By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
A comprehensive bill that would regulate Colorado’s booming medical marijuana industry is expected to head to Gov. Bill Ritter’s desk today for a signature.
But a group of medical marijuana attorneys is hoping to prevent the bill from becoming law by challenging the measure’s legality in court.
House Bill 1284 would create a medical marijuana licensing authority within the Department of Revenue. The House today is expected to approve a set of amendments added by the Senate and send the bill to Ritter.
The most contentious part of the measure would allow local municipalities to ban dispensaries — referred to as centers in the bill — from operating within city limits. Additionally, the bill would require people opening a medical marijuana center to be a Colorado resident for two years and only allow caregivers to provide marijuana to five patients or less.
Medical marijuana attorneys like Rob Corry and Brian Vicente believe the bill has several provisions that would restrict patients from their constitutionally protected access to medicine and, as a result, be unconstitutional.
“It’s not too late for the Legislature and or the governor to avert this litigation, to avoid it all together by either passing legislation that is in compliance with the constitution, orÉ voting down this legislation and or vetoing it,” said Corry.
However, bill sponsor Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, pointed out that Amendment 20 only granted access to marijuana for seriously ill Coloradans. The measure passed by voters in 2000 doesn’t talk about or guarantee a business model for dispensing medical marijuana.
“The bill’s not perfect, but it’s constitutional,” Romer said.
Corry acknowledged that a lawsuit challenging a statute is an uphill battle. However, he pointed to successes that he and other medical marijuana attorneys have had — specifically a lawsuit that successfully challenged limiting caregivers to five patients and a lawsuit against the city of Centennial for banning dispensaries — as proof that overturning the statue is possible.
“It’s still a battle worth fighting, particularly since we are literally dealing with a life-or-death issue,” said Corry. “And we’ve had success in the past on suing state or local government in civil court.”
If HB 1284 is signed into law, Corry said the group of lawyers would challenge the statute “as soon as possible.” Romer and Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, expect the House to easily pass the Senate amendments and for Ritter to sign the bill into law. Ritter’s office could not be reached for comment on multiple occasions yesterday.

Dramatic effects
HB 1284 is expected to put approximately half of Colorado’s medical marijuana dispensaries out of business. Romer argued that the bill would be getting rid of the industry’s “bad apples” and that sick patients would still have easy access to their medicine.
However, Corry had a different take, stating: “I think it’s going be devastating, it will increase costs astronomically, reduce choices, and make safe access to medicine more difficult.”
Since being introduced at the beginning of February, 179 amendments have been proposed for HB 1284. The amendments have been split between the law enforcement and medical marijuana patient communities. HB 1284 has sparked the ire of both groups, which Romer believes is a good thing.
“It’s a good law,” said Romer. “You want to end up in the middle.”

