Well it’s been two days since the committee on HB1284 held its public hearing. Yesterday was spent in committee, likely reviewing the eleven hours of testimony and handouts from officials and citizenry alike.

This bill just doesn’t seem to have many supporters…from either side of the equation. Most people recognize that this is an industry that badly needs regulatory direction, but they also agree that it doesn’t come from this bill.

It takes a lot of work to pass a bill through the House and Senate. One really has to feel for elected officials charged with the task. From less than three feet away, Senator Chris Romer’s every wince and grimace was clearly visible and his frustration was sometimes palpable as he listened to hours of testimony.

Ten representatives from various judicial and law enforcement agencies stated that crime related to marijuana is worse since the dispensaries came along, but didn’t produce any reports or meaningful statistics. They oppose the bill because it gives legitimacy to Medical Marijuana Centers (or dispensaries). They make the point that “dispensaries” are extra-constitutional. That Amendment 20 to the Colorado Constitution did not contemplate dispensaries.

Read the rest here

As Colorado’s medical-marijuana industry grows, marijuana dispensaries of all types and sizes are proliferating around the state. Some resemble swanky bars or sterile dentist offices; others feel like a dope dealer’s college dorm room. To help keep them all straight, Westword is offering a no-holds-barred look at what goes on behind these unusual operations’ locked doors in “Mile Highs and Lows,” a regular online review of dispensaries around the metro area and beyond. (You can also search our directory of dispensaries for one near you.)

This week, the Wildflower Seed reviews Ka-tet Wellness Services.

Ka-tet Wellness Services
489 North Highway 287, Suite 201
Lafayette
303-665-5599
www.katetwellness.com

Hours of operation: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, noon to 6 p.m. Saturday
Owners: Ciara Cooper and Steve Carruthers
Owners’ statement: (from the website) “We Ka-tet owners have a deep sense of spirituality. We strive to create harmony in mind, body and spirit. We understand that there is a great need for education in the community on Medicinal Cannabis and the Energy Healing work we offer.”
Opened: November 2009
Raw marijuana price range: All strains $16 a gram.
Other types of medicine: Edibles, such as chocolates and flavored chews. hash, cannabis oils and salves.
Patient services and amenities: Certified Reiki worker, massage therapist, esthetician and past-life therapist on staff; occasional doctor days.

Read the rest here

Mike Davis, co-owner of Breckenridge’s new Club 420, believes it’s unfair to discriminate against the non-afflicted. Marijuana is for everyone, he says.

“That’s the whole point,” Davis says of the mountain town’s exclusive new pot lounge. “It’s not just medical marijuana patients that cannabis is necessary for. In our opinion, it’s not just medical marijuana — it’s every day people that should use it. That’s kind of the whole point of the club.”

Thanks to a ballot initiative to legalize possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, which Breck voters passed in November, the private club is open to anyone who wants to smoke up for a monthly fee.

The club opened April 20 — “420 opened at 4:20 on 4/20,” Davis boasts — to a packed house, and business has been steady since. However, Club 420 does not sell marijuana to keep from violating city code. If it did, Breckenridge would view it as an “open to the public” business.

In fact, Davis and co-owner Collette Wilson vehemently bar any sale of marijuana on site.

Read the rest here

There have got to be safer places to cultivate marijuana than in Broomfield. Cops there are among the most aggressive in the state when it comes to busting weed grows. Note that the late March arrest of Brian Joseph Strick was the fourth pot-cultivation bust there over a 45-day span.

Oh yeah: Broomfield is also the community that threw Erick Schmuckal in jail for serving as a medical-marijuana patient and caregiver — which he’s licensed by the state of Colorado to do — while on probation.

These reports apparently didn’t reach Andrew Willenbring, 35, who was busted on Wednesday after the North Metro Drug Task Force discovered 396 marijuana plants in his home.

Read the rest here

DELMONT, N.J. — A multiple sclerosis patient slapped with a five-year prison sentence for growing marijuana that he said was for medical purposes says he’ll just say no to the drug until it becomes legal in New Jersey this summer.

