IS POT TOO HOT TO HANDLE?

Police Agree Marijuana As a Medicine Creates More Problems Than If It
Was Fully Legal, but Leadership to Improve the Situation Lacks at
State and National Levels

EAGLE - Marijuana - it's sort of legal and sort of not.

Colorado, along with 13 other states and the District of Columbia,
has ruled it is OK for use as a medicine. The federal government
still says pot is flat-out illegal.

One of the most problematic effects of medical marijuana is that the
laws surrounding it are all over the place, which makes it a
difficult issue for law enforcement and various levels of government.

"This twilight zone is ridiculous . it needs to go one way or the
other," said SGT. Jim Gerhardt after a medical marijuana forum in
Avon on Oct. 20. Gerhardt is a member of the Colorado Drug
Investigators Association. "I think you're going to see a moving
target as legislation progresses," he said. "It's a bureaucratic mess."

Eagle County Sheriff Joe Hoy agreed.

"Absolutely, it's harder to enforce. (The law) is so poorly worded
you could drive a truck through the loopholes," Hoy said.

One man at the forum cited a lack of political leadership as part of
the problem.

"We have no leadership on this," said Walter Dandy. "We need a
politician who isn't afraid."

Hoy agreed with that as well.

"Until lawmakers tighten up and give us some real direction, our
hands are tied," he said.

During the forum Gerhardt also concurred.

"We (CDIA) wanted to have a ballot initiative to put in the hands of
the people as to whether we want to expand (Amendment 20) but
(politicians) wouldn't touch it," he said.

Inside the 'Twilight Zone'

Gerhardt said one of the reasons medical marijuana legislation has
become so messy is that Amendment 20 doesn't address the industry
aspect of the drug, only its use as a medicine.

"For the first seven years after Amendment 20 passed (in 2000), we
had no problems," Gerhardt said. "We were pleasantly surprised. In
the last few years, however, this industry seemed to pop up overnight
and there weren't any laws regulating it."

The term "industry" refers to marijuana grow operations and
dispensaries, which also sell the drug in the form of food. What has
happened, according to Gerhardt, is that the Colorado Department of
Health tries to regulate the medicinal aspects of pot and the
Colorado Department of Revenue tries to handle the industry.

The explosion of the state's medical marijuana industry roughly
followed a fast increase in the number of card-holders - patients
registered with the state as medicinal users. A patient must get a
doctor recommendation and final approval by the state to become a
card-holder. Gerhardt said "some rogue, profit-minded physicians
signed thousands of recommendations" while the average doc rarely
signed any. Gerhardt estimated about 15 physicians were accountable
for a vast number of marijuana card recommendations.

"For those of you who are patients, your world got encroached upon by
recreational users," Gerhardt said.

Where things get really tricky for law enforcement is that each
patient is allowed to grow six plants for personal use, or to
designate a "care giver" as his or her supplier. Further, the potency
and production of each cannabis plant varies drastically.

At the forum, Gerhardt presented a photo of a grow operation found in
Denver. It showed a greenhouse packed with plants that towered over
people's heads. Gerhardt asked the audience - full of experienced
growers - how many plants were in the photo. Guesses ranged from 80
up to 300. Gerhardt said even police thought there might be that many
but the caregiver was actually growing a legal amount of 32 plants
for patients.

"If one plant can produce so much more than what is intended to be
allowed, how can we know how much marijuana is going to patients -
how do we know the extra production isn't going to the black market?"
Gerhardt said. "The only answer would be for the state to produce and
dispense it but it can't because the feds say it's illegal."

Dandy said he doesn't use pot and doesn't advocate for it but he
believes it's a waste of money and resources to keep it illegal or
try to regulate it in its current state.

"We've got to learn a lesson from Prohibition," he said. "I'm not
pro-drug, I'm just against trying to deal with it in this silly way."

Losing a Job

"My personal opinion is that I we've reached a point in society where
(marijuana) should be legalized," said Eagle's mayor, Ed Woodland.
"However, like alcohol, there would still be consequences. You could
still lose your job - some employers don't want you using regardless
if it is legal."

Angela Shy, 39, became a cardholder in December 2009. She uses pot
for back pain and insomnia.

"It helps me sleep and pills don't work for me," she said.

Shy worked as a greeter at the Eagle County Regional Airport until
she was fired July 28 after failing a random drug test. Then she was
denied unemployment on the basis that she was using the drug.

"The state gave me my card so I could use pot and then the state
denied my unemployment. That doesn't make sense," she said.