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By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
On the eve of Mother’s Day weekend, a group of women held a press conference at the State Capitol in hopes of changing the face of the pro-marijuana movement.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in the Senate gave final approval to a bill that would regulate Colorado’s booming medical marijuana industry.
The diverse group of women gathered at the capitol yesterday to formally launch the Women’s Marijuana Movement (WMM). With the tagline, “Safer for us. Safer for all,” the national group is working towards the legalization of marijuana for adults. As part of the group’s launch, WMM is offering e-cards that people can send to their mother to “let them know that they believe marijuana is a relatively safe and entirely acceptable alternative to alcohol.”
“(We need to) do away with the hippies and the Cheech and Chong stoner image and start putting these new faces to it,” said recreational marijuana user Crystal Guess. “The only way we can do it is to just come out of the closet and stop being so afraid to talk about it.”
Jessica Corry, a conservative lawyer who helped found the group, brought her two young daughters to yesterday’s press conference. She said WMM members are dedicated to “acknowledging that (marijuana) prohibition has failed.”
“We’re here to say enough is enough, the time is now to end prohibition and to take back our responsibilities as parents, as women, from gun-toting bureaucrats,” she said.
Corry and many of the other speakers yesterday pointed out the ways in which they believe marijuana is safer than alcohol. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, more than 97,000 students have been victims of alcohol-related sex assault and date rape each year. University of Denver student Sarah Groten said that her personal experiences in college have led her to believe that marijuana doesn’t cause people to become aggressive like alcohol does.
“I’m much more comfortable and safer around guys who are stoned instead of drunk,” she said.
However, Adams County District Attorney Don Quick said that research conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) proves that marijuana legalization could harm children. Research shows that a child’s marijuana use depends on the availability of the drug, the perceived risks or consequences of using the drug, and social norms regarding the drug, he said. The AAP argues that legalizing marijuana would negatively impact all three of those factors and lead to an increase in marijuana use by kids.
But Corry argued that “the failed prohibition on marijuana” has allowed plenty of kids to get their hands on marijuana and that it should be a parent’s job to keep the drug from their children.
“Too many parents have given away responsibility away to our government,” she said. “We need to take responsibility as parents to fight back for our children’s future.”
The WMM press conference was largely organized by Mason Tvert of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), a group dedicated to pointing out the ways they believe marijuana is safer than alcohol. Tvert is unsure whether he will have the funding to get an initiative legalizing marijuana in Colorado onto the 2010 ballot.
Still, Tvert believes more Coloradans are in favor of legalizing marijuana than in 2006, when a similar ballot initiative failed on a 61-38 percent vote. He said polling has shown support for legalization growing every year.
But Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, thinks that not only would Colorado voters reject such an initiative, they would also likely approve a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries.
“The expansive, dramatic increase of dispensaries on every street corner and the availability for people, that’s not in the intent of Amendment 20,” he said. “People I’m hearing from don’t like it.”

HB 1284
With only minutes to go until the Senate was to vote on a comprehensive medical marijuana regulatory bill, Renfroe wasn’t sure if he would support the measure.
He supported giving local municipalities the option of banning dispensaries from operating within city limits, but believed the bill would legitimize the retail dispensary model, which he opposes. He ended up voting against the bill.
Bill sponsor Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said while the bill wasn’t perfect, it wouldn’t produce the dire consequences that Renfroe worried about.
“What we have really truly done in a bipartisan way is to go into uncharted territory, do what the voters asked us to doÉand basically bring this out of the shadows and let the truly chronically ill get relief,” he said.
The bill passed on a 26-9 vote.

Westword: Chris Romer’s “long, strange trip” is almost over. The state senator who last fall decided to take on the task of shepherding legislation through the Statehouse that defines and regulates this state’s booming medical marijuana industry saw House Bill 1284 pass the Senate yesterday, 26-9, with a major bipartisan push.

Associated Press: A push to regulate the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries appears to be nearing the finish line. The Colorado Senate passed the proposed regulations in a 26-9 vote on Thursday, sending them back to the House to review changes made to the bill. The lack of controversial changes makes it likely that lawmakers will be able to pass regulations before they must adjourn next week.

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The state Senate on Wednesday gave the first of two necessary approvals to a bill regulating medical-marijuana dispensaries, putting the measure on the closing stretch to passage, The Denver Post reports.

The second approval could come as early as today. With only minimal differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill, Colorado’s new rules for its booming medical-marijuana industry are coming into sharp focus.

In other coverage

The Durango Herald: A medical marijuana bill survived its last major test in the state Senate on Wednesday, bringing marijuana dispensaries closer to legal recognition and regulation. Many medical marijuana advocates still oppose House Bill 1284, which sets up a tight system of state and local licenses for businesses that sell medical marijuana. “It’s definitely very heavy on regulation and law enforcement to start, but I think that’s what’s needed,” said the sponsor, Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver.

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By Debi Brazzale, COLORADO NEWS AGENCY

GOP Sen. Scott Renfroe, of Greeley, says voters should be consulted before lawmakers make determinations about the best method for dispensing medical marijuana to patients, but Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee would not be convinced. They voted down Renfroe’s proposal asking voters to approve strict new guidelines to curtail the way medical marijuana is currently being distributed.

