colorado Senate committee grudgingly approved a bill to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries after more than eight hours of testimony that stretched nearly until midnight Tuesday. Noting that only a few witnesses supported the bill out of more than 100 who testified, lawmakers said House Bill 1284 needs some serious repair before it would win their final support.

State Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, center, talks to witnesses and reporters in the hall outside the Old Supreme Court Chambers at the State Capitol on Tuesday before a Senate committee heard testimony on a bill sponsored by Romer to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries.
Photo by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

“This is the sausage-making, this is the process” said Senate Local Government and Energy Committee Chairwoman Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, as the hearing neared its conclusion and lawmakers prepared to vote. Earlier, Schwartz threatened several times to shut down the hearing when medical marijuana advocates became belligerent on the witness stand, including one man who said he hoped the politicians would “choke” if they passed the bill.

Tempers are running high as the General Assembly nears its final weeks in session without finished legislation to set rules for Colorado’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry. Legislators had hoped to tackle the question early in the session before moving on to the state’s budget crisis, but the chief authors of pending medical marijuana bills, Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, and Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, have found no agreement between competing interests — chiefly law enforcement and medical marijuana patients and caregivers — determined not to budge. And lurking behind all the activity are a handful of advocates determined to take the question to voters if lawmakers disappoint them.
Volunteers outside the Old Supreme Court Chambers stock a table full of sustenance for witnesses set to testify Tuesday at the State Capitol on a bill to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries.

While some are steadfast in their opposition to HB 1284 — most law enforcement officials say regulating medical marijuana dispensaries contradicts the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000 that created the right for seriously ill patients to access the drug, and some patients and advocates believe any restrictions likewise will end up in court — nearly everyone was thrown for a loop when Romer unveiled substantial changes to the bill the House passed last week.

Romer’s proposals include the ability for local governments to ban dispensaries outright, a requirement the retail outlets grow 70 percent of their own product, a tighter set of restrictions on who can obtain a dispensary license, and fees in the tens of thousands of dollars to legally sell medical marijuana. Another proposal would forbid patients under age 21 from dispensaries.

If the bill’s going to get past Gov. Bill Ritter’s veto pen, it has to include “non-negotiables” worked out with the governor’s office, Romer said. “There are guard rails.”

Ritter, a former district attorney, appears to be more willing to accept highly regulated dispensaries than other law enforcement officials, including Attorney General John Suthers and a phalanx of prosecutors, police and sheriffs, who say voters should have a say before dispensaries get state approval. Nearly unanimously, law enforcement representatives said the current situation was driving up crime and exposing youth to an easily accessible illegal drug.

“Milk money has been replaced with drug money,” said Adams County sheriff’s deputy Jon Van Zandt.

A sign posted on a door to the Old Supreme Court Chambers at the State Capitol on Tuesday warns witnesses and spectators that “No pins, hats, badges or stickers allowed in the chamber.”
Photo by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

“This is not a political issue,” Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey told the committee, “it’s a public safety issue. Legalizing dispensaries is tantamount to legalizing distribution of marijuana.” He went on to urge lawmakers to “dump this bill” and instead refer a measure on dispensaries to voters.

As unappetizing as this brand of legislative sausage may be, it’s not a set of questions lawmakers can put off, Romer said. Civic groups believe “the bill has to pass,” he said, “or the governor will have to call a special session.”

Laura Kriho of the Cannabis Therapy Institute urged lawmakers instead to create a commission to set rules, but after the committee passed the bill, she lamented the development “This is a sad day for patients,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Not only have they been sold out by their lawmakers, but they have been sold out by well-funded dispensaries, and they have been sold out by so-called patient rights groups. This bill will destroy patients’ access to their medicine, drive prices up, and force patients back into the black market.”

With so much discontent and disagreement, some lawmakers said the bill wasn’t yet near the finish line but agreed to push it forward.

“I have many problems with this bill,” said Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, minutes before the panel voted unanimously to wave the bill on to the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I have a whole list of unintended consequences.”

The lack of support for the bill “speaks extremely loudly,” she said. “I don’t want to derail tonight, but if these (problems) aren’t fixed, I’d rather have a bill that’s silent on some of these things and allow the rules process to work these things out with some of the stakeholders, than to have it too proscriptive (and) wrong.”

Sen. Ken Kester, R- Las Animas, agreed with Newell, at least in broad terms. “There’s a lot of things that need to happen to this bill before I feel comfortable with it,” he said, adding he’d vote it out of committee but that was the last vote sponsors could count on. “I hope you don’t bring another bill back to this committee while I’m on the committee,” he told Romer with a smile.