John Wilson was freed from Southern State Prison on $15,000 bail Thursday. Earlier this week, a court ruled he could be released while he appeals his drug conviction.

As he left prison, the 37-year-old was more concerned with getting a shave and a haircut than a joint.

New Jersey lawmakers have adopted a medical marijuana law set to take effect Aug. 1.

“Whenever they open the program, I would register and abide by the law,” Wilson said. “You know what I mean.”

Wilson, 37, was convicted last year of manufacturing marijuana and possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Last month, he was sentenced to five years in prison. His case is a prime example for medical marijuana advocates of how the system now gets these cases wrong.

Read the rest here

To legalize or not to legalize? That could be a question for the November ballot. Last week, as thousands hazed up Civic Center in celebration of 4/20 and, just across the way, legislators inched closer to passing the country’s first state marijuana dispensary regulatory system, it seemed like Colorado marijuana reform was on a roll like never before.

That’s why some folks want to capitalize on that momentum and push for outright legalization on the November ballot.

Preliminary marijuana legalization language has already been filed with the state for such a measure by Mason Tvert, executive director of SAFER. And Brian Vicente, executive director of the drug-policy reform group Sensible Colorado says activists will be ready to pull the trigger on the ballot measure if the legislature shafts the industry with its new rules.

If that happens, Vicente believes it’ll garner support with power players on the left; he says he and his colleagues have been in “some pretty high-level discussions with progressive players” in the state about how such a measure could help Democratic incumbents hold onto their seats, similar to how Californian Democrats are pinning their hopes on a marijuana legalization measure to be voted on there in the fall.
Read the rest here

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — A former Carbondale Middle School student accused of selling his father’s medical marijuana to students was sentenced in a Garfield County Court Wednesday morning.

Garfield County Court Judge Paul Metzger sentenced the 13-year-old to one year of supervised probation, 25 hours of useful public service, and 10 days of juvenile detention. However, Metzger credited the juvenile with four days in detention, which he served after the arrest, and suspended the remaining six days as part of the deferred sentence agreement offered by prosecutors.

Deputy District Attorney Tony Hershey also agreed to reduce the original felony distribution charge to a misdemeanor possession charge of between 1 ounce and 8 ounces of marijuana, which the juvenile pleaded guilty to in March. However, that did not diminish the severity of the crime in Metzger’s opinion.

“This is a very serious matter,” Metzger said. “We expect people at the schools to be free of substances like marijuana.”

Read the rest here

Weld District Court Judge James Hartmann issued a written statement today ordering MediGrow medical marijuana dispensary to cease operating in the town of Windsor.

MediGrow owner Lazarus Pino has been operating his dispensary in violation of a moratorium against new dispensaries since January.

The town has been citing Pino fines of up to $300 per day since Jan. 17.

Violation of the court order could result in more fines and jail time.

Last week the Board of Adjustment and Appeals in Windsor upheld a condemnation notice given to Pino by the Windsor planning department.

Pino still has one more opportunity to argue his case in court in May when he goes before Municipal Court Judge Michael Manning to fight the constitutionality of the moratorium.

Read the rest here

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo.—Club 420 doesn’t sell medical marijuana. It simply sells memberships for people who want to use marijuana using club vaporizers.

The Breckenridge club opened last week and sells memberships for $20 a month. But Club 420 has some town officials concerned. Breckenridge Councilman Jeffrey Bergeron says the pot club is bad for neighbors.

“I don’t think it’s particularly good for neighbors of that business and just the perception of the own,” Bergeron told the Summit Daily News.

The owner of Club 420 says the business is “a very peaceful place” and isn’t connected to any dispensaries. Collette Wilson told the newspaper that members have to be 21 and agree not to seek to buy marijuana on club property.

She didn’t say whether members have to prove they have state clearance to use medical marijuana. The town of Breckenridge voted last year to decriminalize marijuana possession in small amounts for adults over 21, even without a marijuana card.