In 2000, voters approved Amendment 20, which authorizes the use of medical marijuana for patients who might benefit from its use. But the amendment also left somewhat vague how the drug would be distributed. Since that time, the number of medical marijuana “dispensaries” – retail outlets that produce and dispense medical marijuana products— has grown exponentially.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 5 would have asked the voters to decide whether to stop the dispensary model and would have limited the distribution to a narrower definition of caregiver.  The resolution was a pre-emptive move that would negate House Bill 1284, sponsored by Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, which creates a framework in which dispensaries can legally operate.

Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey told the Senate Judiciary panel members that the passage of Amendment 20 in 2000 did not authorize or even mention the notion of medical marijuana being dispensed through retail outlets and that the emergence of dispensaries has been premature.

“HB 1284 is putting the cart before the horse in my mind,” said Storey.

Prior to SCR 5 being introduced, HB 1284 was built on the premise that the dispensary model for distribution was inevitable and needed clarification and regulation by the state.

Renfroe wants to rein in the assumption that the voters approved the dispensary model in the legalization of medical marijuana and believes the prudent path is go back to the voters for the needed clarification in light of the issues that have cropped up with the dispensaries that are operating in a regulatory void.

“It’s time to go back to the voters,” said Renfroe. “The confusion has gone on long enough.”

Much of the confusion has been over the definition of “caregiver” authorized in Amendment 20 to dispense medical marijuana.  Renfroe thinks SCR5 will solve the problem.

“This simply defines what a primary caregiver is–and what it is not,” said Renfroe.  “It’s that simple.”

Romer did not support the SCR and said his measure, HB1284, will go a long way in taming the proliferation of dispensaries and will actually reduce the number of dispensaries by 50 percent, according to the Department of Revenue.

“ I don’t think we need to send it back to the voters statewide. I think that individual communities will need to decide,” said Romer. ”Let’s let the new rules be put in place and then look at this a year from now.”

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By Julie Poppen, EDUCATION NEWS COLORADO

Across the street from the University of Colorado’s flagship campus in Boulder you’ll find Dr. Reefer, a small storefront bedecked in neon and an easily identifiable marijuana leaf.

Inside, the air is heavy with the pungent aroma of marijuana. “Bud tendress” Lauren Townsend, 21, explains to a visitor how some student customers buy cannabis-infused sodas or brownies so they can discreetly ingest the drug in the campus library while they study. She demonstrates how to hold the soda bottle so any reference to marijuana is obscured. Or, clients can buy the more typical form of marijuana to be smoked in the privacy of their own homes.

Within 500 feet there are three other medical marijuana dispensaries also targeting students, the maximum allowable in Boulder in that amount of space.

Other college towns in Colorado are experiencing a similar phenomenon, leaving campus officials scrambling to come up with policies on the budding use of medical marijuana by students – and, in some cases, staff. It’s no easy task considering ambiguities in the state’s ever-changing medical marijuana laws, threats of lawsuits by pro-pot advocates or cities attempting to set limits of their own. The Legislature is now considering a measure that would ban anyone under age 21 from entering a dispensary. There are about 100 dispensaries in Boulder and 1,000 statewide.

“We’re kind of ground zero for this right now,” said Meloni Rudolph, associate dean/student judicial officer at the Metropolitan State College of Denver. “In Colorado, with the dispensary thing, it’s such a J-curve right now.”

Mostly, campuses are clearly articulating that marijuana – medicinal or otherwise – is illegal under federal law and therefore illegal to possess or consume on any campus that receives federal dollars.

But that hasn’t stopped medical marijuana registry card-toting students from inquiring about using the drug in their dorm rooms or requesting that schools establish designated smoking rooms for them.