“We don’t write too many bills in uncharted territory,” Romer said as the committee prepared to adjourn. Because Colorado is one of the first states to tackle such explosive growth in the medical marijuana field, Romer reminded fellow lawmakers the state didn’t have other laws as guides. “We do need to work harder because there are people who will follow us,” he said.

Photo by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

Source Article Here

Finally A Victory for MMJ - Pot Measure Smoked

source: Denver Daily News

by Gene Davis
A measure that would have given voters the chance to essentially shut down retail medical marijuana dispensaries was killed yesterday in a Senate committee hearing.

A resolution proposed by GOP lawmakers that would have defined a medical marijuana caregiver in the state constitution was voted down 4-3 in the Senate Judiciary Committee. If passed by lawmakers and approved by voters, the resolution would have essentially snuffed out the medical marijuana dispensary model that has cropped up over the past year and a half.

“I believe when voters approved medical marijuana in 2000 that they did not envision a pot dispensary on every street corner,” Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, said in a statement prior to the committee hearing. “There are more medical marijuana dispensaries in Denver than Starbucks locations. The people deserve the opportunity to tell us if that is what they wanted.”

However, medical marijuana activists like Kevin Grimsinger Ń a war veteran who lost two limbs while serving in Afghanistan Ń believes the dispensary model helps ensure that marijuana is affordable for patients. His electric bill jumped by more than $200 when he tried to grow his own marijuana. Additionally, the marijuana that dispensaries are able to grow and sell is of a higher quality than the marijuana most patients are able to grow to treat their ailments, he said.

“Marijuana is a weed, anyone can grow it, but very few people can grow it right,” he said during the committee hearing.

Despite two medical marijuana reform bills that are making their way through the Legislature, many in the law enforcement community think the state is not doing enough to slow down Colorado’s fastest growing industry. North Metro Task Force Commander Jerry Peters argued during yesterday’s committee hearing that even regulating the industry wouldn’t shut down most of the medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado’s neighborhoods.

Medical marijuana attorney Brian Vicente, however, pointed out that the medical marijuana cardholders, of which there are more than 60,000 in Colorado, would still have a right to their constitutionally protected medicine even if dispensaries were shut down. As such, he believes getting rid of dispensaries would significantly increase the number of caregivers throughout the state.

“The sort of grand irony of this bill is that it is being pushed by law enforcement, but what they’re doing is taking a small controlled number of dispensaries and they would want to specifically remove that and disperse those grows to every community,” he said during the committee hearing.

Meanwhile, Dr. Christian Thurstone, the medical director of the adolescent substance abuse treatment program at Denver Health, said the dispensary model is increasing the availability of marijuana to kids. Research shows that about one in six teenagers who try marijuana get addicted and are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and drop out of school, according to Thurstone. Children being referred to treatment for marijuana tripled last year compared to 2008, he added.

Jeff Blue, who appeared at the committee hearing on behalf of Attorney General John Suthers, added that voters should have the chance to weigh in on the retail dispensary model. The constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000 gave seriously ill patients the right to use medical marijuana in Colorado, although the manner in which they could get the medicine was not detailed.

However, Kayvan Khalatbari, owner of Denver Pain Relief, argued that lots of people had lots of ideas about what would come from Amendment 20.

“I think the voters voted on giving people safe access to medicine, and that’s what it really comes down to,” he said.

Sad Day for Colordado Patients - HB1284 Passes

source: Cannabis Therapy Institute

{Denver} -- The Colorado state Senate Local Government Committee took hours
of testimony yesterday on HB1284. One of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Chris
Romer (D-Denver), was quoted in several articles yesterday saying that the
bill is designed to shut down 80% of caregiving businesses in Colorado. The
Committee hearing started at 2pm and finally adjourned at 11:30pm. The
Committee voted in favor of HB1284 and some of its last minute amendments
by a vote of 6 to 0, with Senator Cadman absent.

Laura Kriho of the Cannabis Therapy Institute says, "This is a sad day for
patients. Not only have they been sold out by their lawmakers, but they
have been sold out by well-funded dispensaries, and they have been sold out
by so-called patient rights groups. This bill will destroy patients' access
to their medicine, drive prices up, and force patients back into the black
market. The will of the voters has been ignored once again by lawmakers,
and sick and dying Colorado citizens will suffer."