Club 420 in Breckenridge isn’t the first business to allow marijuana consumption on the premises, and the practice has state lawmakers concerned. The state Legislature is considering a law that would make it illegal statewide to consume marijuana at business.

Read the rest here

{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

DENVER – Urban legend has it that the U.S. Constitution was written on hemp fiber paper (it was actually written on parchment), but were the Founding Fathers stoned when they were composing it?

That truth is self evident, says Alan Schwartz, a volunteer for Mile High NORML — John Adams and Thomas Jefferson came from a time when resources were precious and the most was made from them to avoid wasting anything that might be beneficial. Most paper in those days was made from hemp, and growing good hemp for paper, ropes, sails and the like required good strains of both male and female cannabis plants. And everyone knows what good female plants produce — a sense of elation in smokers.

“Back in those days, if you killed a deer, you used every part of the deer for something,” Schwartz said. The same is true with the plants they grew, he said. “You just know they were smoking cannabis.”

Read the rest here

Like a bad acid flashback, the debate over just what to do about medical marijuana just keeps coming back to haunt politicians, law enforcement officials, dispensaries and patients.

Even after the passage of Amendment 20 in 2000, Colorado politicians can’t seem to fine tune the legislation to the approval of everyone involved and this week was no exception as hundreds of people showed up at the Capital Building Wednesday to debate the latest amendment, House Bill 1284, which seeks to make medical marijuana dispensary owners foot the bill for hiring regulatory officers and make them grow the marijuana they sell themselves.

The hearing was held in front of the Local Government and Energy Committee.

Other items in the bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Chris Romer (D-Denver), seek to add a new provision that all dispensary owners be Colorado residents for at least two years prior to opening the business, mandatory background checks and the re-introduction of a provision (originally removed by the House) that people under 21 get two referrals before being issued a medical marijuana card.

Read the rest here

Following last week’s death threat from a supposed medical marijuana activist, a lawmaker looking to place limits on Colorado’s booming medical marijuana industry says he won’t be bullied by “thugs and knuckleheads.”

Meanwhile, Brian Vicente, a leading medical marijuana attorney, believes Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, might be using the phone message to drum up support for a controversial set of amendments he has tacked on to a medical marijuana reform bill being heard today.

Romer received a profanity-laced voicemail on April 20, the unofficial holiday for marijuana, from a man who said that “drug dealers” would likely shoot him for raising the nonrefundable application fees for people looking to open medical marijuana centers. Romer said he was undeterred by the voicemail and shared the message with multiple media outlets, including the Denver Daily News.

“I’ve been very clear from the beginning that I had to put 80 percent of the people who are doing a phony retail model out of business,” he said. “But I’m not going to be intimidated by a bunch of thugs and knuckleheads.”

Read the rest here

Read the rest here

Today’s 2 p.m. senate committee hearing about House Bill 1284, a medical marijuana regulatory bill, is shaping up to be a showdown between legislators such as Senator Chris Romer, who’s talked about floating a slew of new, more restrictive amendments, and MMJ advocates who fear the measure is getting worse, not better.

Chief among the latter is Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Reform’s Matt Brown, who’s planning to testify today. And what will he say? He provides some clues in an e-mail to folks on CMMR’s list. It reads in part, “Now is not the time to destroy hard-fought consensus, nor is it the time to stack the deck in favor of a few at the expense of us all. CMMR stands firmly opposed to Sen. Romer’s amendments and will stand opposed to any new restrictions that stack the deck against responsible caregivers of all shapes and sizes.”

Read the rest here

Today at 2 p.m., the public will be able to comment as House Bill 1284 reaches a senate committee.

It’s sure to be a contentious session, since even pro-regulation advocates like Matt Brown see the latest version of the measure as regressive, and Senator Chris Romer is eager to add controversial amendments like one that bans everyone 21-and-under from dispensaries and envisions licensing fees of up to $35,000.

As for Sensible Colorado head Brian Vicente, he has assembled a medical-marijuana-industry ballot initiative that he’ll withhold if the final measure is to his liking. And if not? “We’re ready to hit the ground and gather signatures as needed,” he says.