Marijuana citations spike at CU

CU-Boulder spokesman Bronson Hilliard said between 10 and 15 percent of students contacted by campus police for having marijuana present medical marijuana cards. CU is among many campuses that will exempt students with registry cards from the requirement that freshmen live on campus. So far, three students have been released from their housing contracts because of their desire to use medical marijuana.

“We will nullify the housing contract with no penalty,” said Hilliard, who sits on the campus’ alcohol and drug working committee.

One CU employee even inquired about using marijuana on the job.

“We know it’s a growing phenomenon,” Hilliard said. “We have to be clearer about the policy at CU from acceptance through orientation and move-in.”

In 2009, when CU-Boulder police officers first started seeing medical marijuana cards, there were 312 citations issued for the petty offense of possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, up from 166 in 2008, said CU-Boulder police spokeswoman Molly Bosley. Through March of this year, police have reported 78 marijuana possession cases. Some of the increase could be due to the availability of medical marijuana – but Bosley also noted that the department hired more officers during that time.

The Colorado School of Mines in Golden has fielded two requests from students who wanted to use medical marijuana in residence halls, said Rebecca Flintoft, director of auxiliary services and housing. Flintoft was prepared to let them out of the on-campus housing requirement but both students chose to stay and forego their medical marijuana – at least while on campus, she said.

Some students eat their “medicine”

Metro State College is a commuter campus without residence halls, but medical marijuana has still become an issue.

Medical marijuana or not, pot in any form is technically banned on Metro’s campus, said Emilia Paul, associate vice president of student life.

“It’s still a violation whether it’s under a medical license or we catch them (smoking) in the alley,” Paul said. “Generally, we don’t tend to criminalize minor cases unless there are other activities involved when it comes to marijuana.”

Paul said a handful of students on the state registry have requested designated places to smoke pot at Metro’s health and counseling centers. They’ve also asked people at the campus health center to write them prescriptions – something campus personnel are prohibited from doing.

“Students say, ‘I’m here a lot. I can’t dose because I’m away from home,’” Paul said. “In checking with the police, the answer is “no.”

Instead, Paul said she’s hearing about students ingesting edible forms of the drug, which is difficult if not impossible for campus police to monitor.

“It’s certainly an emerging issue,” Paul said. “I have a feeling this is not going to go away.”

Expanding medical marijuana registry

By the end of this year, 2 percent of Colorado’s population will have medical marijuana cards if the pace of applications continues its current trend line, said Metro’s Rudolph. On Jan. 12, the state received 1,900 medical marijuana applications in one day. According to the state, the number of medical marijuana registry applications increased from about 270 per day in August 2009 to 1,000 per day in February 2010. The turnaround time for applications now is about six months.

“It appears they are continuing to issue a lot of these cards,” said Detective Jason Mollendor, of the Auraria Campus Police Department. “Students that have these cards want to use this drug on campus. But, to be honest, it’s no different than getting drunk. There is a change in physiology that will affect their ability to go to class and function. While they think they need the drug for pain control or nausea, they really are harming their own education by doing this.”

Not all students agree with that assessment, however.

Andrew Orr, the 20-year-old head of CU-Boulder’s NORML chapter, a group that advocates for the legalization of marijuana, believes students on the state registry – at the very least – should be allowed to use marijuana in residence halls.

“If a person needs to use medical marijuana to improve their life or maintain a regular lifestyle, it should be their right to consume in the dorms just as I was prescribed painkillers,” said the film and history major who is on the registry and uses medical marijuana to treat pain and muscle tension related to a spinal injury and subsequent surgery.

Students use medical marijuana to deal with anxiety, insomnia, sports injuries or other ailments often categorized under “severe pain,” one of the accepted conditions for which one can get a medical marijuana card in the state of Colorado, Orr and dispensary operators say.

“I think it’s a little ridiculous,” CU-Boulder applied math and finance major Rob Richmond, 20, said. “People do it just for the sake of having a card. They tend to make something up just to get a card. People are proud of it.”

Richmond chuckled when asked if his three buddies on the state registry have legitimate medical problems.