"This is taking patient rights back over 100 years," says Timothy Tipton, a
patient advocate with the Rocky Mountain Caregivers Cooperative "Things are
going in the wrong direction. Patients in the 1800s had better access to
cannabis medicine than they will under this new law."

In a departure from hearings in other committees, the Local Government
Committee Chair, Sen. Gail Schwartz (D-Snowmass), allowed disabled patients
to testify first. This was followed by several hours of testimony from law
enforcement, including the District Attorney for Adams and Broomfield
Counties, the District Attorney for El Paso and Teller Counties, the
District Attorney for Jefferson and Gilpin Counties, the County Sheriffs of
Colorado, the Colorado Chiefs of Police Association, the North Metro Drug
Task force, and more. Most of the law enforcement testified against the
bill, saying that they didn't believe the "dispensary model" was allowed
under Colorado's medical marijuana constitutional amendment.

Several representatives of Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation, a
lobbying group hired by a handful of well-funded dispensaries who have been
"working with" Senator Romer on gaining concessions friendly to big
business. CMMR testified in favor of HB1284, but was against a dozen or so
last-minute amendments to the bill that Senator Romer surprised them with
that morning. Also testifying on the CMMR team was Brian Vicente from
Sensible Colorado, an organization which claims to be in support of patient
rights. Sensible asked for several amendments, but overall was satisfied
with the bill that would eliminate 80% of patient's caregivers, force
prices up, and force patients to use only one dispensary for their
medicine.

Laura Kriho, the director of the Cannabis Therapy Institute, urged the
Committee to kill HB1284 and urged lawmakers to form a statewide commission
to study programs that have been working locally and recommend a bill that
had a broad base of support. Mark Simon, an activist with the disabled
community, testified that neither Sen. Romer nor anyone else had reached
out to the disabled community to get their input on the bill.

Others who gave testimony against HB1284 were attorneys Robert J. Corry,
Jr. and Lauren Davis; Laurel Alterman, owner of Altermeds dispensary in
Louisville; Miguel Lopez of Mile High NORML; Robert Chase of Colorado
Coalition of Patients and Caregivers; and the Colorado Springs Medical
Marijuana Council. The mountain contingent was well-represented with
Kathleen Chippi, owner of One Brown Mouse dispensary in Nederland; Jessica
LaRoux of Twirling Hippy Confections and Mark Rose of Grateful Meds
dispensary in Nederland all testifying eloquently against the bill.

The bill now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee and then will be
voted on by the full Senate. CTI is urging patient rights supporters to
contact their state senators and urge them to vote No on HB1284.
http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com/advocacy/contact.colorado.state.legislature.html

---
Provided as a Public Service by the:
Cannabis Therapy Institute
P.O. Box 19084
Boulder, CO 80308
Phone: 877-420-4205
Web: http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com
Email: info@cannabistherapyinstitute.com

"Rocky Mountain High" Medical Marijuana in Danger

source: Huffington Post

by Robert J. Corry, Jr. and Jessica Corry

Over the past year, medical marijuana has consumed Colorado's news headlines and political debates. But with an estimated 100,000 patients now legally authorized to use marijuana to treat debilitating medical conditions, a handful of lawmakers threaten to dismantle a transparent dispensary system in favor of constitutionally-suspect regulations that could embolden a now-distressed black market.

We remain cautiously optimistic that the cloud of Prohibition will continue to clear. Repeatedly, courts have sided with patients in litigation surrounding medical marijuana rights. Voters, too, continue to express support for an emerging medical marijuana marketplace where transactions occur in well-lit, safe, taxable, environments instead of darkened back alleys, as they did in the decades before Colorado voters first approved medical marijuana in 2000.

While opponents mock this thriving industry and impugn patients' motives, six in ten voters continue to support medical marijuana rights. Notably, pro-medical marijuana sentiment runs strong even in the most unanticipated of places. In nursing homes across Colorado, terminally-ill residents use marijuana as an alternative to the haze of highly addictive narcotics.

While the state's economy continues to flounder, legislators have spent hundreds of hours over the last four months formulating proposals that could dismantle the state's system of retail dispensaries. Sen. Chris Romer, a Denver Democrat also running for Mayor, proposes Senate Bill 109 and House Bill 1284. As he explained it recently, the legislation would establish an army of "auditors with guns" to meet his goal of putting "well over 50 percent" of Colorado's legal marijuana businesses "out of business."

