THE TRUTH ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA

These are promising times for Colorado's medical marijuana patients.
For years, they've suffered in the dark, desperately seeking only to
follow their physicians' orders to use marijuana to address their
debilitating medical conditions, taking their wheelchairs at midnight
to the streets to purchase low-quality medicine at inflated prices,
or struggling in the difficult and physically-taxing endeavor of
growing it themselves in expensive indoor gardens. But finally, there
is light at the end of the tunnel. Patients can visualize a world
where the supply of medical marijuana is almost as safe to obtain as
more dangerous and addictive hard narcotics such as Oxycontin,
Percocet, or Fentanyl.

The optimism hasn't come easy. In August, the Boulder District
Attorney's Office prosecuted Jason Lauve, a wheelchair-bound medical
marijuana patient for two felony charges of possessing low-quality
medical marijuana for his own use. While two high-level prosecutors
participated in the four-day trial, these talented attorneys could
not overcome simple facts: Jason was protected under the Colorado
Constitution, which allows him to consume marijuana to treat extreme
pain associated with his broken back.

In addition to understanding Lauve's legal rights, many jurors saw
the light about marijuana's continued prohibition. Marijuana has
alleviated human suffering for thousands of years, is not physically
addictive, does not rip apart internal organs like harsh narcotics,
and presents an all-natural and organic alternative to synthetic medicine.

After the verdict and an ensuing firestorm of taxpayer outrage,
Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett opened his mind. He said that
it would be better if marijuana were legal outright, and not just for
medical purposes. This is an extraordinary statement from a
prosecutor, and Garnett should be applauded for seeing that
prohibition is a failed policy that only hurts those that have
already suffered too much.

Garnett then reached out and explored clarifying Colorado's law
through civil litigation, rather than criminal prosecution. In a
letter to the Daily Camera on Sept. 20, Garnett wrote, "I would like
to see these issues clarified outside the context of a criminal
prosecution, .. . I have assured them that I will not prosecute
dispensaries since I don't want the obvious lack of clarity about
their operations to be resolved in a criminal context." (emphasis
his.) Then, a week later, Garnett told County Commissioners that
prosecuting marijuana cases (not just medical marijuana cases, but
marijuana in general) is his office's lowest priority.

We can only hope that Garnett's words are met with action. Because
before any civil discussions can occur, Garnett must begin by
dismissing the current criminal charges pending against Sherri
Versfelt, a young Nederland woman guilty of nothing more than
suffering from a debilitating medical condition and legally consuming
and dispensing small amounts of medical marijuana to other patients.

When government agents showed up at her home without a search
warrant, they were dealing with someone who has no prior criminal
convictions, no money, and no weapons. She did, however, have a
state-issued Medical Marijuana Registry Card. Versfelt has already
spent 27 days in jail because she could not afford to post bond. This
coming at a time when we face a distressed economy, high
unemployment, and the prospect of violent criminals being released
from prison because the government has run out of our hard-earned tax money.

Versfelt is currently pregnant, due in December, and the extreme
stress of a felony jury trial (scheduled to begin Oct. 19 at the
Boulder County Justice Center) might be too much for her and her
unborn son, especially because Sherri suffers from a severe long-time
medical condition stemming from an adolescent surgery that makes her
pregnancy itself a miracle. At age 14, she had a watermelon-sized
growth removed, along with one of her ovaries.

For voters to take seriously Garnett's desire to be "the most
progressive DA in Colorado," he must cease the fearsome prosecution
of sick people and those who care for them. As long as peaceful
citizens fear pounding on their doors by armed police, criminal
charges, and the humiliation that comes from being accused, there can
be no open and civil discussion, no trust.

Colorado voters made medical marijuana legal. Patients and caregivers
are dispensing and consuming it legally. Jurors and taxpayers should
not be subjected to lengthy trials over a plant. After a long dark
road, Colorado's suffering medical marijuana patients finally have
hope that better days lie ahead. Garnett can lead the way by turning
words into action.