Vicente feels lawmakers “went over the top with discriminating against people with prior criminal records and preventing them from taking part in this new health-care field. It’s my understanding that you’re ineligible if you had any drug felony, including possession, ever, and that’s just wildly overly prejudicial. You could have someone who was growing a single marijuana plant back in the ’70s to help someone deal with cancer — and if they were convicted, they wouldn’t be eligible to engage in this industry thirty years later. I think they’ve gone way too far in that provision, and they’re not reflective of societal norms.

Read the rest here

The April 19 editorial “Medical marijuana” made a wise observation regarding the D.C. medical marijuana law — “critical details will need to be worked out in its implementation” — but did not mention the key obstacle: the federal drug law and the Drug Enforcement Administration opposition. The D.C. law and those of 14 states are messy because they need to work around federal law. D.C. and the states would benefit from DEA cooperation, not opposition stubbornly grounded on the Constitution’s supremacy clause.

Read the rest here

DENVER—Proposed regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries are in for more changes in the Senate, which will hold its first hearing on the issue on Tuesday.

The bill sponsor, Sen. Chris Romer, wants to ban people under 21 from going inside dispensaries and wants to bar people from out-of-state from opening dispensaries.

The proposed regulations, approved by the House, would already require owners to undergo criminal background checks and that dispensaries grow most of their own marijuana. Romer thinks that about 80 percent of the estimated 1,000 dispensaries in the state would have to close as a result.

Meanwhile, a group of Republican lawmakers wants to ask voters to just ban dispensaries altogether. Their proposed referendum would require that only actual people—not shops—be able to provide medical marijuana to patients and that those caregivers also help patients with the daily necessities of life. They need to get support from two-thirds of lawmakers to get it on the ballot.

Prosecutors and Attorney General John Suthers have been urging lawmakers not to regulate dispensaries because they say that will legitimize an industry that they say wasn’t sanctioned under the medical marijuana law passed by voters in 2000. Backers of Amendment 20 point out that the law does reference dispensing of the drug.

Lawmakers are close to passing a less controversial measure (Senate Bill 109) that bars doctors from writing medical marijuana recommendations if their medical license isn’t active or has been restricted by regulators of if they’ve lost their federal certification to prescribe drugs.

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press Writer

[ppy]

The drug business is just like any other—money is the motivating factor, pure and simple. And the state of Colorado is proving to be an excellent broker. So far this fiscal year, the state has pulled down nearly $3.4 million in medical marijuana registration fees and is on track to reap $11 million total by July. That’s because every Coloradan who wants to obtain a medical marijuana permit has to shell out $90 per application, and that kind of money piles up quickly.

Only one problem: The state is so far behind in processing applications that it can’t collect all the money it has coming. Officials at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which runs the registration program, estimate they have $5 million in un-cashed checks, with more to come this fiscal year ending June 30. And of the money the state has been able to collect so far, only a fraction actually has gone to the department itself, which bears the brunt of the paper pushing. The state’s operating budget claims the lion’s share of the pot revenue; only $849,000 was budgeted for the health department’s medical-marijuana office this year whereas the state’s General Fund has increased by $2.5 million, with more to come

Read the rest here

As noted in a just-published blog, House Bill 1284, which aims to regulate the medical marijuana industry, will be the focus of a senate committee hearing at 2 p.m. tomorrow. During the get-together, the public will have a chance to comment on numerous alternations in the measure that some MMJ advocates see as regressive.

In the meantime, Senator Chris Romer is making noises about more changes — specifically to ban 21-and-under patients from going to medical marijuana dispensaries, and to set non-refundable licensing fees at the centers somewhere between $10,000 and $35,000 — not quite the $50,000 figure that set off advocates and satirists last week, but much higher than many mom-and-pop dispensaries could manage.