Friend and fellow CU student Brad Stachurski, 20, worries the proliferation of dispensaries and medical marijuana in Boulder will “hurt the value of our degrees.” When he tells out-of-state friends where he goes to school, they grill him about drug use.

At Fort Lewis College in Durango, authorities have yet to tweak campus policies to address medical marijuana. A recent student referendum calling for campus officials to treat marijuana offenses the same as those involving alcohol did not pass due to low voter turnout. But students are clearly concerned about the campus’s handling of all types of marijuana.

“It’s something I would imagine we’re going to address this summer,” spokesman Mitch Davis said. “There is confusion as to whether medical marijuana is allowed or not. It is not. You can’t smoke it in a public area and endanger people around you. That’s really what that boils down to. It falls back on the tobacco policy. You can’t smoke in dorms.”

Colorado State University officials are also discussing their handling of medical marijuana among students and staff, CSU spokesman Brad Bohlander said.

“Like most businesses and institutions of higher education, the university is in the process of developing protocols for these situations,” Bohlander said.

Currently, drug possession by students is handled in a few different ways. Students can be issued a traditional citation by the campus police or they may be issued an internal ticket, which routes them through the Office of Conflict Resolution and Student Conduct Services, Bohlander said. That office may opt to send the student through a CSU treatment program. Students are also referred to the DAY (Drugs Alcohol and You) Program for a self-assessment that provides individualized feedback, including specific recommendations and the option to attend DAY programs.

The Fort Collins City Council also passed a law banning dispensaries within 500 feet of CSU, he said.

As the state’s land grant university, CSU’s 54 extension agents have even got caught up in the medical marijuana fray.

“People were bringing in marijuana plants and seeking advice,” Bohlander said. “Extension agents weren’t sure what to do with that.”

“We asked the legal department for an opinion. The legal direction was that extension agents should not be giving advice. Marijuana remains illegal on a federal level.”

Medical marijuana stats

- Number of people in Colorado with medical marijuana cards – 21,625

- Percent of men on the state registry: 74 percent

- Average age of people on the registry: 40

- Percent of people on the state registry who live in the Denver metro area: 57 percent

- Percent of people on the registry who report using medical marijuana for severe pain: 91 percent

- Number of applications received daily by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment: 1,000

- Application backlog: 40,000-43,000

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By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
As the heated battle over medical marijuana reform enters its fourth month at the state Legislature, ideological disagreements between competing pro-marijuana groups are starting to blow into the open.
Following a Senate committee’s approval of a bill Tuesday night that would in part allow local jurisdictions to ban medical marijuana dispensaries from operating within city limits, the Cannabis Therapy Institute (CTI) issued a press release slamming Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation (CMMR) as being “a lobbying group hired by a handful of well-funded dispensaries who have been ‘working with’ (bill sponsor) Senator Romer on gaining concessions friendly to big business.” The press release added that medical marijuana attorney, CMMR representative and Sensible Colorado Director Brian Vicente is “overall satisfied with the bill that would eliminate 80 percent of patient’s caregivers.”
However, Vicente said he opposes the bill in its current form. He spent about 40 minutes clarifying his group’s position with Laura Kriho of CTI and is trying to get on the same page as the activist group, he said.
“I think at this point, people on both sides of the debate are really frustrated and tired of dealing with this issue,” he said. “I think tempers are getting short.”
For her part, Kriho said that Vicente has spoken in favor of House Bill 1284, though he opposed additional amendments that were tacked onto the bill at the last minute. She believes that anyone in favor of HB 1284 is in favor of harming the state’s sick medical marijuana patients; Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, has said he intends for the measure to put 80 percent of dispensaries out of business.
Meanwhile, Romer said he has noticed tension between the activists who want marijuana to be legalized and those who want it for medicinal purposes.
“It’s kind of like back in the old gold rush days where they’re so busy protecting their claim, they don’t even have time to run to the store and get picks and shovels,” he said.
Vicente, Kriho and Mason Tvert of Safer Alternative Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation are all united, however, in opposing HB 1284 in its current form. HB 1284 would create a state medical marijuana licensing board run by the Department of Revenue. Under the measure, dispensaries — referred to as “centers” in the bill — would have to get a state, local and cultivation license to sell medical marijuana to patients.
Specifically, Vicente argued that allowing municipalities to ban dispensaries would force sick patients to travel great distances to get their constitutionally protected medicine. He also said an amendment proposed by Romer that would ban people under the age of 21 from being able to enter a medical marijuana center would be a form of age discrimination.
Kriho believes the bill would destroy patients’ access to their medicine, drive up prices and force patients back to the black market.
Meanwhile, Romer said he is looking out for the patients’ best interest with the legislation.
“My job was to write a medical marijuana bill consistent with the voters’ intent of Amendment 20,” he said. Amendment 20 was the measure approved by voters in 2000 that allows for seriously ill Coloradans to use medical marijuana. HB 1284 now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Video: KDVR

