BIG WORDS DON'T MAKE A BILL

Amendment 20 of the Colorado constitution allows for the use medical
marijuana. This is not something that is a game or a chess match to
see who can checkmate who first.

This amendment gave some citizens of Colorado a new lease on life. We
also felt that there were many citizens who could benefit from the
medicinal use of marijuana and to date the state has issued over
60,000 registry cards.

This has created a backlog of at least six months, but because there
are temporary cards given out, there are approximately 100,000
Coloradans who are able to purchase medicine throughout the state.
There are an estimated 110 dispensaries in the Springs alone,
according to the Office of Vital Statistics and Medical Marijuana Registry.

Creating a bill, HB 1284, that would give local government the
opportunity to ban dispensaries and make it hard for a patient to
receive their medicine, will only put the drug dealers back to work,
and force some patients to have travel longer distances to pick up
their medicine. It would appear to me that the state is putting this
HB 1284 out there to see if anyone is paying attention and to also
have some form of regulation on an industry that is taking this state
by storm. This to me is not the way you regulate things. You need to
figure out what it is you are attempting to accomplish and then you
create new processes. Don't just put big words on paper and call it a bill.

Lewis Kary

Colorado Springs