TAKE PART IN PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED COLORADO CHANGES

Thanks to Joel Warner for another excellent article. As he mentioned,
the Colorado Board of Health has proposed a rule change that would
impose a limit on the number of medicinal cannabis patients for whom a
caregiver could work. This will only make it more difficult for
patients to get their medicine by forcing them back into the black
market.

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 six plants allowed by the
Colorado Constitution. Cannabis cultivation experts have been enlisted
to serve as caregivers, and 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 also to create edible
forms of cannabis, such as cookies, brownies and other foods. Although
cooking with cannabis requires a much larger amount of the raw
substance, eating cannabis food is a far healthier way to ingest the
medicine.

Recently, the White House reiterated its intention to change federal
policy to allow states to regulate medicinal cannabis and to stop
federal prosecution of medical cannabis patients. In light of this new
federal policy, it is the perfect time for Colorado to take the next
step. The Board of Health should be compassionate and helpful toward
these sick and dying people and not put more obstacles in their way.
The board's public hearing on the proposed changes is March 18, and
the deadline to submit written comments is March 2.

Laura Kriho

Colorado Citizens for Compassionate Cannabis