By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
The proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries has led to an increase in marijuana use by children who are vulnerable to the drug, according to multiple law enforcement officers and mental health professionals who testified yesterday before a Senate committee.
Adams County Sergeant Jon Van Zandt said school resource officers are now dealing with 10-year-olds bringing marijuana to schools.
“Milk money has been replaced with drug money,” he said.
Adams County District Attorney Don Quick added that kids who use marijuana are more likely to drop out of school and wind up in jail, which ends up costing the state more money than any potential economic benefits that taxing marijuana might bring.
The law enforcement community’s views were in sharp contrast to the patients and medical marijuana activists who also testified before the Local Government and Energy Committee. The committee held more than six hours of public testimony before voting on House Bill 1284, which looks to regulate Colorado’s medical marijuana industry. A proposed amendment would have forbid people under the age of 21 from going in a dispensary; the committee had yet to vote on the bill or its amendments by deadline for the Denver Daily News.
Medical marijuana lawyer Brian Vicente said that prohibiting people under the age of 21 from going in a dispensary would be a form of age discrimination. HIV patient Damien LaGoy added that the amendment would have made young AIDS patients jump through more hoops to get medicine that could help their condition.
Mark Simon, who testified on behalf of Colorado’s disabled community, said that while there may appear to be abuse in Colorado’s medical marijuana system, there is no data to support that claim.
“I’m concerned that we’re making public policy based on guesses,” he said.
However, psychiatry professor T.J Crawley argued that marijuana is an addictive drug, and that increasing the availability of the drug increases the use, which then increases the adverse effects he believes marijuana has.
“I’m now sad for what’s happening in my state,” he said of the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries. “I think it’s a very serious risk for the future.”
HB 1284 would create a state medical marijuana licensing board run by the Department of Revenue. Under the bill, dispensaries — referred to as “centers” in the bill — would have to get a state, local, and cultivation license to sell medical marijuana to patients. The measure passed out of the House last week.
HB 1284 is the second medical marijuana reform bill to make its way through the Legislature this session. The first bill from Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, would require patients under the age of 21 to get a second doctor’s opinion before being able to obtain a medical marijuana card and forbid doctors from receiving money from medical marijuana dispensaries.
Denver City Council in January unanimously approved a bill that limits where dispensaries can be located, who can run them, and what safety measures dispensary owners must have in place. All of the bills seek to clarify Amendment 20, the measure approved by voters in 2000 that allows for seriously ill Coloradans to use medical marijuana.

9News: A new proposal at the State Capitol could bar any one who is under 21 from going inside a medical marijuana dispensary. It was one of the several new regulations discussed on Tuesday when hundreds of people showed up to testify at the hearing in front of the Senate Local Government and Energy Committee. The committee took testimony late into the night and had not yet voted on whether to endorse the new regulations.

