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PLEASE COPY AND RE-DISTRIBUTE THIS ALERT!!!
Action Alert:
Protest Colorado Board of Health Proposed Rule Changes
for Medicinal Cannabis Caregivers
Hearing Location:
Tivoli
Student Union
Turnhalle Conference Room 250
Auraria Campus, 900 Auraria Parkway
Denver, CO 80204
Detailed rule-making info:
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/bh/hearingnotices/NoticeMMR_0709_final.pdf
The Colorado Board of Health is proposing
sweeping new rules to regulate medical cannabis that contradict
the intent of Article 18, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution, Colorado's
medical cannabis law that was approved by voters in 2000. These
proposed rules only serve to make it more difficult for patients to
get their medicine by forcing them back into the black market. The Board
of Health should be compassionate and helpful towards these sick and
dying people and not put more obstacles in their way.
Currently, patients with a debilitating medical condition and approval
of their physician may legally possess up to two ounces of cannabis
and grow up to six plants. If they are unable to grow the medicine themselves,
the Constitution allows them to appoint a primary caregiver to provide
the medicine for them. The Constitution does not set limits on how many
patients for whom a person can be the caregiver, nor does it set limits
on the type of person that can be considered the patient's caregiver.
The Board of Health's proposed
new rules set limits on caregivers that are clearly unconstitutional.
1) The Board of Health wants to require caregivers to provide other
services to the patient besides cannabis-related ones. The other
services required would amount to those of a full-time nursing assistant
and would have to include transportation, housekeeping, meal preparation,
shopping and making medical care arrangements for the patient.
Currently, a person can be a medicinal cannabis caregiver without providing
other services. The Constitution only states that the caregiver must
have "significant responsibility for managing the well-being of
a patient", which would include providing them with medicine. It
does not impose any other requirements on caregivers
2) The Health Department is proposing a 5-patient-per-caregiver
limit on the number of patients for whom a caregiver could provide.
Currently, a caregiver can provide for many patients. Most patients
do not have the knowledge or are too sick to grow their own cannabis.
It takes years of practice to learn how to grow an adequate supply of
cannabis for one patient with only the 6 plants allowed by the Constitution.
Cannabis cultivation experts have been enlisted to serve as caregivers
and have not been limited on how many patients they are able to serve.
As
reported in Westword, therapeutic cannabis dispensaries have formed
all over Colorado to provide for multiple patients. The dispensaries
are able to produce medicines in quantities large enough to keep the
cost to the patient at a minimum and to create edible forms of cannabis,
such as cookies, brownies and other foods. Cooking with cannabis requires
a much larger amount of the raw substance than smoking cannabis does.
However, eating medicinal cannabis food is a far healthier way to ingest
the medicine than inhaling its smoke is, especially for those with chronic
conditions.
In fact, having caregivers provide for multiple patients has been the
only way that poorly-written Article 18, Section 14 of the Colorado
Constitution has worked at all. At the time, the out-of-state authors
of Colorado's Medicinal Cannabis Law were widely
criticized for not addressing the issue of cannabis dispensaries
clearly enough and for not providing any legal way for patients to obtain
medicinal cannabis outside of the black market. This left a gray area
in the law that the Health Department has since tried to exploit in
order to deny patients their Consitutionally-protected medicine.
In the nine years since the law was approved by voters, the state of
Colorado has been more concerned with putting roadblocks in the way
of patients instead of trying to help implement the law. The Colorado
Board of Health should be issuing rules that encourage and regulate
cannabis dispensaries, just like any other pharmaceutical manufacturer,
instead of trying to force it back underground. Or alternatively, they
could enlist the aid of the Colorado
Department of Agriculture and the Ag
School at CSU to create a regulated state-run cannabis dispensary
program.
It is time for Colorado to regulate medicinal cannabis statewide in
a way that provides safe and inexpensive access to cannabis and doesn't
force them to deal with the black market.
How You Can Help
Written
Comments Still Being Accepted
1) Submit your comments in writing to up to the day of the hearing.
The Board of Health set an arbitrary deadline of May 15 for written
comments, but the Colorado State Administrative Procedures Act says
that written comments will be accepted up to and at the hearing.
Colorado Board of Health C/O Linda Shearman
Program Assistant
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
4300 Cherry Creek Drive South EDO-A5
Denver, CO 80246-1530
FAX: 303-691-7702
Email: linda.shearman@state.co.us
Sample wording: I strongly oppose creating any limits on the number
of patients a caregiver may provide for. I also strongly oppose limiting
the types of people that may be considered caregivers. These new rules
will make it more difficult for patients to obtain their medicine. Colorado
should be trying to help patients instead of trying to limit their sources
of medicine.
Detailed rule-making info:
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/bh/hearingnotices/NoticeMMR_0709_final.pdf
July
20, 2009: Public Hearing
2) Attend the PUBLIC HEARING
Rules and Regulations pertaining to the Medical Use of Marijuana
Hearing Location:
Tivoli
Student Union
Turnhalle Conference Room 250
Auraria Campus, 900 Auraria Parkway
Denver, CO 80204
For more information, see:
Colorado420.com
http://www.colorado420.com/
Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/hs/medicalmarijuana/marijuanafactsheet.html
Notice of Rule-Making Meeting
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/bh/hearingnotices/UPCOMING0309.pdf
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/
Recent News
Westword: Medical marijuana has become a growth industry in Colorado
By Joel Warner
February 04, 2009
http://www.westword.com/2009-02-05/news/medical-marijuana-has-become-a-growth-industry-in-colorado/
Rocky Mountain News: Medical marijuana registry's swelling numbers
concern some
By Judi Villa,
February 20, 2009
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/20/medical-marijuana-issue-back-center-stage/
Westword Slideshow: 12 strains of medical pot and how they heal
http://www.westword.com/slideshow/view/236479
Westword: Letter to the Editor
http://www.westword.com/2009-02-19/news/from-the-week-of-february-19
February 19, 2009
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