The proposals come after Senator Romer previously posted on this site that his efforts to establish a complex regulatory structure for medical marijuana were "now over."

Even more concerning, a handful of our fellow Republicans have now signed onto a ballot measure that would prohibit caregivers from making any profit whatsoever. If approved by legislators, Senate Concurrent Resolution 5 could appear on this November's ballot. It would ask voters to amend the Colorado Constitution to exclude retail sale or commercial cultivation of medical marijuana from constitutional protections, while also establishing overly cumbersome entitlements governing caregiver-patient relationships.

Patients will face an uphill battle and must band together to counter the special interests and establishment voices that seem to disfavor dispensaries. While Colorado's largest newspaper, The Denver Post, has established an excellent medical marijuana advertising section that has pumped much needed revenue into its coffers, ColoradoCannabisCorner.com, it uses its editorial page to bash dispensaries. A recent editorial argued that "dispensaries are never even mentioned in the medical marijuana constitutional amendment." Another Post editorial called legal retail medical marijuana a "farce" and "hypocrisy."

This assertion despite the Colorado Constitution Article XVIII § 14(2)(d)'s specific reference to "acquisition, possession, manufacture, production, use, sale, distribution, dispensing, or transportation of marijuana." If "dispensing" marijuana is explicitly contemplated, then a dispensary must reasonably be considered legal.

Marijuana is the only legal industry in America that endures such brazen threats from elected and opinion elites. If a politician had said that he plans to put "well over 50 percent" of all, say, supermarkets, out of business, would he suffer from voters?

Colorado House Bill 1284 and Senate Bill 109 would realize Senator Romer's dream of putting "well over half" out of business with requirements that no other business sector need satisfy. For example, the current version of HB 1284 purports to allow local governments to ban the exercise of this constitutional right to the medical use of marijuana. This would subject constitutional rights to government approval, when the principal purpose of constitutional rights is to protect vulnerable or unpopular minorities against the majority. Popular things don't need constitutional protection; pitchfork-wielding mobs are not screeching to ban Mom and apple pie. Although medical marijuana remains popular statewide, there remain geographically-isolated pockets of irrational prejudice and NIMBY-ism relating to medical marijuana. Medical marijuana patients are the new despised minority; typical arguments recycle emotional Segregationist canards of "property values," "increased crime," and "we must protect the children," none of which have any empirical support.

HB 1284 requires the state to go, hat in hand, to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and request that the federal DEA "reschedule" marijuana from a Schedule I substance to a Schedule II substance. Lately here, the DEA's favorite pastime has been to laugh in Colorado's face when it comes to medical marijuana. However, in this instance, the DEA's inevitable laughter at Colorado's rescheduling request would be justified, since HB 1284 somehow ignores that it is the U.S. Congress, not the DEA, which sets the schedules for drugs. Before requesting the DEA to do something it cannot do, the Colorado Legislature should keep its own house in order, and reschedule marijuana away from Schedule I in its own State-level classification, Colorado Revised Statutes section 18-18-203.

HB 1284 requires that all officers, directors, stockholders, and employees be of "good moral character and reputation." What organization could comply with such a sweeping and vague requirement? Probably not even Focus on the Family, or the Colorado State Legislature for that matter. HB 1284 requires those in the medical marijuana business to repay all student loans and have no outstanding judgments due to any government agency, such as a parking ticket.

HB 1284 irrationally requires that retailers themselves cultivate no less than 70% of their supply offered to customers, and that no wholesalers can exist. If such a requirement applied to supermarkets, i.e., that the supermarket must grow 70% of the wheat for the bread on the shelves, and that every farmer growing the wheat must also be a retailer, it would put both farmer and supermarket out of business, stuck in an infinite loop of government "auditors with guns" tracking every last minutiae of the production chain.

HB 1284 also attempts to resurrect the notorious limit of five patients per caregiver, an unconstitutional limit which the Colorado Health Department illegally adopted and was enjoined by a court from enforcing. How can a caregiver function with any economies of scale if limited to five patients?

READ the full story at HuffingtonPost.com

New Miss High Times is Crowned!

This is a followup to our story back in December 2009 - http://mosthimag.blogspot.com/2009/12/miss-high-times-from-colorado.html

HIGH TIMES announced on 4/20/10 that Colorado's own Brittany Rene Wagoner for this year's Miss HIGH TIMES 2010!! Most Hi would like to send a HUGE congratulations to Brittany because she was truly the best choice!