KDVR: Another huge crowd packed into a hearing room at the Capitol Tuesday for another showdown over a bill aiming to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries that remains as controversial as it is confusing, especially with a slate of new amendments up for debate. “Today is the day we begin to get control of the Wild West,” said Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, the co-sponsor of House Bill 1284 who was the first state lawmaker to wade into the murky waters of this debate last fall.

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State lawmakers are close to cracking down on shady doctors who are writing medical marijuana recommendations but, with just about two weeks to go, they’re still trying to figure out how — and whether — to regulate dispensaries, the Associated Press reports.

A proposal to license dispensaries, require owners to undergo criminal background checks and to grow most of the marijuana they sell (House Bill 1284) is set to get its first hearing in the Senate on Tuesday. Sponsor Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, thinks about 80 percent of the estimated 1,000 dispensaries in the state wouldn’t be able to pass muster and would have to close. He believes about 200 dispensaries would be enough to provide medical marijuana to the estimated 100,000 people entitled to use the drug legally.

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By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
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.”
Romer should have gone to the police immediately if he worried that the message was a legitimate death threat, according to Vicente. Otherwise he is “using a prank phone call to push his restrictive agenda,” he said.

Proposed amendments
Romer today is set to introduce amendments that would ban people under the age of 23 from entering medical marijuana centers, raise the non refundable application fees for a medical marijuana center to up to $35,000, and require centers with 300 patients or more to have licensed medical or message professionals on site for at least 30 hours per week.
“My hope is that the bill will clean up the industry,” he said.
Vicente, however, is frustrated that Romer is “wholesale shredding” a number of compromises that he believes have been made between the patient and law enforcement communities over House Bill 1284. Banning people under the age of 23 from medical marijuana centers is “age discrimination” and would send young people “in a wheelchair to Civic Center Park to get medicine,” according to Vicente.
“It’s just very shortsighted and a bad idea,” he said.
The Colorado Medical Society has said that there is a significant risk for addiction to marijuana for people under the age of 23. Therefore, Romer believes it’s common sense to bar young people from medical marijuana centers.
Romer also thinks that requiring large centers to have medical professionals on site would help bring the focus back to wellness. Vicente argued the amendment would raise the price for center owners and, in turn, patients.
Lawmakers are scheduled to hear HB 1284 today at 2 p.m. at the Old Supreme Court Chambers, 200 E. Colfax Ave. Public comment will be allowed at the hearing.
Denver City Council in January unanimously approved a bill that limits where dispensaries can be located, who can run them, and what safety measures dispensary owners must have in place.
All of the bills seek to clarify Amendment 20, the measure approved by voters in 2000 that allows for seriously ill Coloradans to use medical marijuana.

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By John Schroyer, FACE THE STATE
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.
Because the department doesn’t have enough manpower to keep up with the enormous inflow of applications, officials aren’t sure exactly how much revenue has yet to come in. The state has been receiving roughly 10,000 applications per month for the past several months, up from less than 5,000 last October. But it can only process about 2,000 per month. That means the state probably is looking at hauling in millions more than it already has collected. And if the rate of applications continues going up, it’ll mean even more green—if only they can break through the backlog of applications.
The office in the health department that handles registration currently has a staff of 10, which is not nearly enough to process every application that comes in. Its budget was increased this past month by about $90,000 and is slated to go up to $2.1 million for the 2010-11 fiscal year. That will allow the department to hire an additional 12 staffers.
Still, it’s not enough to keep up with the growing mountain of applications. Right now, the department has 55,000 unprocessed applications. And $2.1 million just won’t cut it, officials said.
They may, however, be able to catch up if pending legislation slapping additional regulations on medical marijuana is approved. If it passes, more revenue would go straight into the health department’s medical marijuana office. There’s no way to know how much that could raise, though, so it may or may not be enough.
Without the additional infusion of cash, the department is likely to fall further and further behind.
Regardless, the situation could be enough for lawmakers to start considering the marijuana industry as more than just a bunch of crazy liberals waving signs in the streets that read “Legalize Now!” After all, there’s millions to be made.

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