SOME COLO. MEDICAL-POT USERS FACE EVICTION

Disabled Who Use Drug in Face Eviction at Federally Subsidized Housing

OLATHE -- Bill Hewitt's thrice-daily medicine is laid out on a tiny
table in his trailer: a couple of marijuana buds alongside a glass
pipe and a Zippo lighter.

Hewitt, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, is a card-carrying
medical-marijuana user. And he is living in this worn-down travel
trailer because he was evicted from federally subsidized housing on
account of his marijuana use.

The difference between Colorado's legal acceptance of marijuana for
medical use and federal law, which categorizes marijuana as an
illegal drug, is resulting in a housing quandary for the disabled.

Even with the state's OK to use medical marijuana, people such as
Hewitt can't live in federal housing or receive federal subsidies for
rent under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's
Housing Choice Voucher Program.

Hewitt and another medical-marijuana user from Durango have
challenged that policy with HUD's fair-housing division and in court.
The policy has drawn lawsuits in at least two of the other 13 states
that allow medical-marijuana use. But so far HUD has prevailed. HUD
officials stress they have no choice in the matter.

"HUD lawyers are very clear about this. There is not to be any
substance abuse in federal housing or voucher housing," said Teresa
Duran, interim director of the Colorado Division of Housing. "Until
the federal laws change, we have to abide by that."

There is no data to say how widespread the problem is. HUD officials
say they don't track evictions or complaints tied to medical- marijuana use.

Medical-marijuana users and suppliers say it is common and becoming more so.

"It's safe to say this is a growing problem. We're going to encounter
it more," said Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible
Colorado, a nonprofit resource for medical-marijuana users.

Hewitt said he knows three other disabled users in federally
subsidized housing in the small town of Olathe who plan to move into
his trailer park rather than fight HUD rules.

"It's disgusting. Most disabled can't afford a house, so they get
assistance. These people should not be thrown in the street because
they use a medication that alleviates pain," Hewitt said.

He said he received an eviction notice this spring, a day after HUD
inspectors looked over his rental house and told him everything was
satisfactory. He said he gave them a copy of his medical-marijuana
card months before that.

But Tim Heavers, director of the Montrose County Housing Authority,
said all residents of federally subsidized housing or those who are
receiving housing vouchers for private rentals are warned up front
about illegal drug use.

Hewitt said he may have received that warning, but Colorado voters
legalized the use of medical marijuana in 2000.

Hewitt said smoking marijuana has allowed him to cut out many
prescription medications with bad side effects. He said he no longer
uses tranquilizers, muscle relaxers, sleeping pills and a nerve drug.
He still takes medications for his heart, bladder and stomach and a
half dose of the painkiller methadone.

Travis Chambers, who owns God's Gift, a medical-marijuana dispensary
in Clifton, said that points to the irony in the federal housing rules.

"You can sit there and do morphine and Oxycontin and all the other
heavy drugs you want," he said. "But not marijuana."

Chris Hermes with Americans for Safe Access called the HUD denials
"discrimination."

"Many of these patients have no options for where they consume their
medical marijuana. They are disabled," Hermes said.

In Durango, Vietnam veteran Andrew Rizzo said he was evicted from a
federally subsidized housing complex after other residents complained
about the odor of marijuana smoke from his apartment. He said it is
not feasible to go somewhere else to smoke it, nor to use a different
delivery method such as balms, tinctures or pills, because they don't
have the same effect.

While the issue works its way through the bureaucracy, Hewitt is
fearing winter in his little trailer. He said the owner has told him
it will be like an icebox. And he has to make his way about 50 yards
across a lot to use a restroom in a former gas station.

"It's a lot harder than living in a house," he said. "But the peace
and the freedom is so worth it."