Read the rest here

During an interview last week, Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation front man Matt Brown wasn’t certain that new language inserted into House Bill 1284, a measure designed to regulate the medical marijuana industry, gave city councils the right to ban dispensaries. After all, there’d been so much fiddling done over such a short period of time that no one seemed sure where things stood.

Now, however, the so-called “reengrossed” version of HB 1284 is out in advance of senate committee hearings slated for 2 p.m. tomorrow. And it seems clear that the new language does indeed give such bodies the power to forbid dispensaries in their town.

Read the rest here

11am-12pm: Grassroots Lobbying Tours of the Capitol
Grassroots lobbying tours led by community organizers from Mile High NORML and the Colorado Coalition for Patients and Caregivers will leave from the Cafeteria in the Basement at 11am and 12 noon. This will be an opportunity to lobby senators before the hearing begins. See Mile High NORML’s grassroots lobbying demonstration video:

2:00 pm: Hearing on HB1284
Senate Local Government Committee
Old Supreme Court Chambers
Second Floor, North End, State Capitol Building
The south entrance is handicapped accessible.

*** Please arrive early to sign up to testify. ***

Sign-up inside the Old Supreme Court Chambers
Attire: Dress to Impress
Provisions: Bring food and water, as the hearing may last a while.

ACTION ALERT: HEARING ON HB1284
This is your *last chance* to give public testimony on House Bill 1284, a bill designed to destroy the current medical marijuana program in Colorado.

We are also urging you to CALL and EMAIL the Senate Local Government Committee Members (see below.)

HB1284 is now a 72-page monstrosity that allows the Department of Revenue to control the licensing and all standards of medical marijuana “centers.” On April 22, the bill passed the full House by a vote of 39 to 23. The bill requires a dispensary to get a state license, a local license and a cultivation license. A state license might cost up to $50,000, according to Senator Chris Romer, one of the bill’s sponsors. Most dispensaries will not be able to comply with the requirement to cultivate 70% of their medicine
onsite.

Read the rest here

For decades opponents of marijuana law reform policies have falsely argued that marijuana is a ‘gateway’ to drug abuse — a guilt-by-association charge that implies that because tens of millions of people have used cannabis and a minority of these tens of millions have also tried other drugs that somehow it must have been the pot that triggered the hard drug use.

But while reformers have been consistent — and accurate — to point out that the so-called ‘gateway theory’ lacks any statistical support (for example, the U.S. government contends that more than four in ten Americans have used cannabis, yet fewer than two percent have ever tried heroin), few in our movement have publicized the fact that for many people cannabis can be a powerful ‘exit drug’ for those looking to curb or cease their use of alcohol, opiates, or narcotics. For instance:

Read the rest here

NORML hails the passage of another milestone for the Global Marijuana March with Georgetown, Guyana and Ryebrook, NY, as the 299th and 300th cities convening a march, rally, forum or benefit for the reform of cannabis laws on the weekends of Saturday May 1st and May 8th. NORML and numerous other reform groups called for more cities this year to participate so that organizers could meet and surpass their stated goal of more than 200 cities.

Worldwide action is necessary for any outright legalization, since cannabis is largely prohibited globally by a United Nations treaty known as the Single Convention, enacted in 1962 through the efforts of top anti-cannabis zealot Harry Anslinger, the original instigator of U.S. cannabis prohibition in 1937. The U.S. Justice Dept. has cited the UN treaty as one of its principle arguments against medical cannabis rhetorically and Supreme Court cases.

Read the rest here

NEW YORK — The big white pill was brought to her in an earthenware chalice. She’d already held hands with her two therapists and expressed her wishes for what it would help her do.

She swallowed it, lay on the couch with her eyes covered, and waited. And then it came.

“The world was made up of jewels and I was in a dome,” she recalled. Surrounded by brilliant, kaleidoscopic colors, she saw the dome open up to admit “this most incredible luminescence that made everything even more beautiful.”

Tears trickled down her face as she saw “how beautiful the world could actually be.”

That’s how Nicky Edlich, 67, began her first-ever trip on a psychedelic drug last year.

She says it has greatly helped her psychotherapeutic treatment for anxiety from her advanced ovarian cancer.