Upon winning the coveted Miss HIGH TIMES title, Brittany is going to represent High Times at the 2010 High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam.

Check out the links below for more info:

http://misshightimes.com/users/bwaggin/

http://misshightimes.com

Medical Marijuana business is on fire

By Rob Reuteman, Special from CNBC.com

DENVER — Medical marijuana dispensaries are springing up in Colorado's major cities like coffee shops, nail parlors, tanning salons or taco shops.

It's been 10 years since Colorado voted to allow the use and sale of marijuana for medical reasons. But in the past six months, the number of patients and dispensaries has skyrocketed.

"This industry is like a bolting horse running out of a stable that's on fire," said Sierra Neblina, owner of the Medimar Haven dispensary in Lakewood, Colo. "We need to get a hold of our own industry."

Denver has some 250 dispensary storefronts and Boulder, Colo., has more than 100. So far, the state has issued more than 66,000 cards that allow holders to purchase medical pot. Card demand is so high that there's a six-month waiting period.

Now, experts estimate more than 100,000 Coloradans can buy medicinal marijuana legally. On April 1, the Medical Marijuana Registry at the state health department stopped accepting walk-up applications and will only process those sent by mail.

"The changes are necessary due to the explosive growth in the number of medical marijuana applications," said Mark Salley of the Colorado Health Department. He said the number of applications jumped from 270 per workday in August 2009 to about 1,000 in February 2010.

Yet, few see legalized marijuana as a way to boost the economy and create jobs, according to an Associated Press/CNBC poll. About a quarter of those polled said legalized pot would lead to more jobs, but 57% said there would be no effect. Sixty-two percent approve of states taxing the drug, with people in the West more likely to back the idea.

Call it Marijuana Country

Like California, which was the first to OK medical marijuana in 1996, Colorado's marijuana infrastructure and culture are well ahead of the other 12 states that followed.

Though Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington allow the practice, they are in various stages of start-up mode.

Similar ballot measures or legislation allowing medical marijuana are pending in 14 more states this year: Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wisconsin. The City Council of the District of Columbia today considers a bill to allow the sale and use of medical marijuana.

Those states have a lot to learn from California and Colorado. In the Mountain State, the jump in dispensary openings and applications for medical marijuana cards appears to be a direct result of key events — both local and national — that essentially loosened restrictions.

In February 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Drug Enforcement Agency would end raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries. He said President Obama's election campaign position condoning medical use is "now American policy." Marijuana for non-medical purposes remains illegal.

In July 2009, during a 12-hour hearing in which hundreds testified, the Colorado Board of Health rejected a proposal to limit the number of patients to five that could be served by each caregiver or dispensary. In October, the Obama administration clarified Holder's February statement, telling federal authorities not to arrest or prosecute medical marijuana users and suppliers who aren't violating local laws.

The policy decisions bolstered a business model used by most existing dispensaries, which serve 400 or more patients. And they offered a measure of certainty to investors who are bankrolling the growth in retail outlets.

How it works

To get a medical marijuana card in Colorado, a patient must see a licensed physician who provides written documentation of a "debilitating medical condition." These may include cancer, glaucoma, AIDS or HIV-positive status, seizures, severe pain, severe nausea or severe muscle spasms.

Medical use, according to the law, covers "the acquisition, possession, production, use or transportation of marijuana or paraphernalia related to the administration of such marijuana to address the symptoms." A doctor's visit typically costs about $150 and may consist of a five- to 10-minute conversation.

Some dispensaries host doctors on site. Websites list regular doctors' hours. The state charges a $90 processing fee, and dispensaries usually add notary or other smaller handling charges, for a total patient cost of about $250.

Then there's the product. An ounce of medical marijuana currently costs about $350 and is considered sufficient to last about six weeks for the average patient.

Often, a dispensary offers a discount to a patient, who then lists it as his or her "primary caregiver." A patient may possess up to 2 ounces of pot or six plants for personal use, and a dispensary may have on hand 2 ounces of pot per patient.

A dispensary may provide a grower with its patient list; a grower may house six plants per patient.

Dispensaries, however, are far more than smoking dens. Marijuana is bought and sold in an array of edible forms, such as caramel corn made with marijuana-laced butter, chocolate-covered cherries, rice cake treats and frozen pizzas.

Mile High Ice Cream in Denver makes dozens of flavors with marijuana. There are bottled soft drinks, pills and tinctures.

