A MORE PATIENT-FRIENDLY BILL?

Amended Medical Pot Bill To Limit Industry Being Heard Today

A medical marijuana reform bill being heard today by a House
committee has been altered to make it more favorable to the medical
marijuana community, according to Rep. Claire Levy.

More than five pages of amendments have been added to the
Legislature's latest bill that looks to place limits on Colorado's
fastest growing industry. The proposed amendments include:

- - Removing the ability of law enforcement to access a medical
marijuana clinic at any time and demand access to their books and
records;

- - Eliminating the ability of a local government to outright establish
a maximum number of medical marijuana facilities in its
jurisdiction;

- - Allowing food made with medical marijuana to be consumed on-site at
certain parts of dispensaries;

- - Reducing some of the restrictions on who is eligible to have a
medical marijuana license.

"I think overall the patient community and the dispensary community
should be fairly pleased with where the bill is ending up," said
Levy, a Boulder Democrat who runs the House Judiciary Committee.
"There are lots and lots of changes."

Controversial Provisions

But one of the bill's most controversial provisions,the ability of
local municipalities to ban retail medical marijuana dispensaries
from operating within city limits, has not been amended. Brian
Vicente of Sensible Colorado, a medical marijuana lobbying group,
said last month that allowing cities to ban dispensaries would force
seriously ill patients to travel great distances to get their medicine.

Bill sponsor Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, however, thinks
municipalities should have the right to ban the retail dispensary
model from operating within city limits because Colorado is a home
rule state, meaning cities are often allowed to make decisions for
themselves separate from state law.

Levy pointed out that caregivers could still locate in those
communities that ban dispensaries. A caregiver in a municipality that
has banned dispensaries could serve up to 16 patients under an
amendment being considered today.

Another controversial measure requiring a dispensary to be linked to
all of the medical marijuana it grows and sells remains in HB 1284.
However, a proposed amendment would let a retail operation get an
additional 5 percent Ń 30 percent totalŃ of its medical
marijuana from another grow operation.

Activist Timothy Allen argued earlier this month that the forced
vertical integration would drive up price and limit variety for patients.

Meanwhile, Massey said earlier this month that the vertical
integration model is necessary so the marijuana can be tracked. The
measure would effectively shut down independent grow operations that
don't team up with dispensaries.

Levy said there might be another amendment introduced to increase the
percentage of medical marijuana a dispensary could get from another
grow operation.

Heated Hearing

The more than five pages of amendments come after a March 4 committee
hearing in which medical marijuana patients, caregivers and
dispensary owners attacked HB 1284 as being harmful to patients and
their providers. Public testimony at the hearing exceeded five hours,
and lawmakers on the committee postponed voting on the bill until
today.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, district attorneys and
doctors also voiced their opposition to the bill during the committee
hearing. They argued that the measure would legitimize the retail
dispensary model, which they see a backdoor way to legalize marijuana.

Levy said that the new amendments don't address the law enforcement
community's concerns.

"They're opposed to the very concept of the bill, so none of these
amendments will remove their objections," she said.

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, requires patients under the age of 21 to get a
second doctor's opinion before being able to obtain a medical
marijuana card and forbids 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.