Read the rest here

This is why it’s so hard to make fundamental changes in the federal government’s drug war.

As you know, Obama’s Drug Czar has been heavily claiming that this administration is much more concerned about demand side and treatment. In fact, this is nonsense, as the actual proposed budget changes were relatively insignificant.

Of course, the government has admitted that supply-side efforts are primarily a waste of money. All evidence shows that it has very little effect.

And recently, the Drug Czar was raked over the coals in the House hearing over his emphasis on supply-side funding.

Read the rest here

Here’s some depressing recent medical news: Antidepressants don’t work. What’s even more depressing is that the pharmaceutical industry and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have deliberately deceived us into believing that they DO work. As a physician, this is frightening to me. Depression is among the most common problems seen in primary-care medicine and soon will be the second leading cause of disability in this country.

The study I’m talking about was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. It found that drug companies selectively publish studies on antidepressants. They have published nearly all the studies that show benefit — but almost none of the studies that show these drugs are ineffective. (1)

That warps our view of antidepressants, leading us to think that they do work. And it has fueled the tremendous growth in the use of psychiatric medications, which are now the second leading class of drugs sold, after cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The problem is even worse than it sounds, because the positive studies hardly showed benefit in the first place. For example, 40 percent of people taking a placebo (sugar pill) got better, while only 60 percent taking the actual drug had improvement in their symptoms. Looking at it another way, 80 percent of people get better with just a placebo.

Read the rest here

State lawmakers backing tougher regulations for medical-marijuana patients and doctors appear to have abandoned their efforts at creating unique requirements for young people seeking medicinal pot.

The sponsors of the proposal, Senate Bill 109, had amended the bill to require patients under 23 to get two doctors’ recommendations — instead of one. That amendment, though, was rejected by the full state House. Thursday, lawmakers opted against any special requirements for patients under 23. John Ingold, The Denver Post

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Authorities have arrested seven Sacramento-area residents suspected in two indoor marijuana-growing operations.

The Drug Enforcement Administration says agents seized more than 4,300 plants, about $83,000 in cash and one vehicle during a two-day sweep.

Authorities began investigating the first operation in the Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove in November. The second investigation began in Sacramento a month later.

Six people were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to grow and manufacture at least 1,000 marijuana plants and knowingly maintaining a place for manufacturing marijuana. One man was charged with manufacturing at least 1,000 plants.

The DEA says the two growing operations had the capacity to produce nearly 2 tons of marijuana annually.

NORCO, Calif. (AP) — A California couple have converted a motor home into a rolling medical marijuana dispensary that has become the target of police.

Stewart Hauptman and Helen Cherry have been on the road with their Lakeview Collective for seven months, serving about 700 members from Southern California and as far away as Las Vegas.

They were cited this month by police for possessing drug paraphernalia and operating a dispensary.

Cherry says they are a nonprofit serving medical marijuana patients. Police say it’s a for-profit operation.

The couple says they will contest the citations and challenge zoning laws that ban dispensaries.

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.

Read the rest here

On April 15, the Colorado House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed House Bill 1352, which nibbles at the edges of some of the more egregious aspects of the disastrous War on Drugs by reforming some of Colorado’s controlled substance statutes.

This is a hugely important step for Colorado lawmakers in taking back their prerogative to both write, and when necessary, re-write the state’s criminal code from the irrational drug law regime foisted on Coloradans by the federal government

In 1992, Colorado lawmakers enacted the Uniform Controlled Substances Act (UCSA, Article 18 of Colorado’s criminal code), the act was written to “complement” the federal Controlled Substances Act, and designed to bring state drug laws in to conformity with federal drug laws. The act, among many other things, created numerous new drug offenses in Colorado, and sentencing enhancements for those offenses.

Read the rest here

“Expand limited gambling again? Why should we legalize video keno games and ask Colorado bar patrons to fund higher education when we could just legalize prostitution and ask college students to pay for state tuition increases by working their asses off.”

