A POISON PILL IN THE MARIJUANA BILL

The Colorado Senate is on the verge of foolishly adopting a medical
marijuana bill that may transport parts of Colorado back to the days
when pot was a street drug that enriched only criminals.

Today, because of a constitutional amendment enacted by Colorado
voters in 2000, criminal dealers of marijuana are struggling. That's
because they must compete with above-board medical marijuana
dispensaries that rent space on Main Street and are more than
willing to pay taxes and fees and obey laws. Dispensary owners
have clamored for reasonable regulation in order to keep
the riffraff competition at bay.

House Bill 1264, which received final Senate approval Thursday, is
mostly a reasonable attempt to regulate and tax the new, flourishing
and lucrative medical marijuana trade that's helping Colorado's
economy and causing fewer problems than a lot of other retail
sectors. It establishes a state licensing authority and a
requirement for local approval of marijuana retailers. It eliminates
kickbacks to physicians from marijuana sellers. It mandates closure
of dispensaries at 7 p.m. That's all good.

Then there's the poison pill, which is likely to result in a judge
throwing the whole thing onto a scrap heap. The bill says local
governments may pass resolutions "prohibiting" the cultivation or
sale of medical marijuana. Of course, the whole reason they're
talking marijuana at the statehouse is because of Amendment 20 of
the Colorado Constitution - a law enacted specifically to forbid
Colorado governments from interfering with the right to produce,
possess or use medical marijuana. So is the bill unconstitutional?
Absolutely, beyond question. A few wise Republicans and Democrats agree:

"We have no statutory authority to carve out new exceptions to what
is a constitutionally granted right," said liberal Sen. Morgan
Carroll, an Aurora Democrat, as quoted in the Denver Post.

Conservative Republican Sen. Shawn Mitchell, of Broomfield, was
quoted in the Post saying: "Stomping the supply (of medical
marijuana) out of existence is completely unfaithful with the
constitutional policy of allowing its dispensing."

The poison pill is a legislative pander to neighborhood fussbudgets
and local government leaders who want more authority over
individuals than the constitution allows. They justify the
unconstitutional language with a song-and-dance about allowing
"primary care providers" in any jurisdiction of Colorado,
thus ensuring the public's right to obtain the drug. In
the unlikely event that loophole saves the bill from judicial
annihilation, it may result in small-time dealers on every block in
those communities that prohibit dispensaries. That's because the
bill says a primary care provider, who is neither physician
nor dispensary, may have only five patients.

The patient limitation makes caregiver a part-time job that's best
conducted out of a home. Cities and counties that prohibit the
storefront seller will create high demand for stay-at-home
caregivers. At that point, as patients come and go from the homes of
their residential drug dealers, the old strip-mall dispensary will
look pretty good.

Legislators, come to your senses. Lose the unconstitutional language
in reconciliation before creating a law the courts are likely to reject.