The State Legislature is looking into medical marijuana. Not an unreasonable thing for our public servants to be up to. However, when the good citizens of Colorado voted to legalize marijuana for legitimate medical use, apparently some legislators figured no one would actually use it.

The public servants say, “the will of the people” is not being followed. Yet, the very numbers of permits the state’s issuing indicates the will of a great many citizens is that they want to use marijuana for their medical needs.

The legislators championing revisions to the law act as if this is a zero sum game. That is, if people can’t have access to legal medical marijuana, then no one will use any marijuana. Apparently they dont have kids in high school. Illegal marijuana is on every street corner and in every school.

They use the “gateway drug” argument. While it may be true in some cases, it isnt germane here, because folks who want illegal drugs have no problem finding them….everywhere….now. The “war on drugs” has been a boon to illegal drug gangs and prison administrators. Immigrant gangs import cheap marijuana and have a firm footing in our state and a huge source of income.

Is it so remarkable that honest, tax-paying folk would prefer to not deal with thugs and felons for relief of their pain? Could that be “the will of the people?”

Our legislature has often been willing to protect various immigrant groups. Do they really believe that immigrant drug gangs are under economic assault from middle class yuppies and that gang control of the marijuana trade must be protected from the vagaries of the marketplace? Because if you severely limit the legal medical marijuana trade, illegal drug gangs are surely the beneficiaries.

Legalized medical marijuana has become an overnight cottage industry with all sorts of folks trying to help their friends and families. Legal dispensaries and caregivers pay taxes, provide jobs, and don’t deal drugs to our children. There is no reason. The whole point is to behave legally and show that there are alternatives to the insanity that has gone on for so long.

Are there some bad people involved with medical marijuana? Sure….some. Those who deal drugs to unlicensed folks should be stopped and there are laws on the books already to deal with them. That’s different than changing the intent of the law and eliminating the ability of honest citizens who want to legally use the medicine of their choice. The “Will of the people” is clear. A rapidly growing number of the people want to continue making their own decisions about how they manager their bodies.

-Your Neighbor

This article was written by an anonymous member of the community and submitted via email to be published on this site. We would like to encourage others to share their opinions on the medical marijuana industry by submitting them to mom@antisoccermom.com. If you would like to be anonymous, please let us know within your submission.

© 2010, AntiSoccermom. All rights reserved to the original author unless stated otherwise.

How the Senator overshoots his proposal and overlooks patients.

Romer’s proposal to regulate medical marijuana in Colorado is nothing short of a very sinister joke. Before I post some of the rules he proposes, from the actual bill, let me say a few words about it. As a medical marijuana patient with a qualifying disease (RA and a little thing called wastings, for those of you that don’t already know) I am appalled at the presumptive nature of this public official. I must agree that we need regulation in this industry, there are far too many criminal enterprises that are ripping people off and endangering the health and safety of hundreds of patients. I agree that some sort of regulation needs to occur and that should we refuse to accept it, we may lose the program all together. I am not the person to make these regulations, I am not a politician and I am not interested in becoming one. I am simply a patient, one of the (far-too) few of them that has a license for medical marijuana. It treats my illness like nothing else can and my doctors have praised it’s success. Chris Romer would essentially like to take this all away from me and make a difficult situation, even worse. Losing my ability to use medicinal marijuana to treat my symptoms, I would likely relapse into the incredibly painful and deadly world of narcotic pain relief. Wastings would once again steal every precious calorie and I, not being adequately treated by mainstream anti-emetics, would once again literally waste away to nothing. The pain of my immune system attacking my body would be far too much to handle. My depression would likely return, stealing the precious moments a mother has with her children. I literally will fight this to my death, because if it were to pass, that wouldn’t be far behind.

Here are a few of the top changes from this proposal.

• An individual who is permitted to use medical marijuana must have in his or her possession a registry identification card when possessing a usable form of marijuana. (Romer doesnt address the issue that the registry is swamped with patients and cannot return a card for 6-8 weeks after it is submitted. Patients with chronic illness will have to stop using for two months to wait on a piece of paper they’ve already paid for! )
• The bill creates a medical marijuana review board that will consider requests by nonveteran patients under 21 years of age who want to be registered medical marijuana patients. For a patient who is under 21 years of age to become a registered medical marijuana patient, a majority of the board must determine that the patient has a debilitating medical condition and could benefit from the use of medical marijuana. (You don’t decide your children’s health status, a legislative board will?)
• An Optometrist, Chiropractor, or physical therapist in this new legislation in CO would be allowed to caregive with Medical Marijuana for 20% of their patients. (more restrictions, less patient access)
• A primary caregiver will have to file with the State a patient plan for every patient under their care and record all transactions with them. (So much for the privacy of my medical records!)
• To obtain a growers license under proposed regulations, you must have the grow in an industrial or agricultural zone, and be under 500 plants.
• Also under new proposals, you must report to the CO med MJ license authority every week how many plants and what stages they are & harvest. (Dr. Green thumb doing paperwork? Good luck on that one.)
• Also if you want to grow of own a dispensary under proposed regs, you will have to be fingerprinted and submit background info to the FBI. (The FBI starts with the word FEDERAL. Those guys don’t like marijuana, remember?)
• It looks like you will not be allowed to be lent money from an institution and put your business up. (So… where are you supposed to get the cash?)
• Under the proposed regulations in CO Police Officers are forbidden in legislation to own and operate a dispensary, or grow Marijuana. (What about a police officer with a qualifying medical condition? Should it be so THEM vs. US?)
• You will not be allowed to own more than three dispensaries, under proposed CO regulations. (You can’t be involved in marijuana AND be a success! Not in America!)
• Dispensaries will only be allowed to be open from 8a-8p Mon thru Saturday. No Sunday. And NO smoking or using on site. (Sick people only need medication 6 days a week?)

Perhaps people don’t understand how helpful medicinal marijuana can be. I understand that Colorado is a bubble of acceptance and with the exception of a few uneducated individuals, most people here know that it is vital to survival for some of us. Please do not let this pass, please take the time to write Chris Romer and tell him that we need regulation, we do not need complete restriction. He has stated on other sites that he hasn’t received much by way of replies to his urging to be contacted by the public. This is appalling! How can we ever complain about laws if we do nothing to protect ourselves!? Let me urge you now, Senator Chris Romer needs to hear from you! If not for yourself, do it for me and for my children who will likely be without a mother, should such restrictions become law. Shame on you Chris Romer, patients in Colorado need more dispensaries where they can safely get the medication they need. “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man” and it’s further restriction is immoral!

Please, Tell me what you think.

I will GLADLY compile your comments into a letter and email Sen. Romer for you.

Special thanks to my good friend Tim, for the talking points of this proposal. You can and should follow him on facebook for all the latest Colorado-based marijuana news.

© 2009 – 2010, AntiSoccermom. All rights reserved to the original author unless stated otherwise.