Yesterday, Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a marijuana grow located in a warehouse at 1441 West 46th Avenue.

The site’s unusual for a cultivation operation for a couple of reasons. It’s adjacent to the Denver Police Department District 1 station and about a block away from Remington Elementary School.

Beyond confirming the existence of a marijuana-related investigation involving that location, DEA spokesman Mike Turner declines to offer additional details, because the inquiry is ongoing. But Jesse La Plante, a photographer (visit his website here) whose studio is next door, was on hand for the entire operation. He provides plenty of details, plus more photos of the DEA agents in action.

In February, the DEA stirred controversy when it raided Full Spectrum Laboratories in Denver — an action apparently triggered by the lab applying for a license. Within days, a lab in Colorado Springs was hit by the DEA, too, for pretty much the same reason.

Read the rest here

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — The lone adult accused of his alleged involvement in a burglary at a medical marijuana grow facility near New Castle appeared in Garfield County District Court Wednesday, and was advised of the charges against him.

José Rodolfo Chavez, 18, was charged with three felonies, including second-degree burglary, conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary, and possession of more than 8 oz. of marijuana. Chavez was also charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief, theft and criminal trespassing.

Prosecutors allege that Chavez was the ringleader of an attempted robbery of a marijuana grow facility near New Castle.

Chavez is accused of driving nearly 80 miles from a residence in Fruita to a ranch located on County Road 214, and breaking into the facility and attempting to steal at least one marijuana plant on March 15.

Read the rest here

This week, William Breathes reviews the Giving Tree:

The Giving Tree
2707 West 38th Avenue
303- 477-8888
www.tgtree.com

Hours of operation: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
Owner: Adam Curtis
Owner’s statement: (from the website) “We are committed to providing our patients SAFE and NATURAL alternatives to treat their pain and suffering, and have a wide variety of strains available, giving us the ability to make recommendations unique to each individual patient.”
Opened: December 2009
Raw marijuana price range: non-members — $17/gram, $55/eighth before tax; members — $15/gram $50/eighth (same for all strains).
Other types of medicine: hash, kief, edibles, drinks, pre-rolled joints.
Patient services and amenities: acupuncture, acupressure, shiatsu, deep-tissue, sports medicine.

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Dan Pope has been using medical marijuana for six years to help control the muscle spasms and pain from muscular dystrophy.

“I get very extreme hip, lower back pain and pain going to down to my leg — it gets so bad I can’t move,” said Pope, 44, of Longmont, Colo. “I get very jerky — I couldn’t hold a cup of coffee, my balance and my gait becomes very much affected.”

“By using medical marijuana late in the afternoon [when his symptoms hit], I can find immediate relief from my muscle spasms,” said Pope, who is the volunteer patient outreach coordinator for Sensible Colorado, a non-profit focused on drug policy reform.

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Pot pays the bills in this Northern California enclave, home to hippies and good old boys alike who espouse the weed’s curative and economic benefits. The expensive trucks, bustling restaurants, escalating rents and plentiful wads of cash all point to profitable pot cultivation in Humboldt.

Now, a state voter initiative on the November ballot that would make California the first U.S. state to legalize and tax this cash crop has locals jittery about losing their dominant market position.

“We’ve always had a cannabis tinge to our culture,” said Kevin Hoover, editor of weekly newspaper The Arcata Eye. “What we have now is a very entrenched industry that’s making a lot of money off the fact that it’s illegal.”

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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Stoked by advancing legalization efforts, pot smokers across the country lit up in public parks, outside statehouses and in the posh confines of a Hummer parked outside a pot gardening superstore to observe the movement’s annual high holiday.

Those who weren’t within whiffing distance of a college campus or a reggae concert may not have realized Tuesday was 4/20, the celebration-cum-mass civil disobedience derived from “420″ – insider shorthand for cannabis consumption.

Advocates from New Hampshire to California trumpeted marijuana’s rising commercial and political acceptance while producing collective clouds of pungent smoke – often under the watchful eyes of law enforcement officers who for the most part let the parties proceed.

