IS MEDICAL POT HARMING KIDS?

Law Enforcement and Doctors Say So, MMJ Activists Disagree

The proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries has led to an
increase in marijuana use by children who are vulnerable to the drug,
according to multiple law enforcement officers and mental health
professionals who testified yesterday before a Senate committee.

Adams County Sergeant Jon Van Zandt said school resource officers are
now dealing with 10-year-olds bringing marijuana to schools.

"Milk money has been replaced with drug money," he
said.

Adams County District Attorney Don Quick added that kids who use
marijuana are more likely to drop out of school and wind up in jail,
which ends up costing the state more money than any potential economic
benefits that taxing marijuana might bring.

The law enforcement community's views were in sharp contrast to the
patients and medical marijuana activists who also testified before the
Local Government and Energy Committee. The committee held more than
six hours of public testimony before voting on House Bill 1284, which
looks to regulate Colorado's medical marijuana industry. A proposed
amendment would have forbid people under the age of 21 from going in a
dispensary; the committee had yet to vote on the bill or its
amendments by deadline for the Denver Daily News.

Medical marijuana lawyer Brian Vicente said that prohibiting people
under the age of 21 from going in a dispensary would be a form of age
discrimination. HIV patient Damien LaGoy added that the amendment
would have made young AIDS patients jump through more hoops to get
medicine that could help their condition.

Mark Simon, who testified on behalf of Colorado's disabled community,
said that while there may appear to be abuse in Colorado's medical
marijuana system, there is no data to support that claim.

"I'm concerned that we're making public policy based on guesses," he
said.

However, psychiatry professor T.J Crawley argued that marijuana is an
addictive drug, and that increasing the availability of the drug
increases the use, which then increases the adverse effects he
believes marijuana has.

"I'm now sad for what's happening in my state," he said of the
proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries. "I think it's a very
serious risk for the future."

HB 1284 would create a state medical marijuana licensing board run by
the Department of Revenue. Under the bill, dispensaries -- referred to
as "centers" in the bill -- would have to get a state, local, and
cultivation license to sell medical marijuana to patients. The measure
passed out of the House last week.

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