Dispensaries also sell routine and advanced drug paraphernalia, including pipes, lighters, scented candles and smokeless "delivery systems" called vaporizers, the latter of which can cost several hundred dollars apiece.

Many dispensaries have expanded to offer massage, acupuncture and other alternative healing methods, usually arranging patient appointments and providing operating space for a practitioner.

There's even an industry trade group, the Colorado Wellness Association, formed in October 2009, whose public affairs officer is a former state senator, Bob Hagedorn.

"I've visited about 80 dispensaries in the Denver metro area," Hagedorn said. "I'd say 10% are very serious about the wellness side of things. Fifty percent are interested in moving product. The other 40% is a balance of those two."

- read the full story here

Medical Marijuana Bills Will Harm Patients

source: Cannabis Therapy Institute

Colorado Medical Marijuana Licensing to be Run by "Auditors with Guns"

State Licenses Will Cost $50,000/year

{Denver} -- There are now two law enforcement bills working their way
through the Colorado state legislature that would seriously harm medical
marijuana patients and their caregivers in Colorado. Both of these bills
have seen strong support from legislators, both Democrats and Republicans.

Law enforcement bill #1 (SB109) would destroy the confidentiality of the
Registry by allowing the government to use patient records to determine
"suspicious" activity by physicians. It allocates over $1 million of
patient registration fees to prosecute these "suspicious" physicians.

The bill's sponsor, Senator Chris Romer (D-Denver), promised the Cannabis
Therapy Institute repeatedly that he would use patient registration fees to
create 24/7 access for law enforcement to the Registry so that police could
confirm whether a patient was legal after business hours and on weekends.
This has been the #1 patient concern for years and would prevent many
patients from being arrested and taken to jail simply because the Registry
offices were closed. Instead, Romer wants to use patient fees to prosecute
those patients' physicians, allowing unprecedented access to the formerly
confidential Registry.

Law enforcement bill #2 (HB 1284) is a 49-page regulatory monstrosity that
seeks to eliminate 95% of existing dispensaries. It creates a state medical
marijuana licensing board run by the Department of Revenue. Dispensaries
would have to get a state license, a local license, and a cultivation
license. Dispensaries would be subject to warrantless searches of their
premises. Law enforcement would be able to come in as often as they wanted
to count and weigh a dispensary's cannabis and search through patient
records to make sure the dispensary didn't have "too much.". Law
enforcement would be able to track patients as well, to make sure they
weren't purchasing "too much" medicine. HB1284 would create a new class of
law enforcement official, the "medical marijuana enforcement investigator"
that would be in charge of these warrantless searches. HB1284 would also
require caregivers to give up their 5th Amendment right against
self-incrimination, leaving them open to possible federal criminal charges.

Senator Romer, one of the co-sponsors of HB1284, discussed the bills at a
meeting of the Medical Marijuana Business Alliance on April 15, 2010 at the
Loews Hotel in Denver. His comments were shocking to the audience.

Romer described the new regulatory regime. "The Department of Revenue will
regulate it with guns," he said. "Auditors with guns will be in your
dispensary every 5 to 7 days" to count and weigh your medicine. Since you
will be seeing so much of your auditor, Sen. Romer said, "Your auditor will
be your best friend. Yes, he will have a gun, but that will be OK." Romer
repeated the phrase "auditors with guns" dozens of times in his 20 minute
speech, almost seeming gleeful at the thought. Romer also said that the
progress on HB1284 has been stalled because "we're trying to figure out
exactly how many auditors with guns we will need."

The big bombshell fell when Romer was asked how much a state dispensary
license would cost. He replied that the fee would probably be around
$50,000 a year, maybe more. Yes, that's not a typo, fifty thousand dollars
each year.

This is the future of medical marijuana: the Law Enforcement Model to
Medicine. Readers in other states should be wary as well. Law enforcement
all over the country will be using Colorado's regulatory regime as a model
for their own state's regulations down the road.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

1) Call or email your local House and Senate Members and ask them to:
VOTE NO ON HB1284 and SB109

House Offices: (303) 866-2904
Senate Offices: (303) 866-2316


Click here for a full list of emails and other contact info.
http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com/advocacy/contact.colorado.state.legislature.html

Send us copies of any emails you send.

Go to the General Assembly Home Page for the most current copies of the
bills:
http://www.leg.state.co.us/

2) Copy and print this PDF version of this Action Alert and bring copies
everywhere. Let's get the phones ringing down there.
http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com/bills/hb1284.action5.pdf