2 Medical marijuana bills are wending their way through the Colorado Legislature this week.
Senate Bill 109 would bar doctors from writing recommendations inside dispensaries that sell medical marijuana and requires a full physical exam before recommending marijuana for patients. Critics claim that government officials with no formal medical training are demonizing and second-guessing private confidential decisions of trained physicians who advise patients and prescribe marijuana as a medical treatment to patients. Marijuana advocates say government should not interfere with private medical decisions in respect to doctors and patients.
It is obvious that the courts will have to weigh in to stop all the Reefer madness.
Senator Chris Romer, D-Denver, son of former Governor Romer, is leading the we-need-to-regulate-medical-Marijuana push in the state legislature.
You can read his article here from HuffPo.
"The details of any policy will be importantly dedicated by rigorous new licensing procedures, specifying how the dispensaries would be subject to regular auditing and reporting requirements. Clearly, there must be a limit on the amount of marijuana produced and sold at any licensed premise. And while there is room for a provision for small, unlicensed cooperatives--comprised of one caregiver and up to two patients--they must adhere to the limits of the law and be registered with the state.
With those considerations in mind, here are some details of the proposed bill. We will eliminate non-medical dispensaries as well as the loopholes through which patients can purchase from multiple dispensaries. Local law enforcement and prosecutors will have bright line rules and more specifics on the criminalization of dispensaries, compensating doctors for prescribing marijuana and the punishment for illegally reselling medical marijuana. Much like liquor sales, it will be up to local governments to license and regulate the dispensaries. Additionally, to facilitate patient access to medical marijuana, licensed chiropractors, physical therapists, optometrists and nurses who register as caregivers will have the ability to treat up to 25% of their annual patients with medical marijuana without a license."
House bill 1284 is legislation with rules in place for regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, including prohibiting dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools, day cares and other dispensaries. (because elementary school children are already prone to liquor stores and pharmacies while now the temptation of brownies and hooka pipes will protect them with 1000 ft of turf ?) Felons convicted within the last five years would be barred from running shops. Dispensary owners would have to be licensed, pass a criminal background check and pay a $2,000 application fee along with $3,000 a year to renew licenses.
The new version of regulation would also allow for separate licenses for marijuana-growing facilities tied to dispensaries -- which could sell a portion of what they grow to other dispensaries -- and for marijuana product-makers. Denver City councilman Charlie Brown, D-Denver, is advocating a sales tax on medical marijuana sales and a 4 percent tax "on edibles sold at dispensaries and consumed off-site." A sort-of munchies tax. ???!!!
Amendment 20, passed in 2000, allows small amounts of marijuana to be used by patients suffering from a list of eight symptoms, provided they receive the endorsement of a physician and a license issued by the state.
Period.
Additionally, the Colorado Constitution now legalizes "acquisition, possession, manufacture, production, use, sale, distribution, dispensing, or transportation of marijuana" for medical use."
Period.
What ever happened to entrepreneurial laissez-faire capitalism for the the common man? The little guys? Is it only for the banks and Wall street?
The MMJ industry pays taxes. They hire employees. They lease space. They advertise. And the drug war industrial complex can't stand it! But Democrats are looking tough in Colorado though. Forget fighting for health care, The public option, Banking foreclosures, renewable energy. They are standing up tall to Grandma smoking a joint for arthritis and where she grew it or bought it.
And no recreational pot smoking either! You must suffer to be able to smoke marijuana.
Early this month, state Attorney General John Suthers sent a letter to Colorado lawmakers urging them to oppose any measure "that embraces the clinic or dispensary model for distribution of medical marijuana."
"To embrace commercial dispensaries or clinics would go far beyond the intent of voters," he wrote. "In my opinion, it would constitute de facto legalization."
There are two positive results of this government hysteria: Thousands more Coloradoans are aware that they have the option of being legal medical marijuana patients; and voters continue discussions of the wisdom of continuing Prohibition.
Let's hope voters tell politicians that Reefer Madness is the opposite of free enterprise and freedom and truly a thing of the past.