A daylong rally in Denver’s Civil Center Park drew thousands of people, as did the public smoking event that persisted at the University of Colorado in Boulder despite discouragement from college administrators.

Colorado lawmakers coincidentally marked the day by backing new regulations for dispensaries selling medical marijuana.

In New Hampshire, about 100 people rallied in the state capital of Concord on the eve of a Senate vote to decriminalize small amounts of pot. Some lit up joints as state troopers watched from inside the Statehouse.

Gov. John Lynch said he will veto the bill if it reaches him.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Few people 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 in their communities; 57 percent said there would be no effect. About a third think the economy would improve, while 46 percent foresee no impact.

“I guess it could make money, but it would also cost money to prosecute people who get into trouble, like” driving under the influence, said Amanda Leonard, 37, of St. Augustine, Fla. “I think it would even itself out.”

People under 30, the group most apt to favor legalization, were most likely to see pot as a way to help the economy.

“I think with legalization we are going to have bigger revenue,” said Roy Hernandez, 20, of Santa Monica, Calif. “I think it’s a benefit moneywise and it’s a benefit for the community because I think it would make the crime rate go lower.”

If marijuana was decriminalized, more Americans favor private businesses selling it (54 percent) than the government (36 percent). But just 24 percent said they would be interested in investing in a company that sells pot.

And while 62 percent approve of states taxing the drug, with people from the West most likely to back the idea, only a third felt the levies would make a significant contribution to state budgets.

Still, Scott Callahan, 50, of Alton, Ill., feels every little bit would help.

“It’s not a cure-all, but revenue is revenue,” he said.

The AP-CNBC Poll was conducted April 7-12 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. It involved interviews with 1,001 adults nationwide on landline and cellular telephones. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

As Denver’s annual 4/20 pot bacchanal was taking place at Civic Center Park yesterday, members of the Colorado House were once again amending House Bill 1284, a measure designed to regulate the state’s medical marijuana industry.

Matt Brown, frontman for Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation, isn’t sure if one event influenced the other. But even he acknowledges that the bill that emerged by day’s end “regresses” in some respects from the previous version.

Not that he’s ready to throw himself into traffic. Indeed, he’s dedicated to “defeating some of the hysteria that isn’t grounded in fact” that’s being propagated by other MMJ advocates, some of whom accuse him of ignoring the problems of small dispensaries while boosting big ones.

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As noted in a just-published blog, the Cannabis Therapy Institute has called on Boulder DA Stan Garnett to forgo prosecuting anyone ticketed for smoking weed at CU’s annual orgasm of cannabis consumption.

If Garnett decides to go ahead anyway, despite the prospect of alienating pro-weed voters otherwise likely to support him in his campaign for Colorado Attorney General against John Suthers, the handful of ticketed tokers will have someone in their legal corner. Medical marijuana advocate Rob Corry has pledged to represent them free of charge.

Corry, who hasn’t had anyone take him up on his offer yet, sees smoking marijuana on 4/20 from a First Amendment perspective. “If the law allows you to burn a flag, and that’s construed as free speech, and a defense against any criminal charge for burning that flag, perhaps the law will allow you to burn a joint as a political statement, too,” he says.
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Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett recently announced his intention to challenge John Suthers for the Colorado Attorney General gig — and his comparatively progressive views on marijuana presumably meant he could count on support from pro-weed voters.

Maybe not. Yesterday, Laura Kriho of the Cannabis Therapy Institute, a strong supporter of what she refers to as “marijuana re-legalization,” wrote Garnett a letter discouraging him from prosecuting the handful of people ticketed for publicly smoking pot at CU’s annual 4/20 orgasm of cannabis consumption. Read the letter and Garnett’s response below.

While Kriho doesn’t threaten to withdraw support from Garnett if prosecution goes forward, she makes it clear that she would look upon such action as a step backwards.

“We look at 4/20 as an act of civil disobedience,” she says. “Everybody knows they’re not supposed to smoke pot in public, and they do it as a public protest.

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