After two months of appealing for unemployment benefits, Shy recently
prevailed. However, her victory had more to do with a loophole that
she never actually signed anything for her employer acknowledging
that she would be subjected to random drug tests.

"I was a good employee," She said. "Was I smoking before work? No. I
was a good employee, yet my former employer didn't bother to follow
up and recommend me for unemployment benefits. (The airport) told me
to contact its payroll company about it and a woman there said, 'We
never followed through because the state is going to deny you
anyway.' All the company had to do was answer a letter and say it
wasn't going to dispute my unemployment and leave the decision to the
state but (the company) didn't even bother."

Upon winning her case for unemployment, Shy said both the company
representative and the unemployment office told her it would have
been better for her to lie about why she was fired.

"The system seems very broken," Shy said. "Marijuana is still illegal
when compared to alcohol or pharmaceutical drugs."

She said there is some hypocrisy that pharmaceutical drugs are
socially accepted while pot is demonized.

"You can overdose on aspirin - not to mention prescription pills like
Vicodin and Valium, which are also truly addictive - but not pot," Shy said.

Social Stigmas?

Since losing her job, Shy has appeared at Eagle Town Board meetings.

"Speaking at one of the meetings was the first time I outed myself
(as a marijuana user)," she said. "There are a lot of people in
positions where they can't be open because this carries a stigma. But
they can openly drink themselves into oblivion," Shy said.

Sweet Leaf Pioneer owner Dave Manzanares has come before Eagle Town
Board several times as he started and expanded his medical marijuana
dispensary in Eagle. He estimated for each person who came to
meetings in support of his business, there were four others who
didn't feel comfortable showing their support in public.

"I could have easily doubled the number of people who showed up, but
they were afraid of being pre-judged by employers and the community,"
Manzanares said.

Manzanares is a home-grown local of Eagle County. He grew up in
Minturn and graduated from Battle Mountain High School. He started
and ran a cleaning company in the area with his brother for about 10
years until the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"9/11 affected most of our jobs, we lost about everything," he said.
"I've gone through four or five jobs since then."

Before his cleaning business dwindled, though, Manzanares was
cleaning the county airport terminal and county justice center.

"We were cleaning at the end of the day with hardly anyone around -
the county basically trusted me with lock-up for 10 years," he said.

Manzanares noted some small differences in the way people treated him
when he opened Sweet Leaf.

"I had to go to the jail to have my fingerprints taken as part of the
paperwork to open a dispensary," he said. "I ran into a deputy who
I'd known since I was a kid. He was happy to see me and asked about
my family and then I told him why I was there. He stiffened up for
about 10 minutes and kind of looked at me differently, like I was
suddenly the enemy. He relaxed after a little while, but police have
been trained for years that pot is illegal and they associate it with
criminals."

"But my parents brought me up to abide by the law, and now the laws
have changed," said Manzanares.

Even after her participation in public meetings, Shy was still
fearful of being quoted in a newspaper article and almost decided to
retract her comments.

"My husband is worried about what people think," she said. "The
people coming out in favor are putting themselves in a more
uncomfortable position than the few who come out against it. . For
me, this is a pivotal moment and I hope I can inspire someone else to
take a stand."

"Unless the public pushes, the laws don't change," Manzanares said.

Politics

Steve Richards, 60, is a former member of Eagle Town Board. He served
at the time the board voted to allow dispensaries as a special use in
town. That was October 2009 and Richards has become a medical
marijuana cardholder since then, after going to Denver to learn more
about the issue. Richards remembered last fall, the town board was
fairly divided and Mayor Ed Woodland didn't want to vote at the time.

"In retrospect, I should've cast a vote but I didn't feel then that I
had enough information," Woodland said. "I think that's the thing
with a lot of leaders - they face that issue of not knowing."

Eagle County Commissioner Sara Fisher attended the Oct. 20 forum in Avon.

"I'll probably be a little reluctant to answer questions about
(medical marijuana) until after Nov. 2," she said at the forum. She
later discussed what it's like to face such an issue as an elected
official in the final days of her re-election campaign.

"It's an unusual time," she said. "I never imagined I would weigh in
on something like this. We are charged with finding a resolution and
there's a lot of work to be done."

"It's not something I'm fearful of tackling," said Fisher. "The
challenge has been a kind of change in the federal attitude. . The
change will need to occur at the federal level."

So, is there very much perceptible leadership in the top political
ranks regarding marijuana?

"There is no leadership on this issue at the state and national
levels," Woodland said. "None."

Meanwhile, the citizens of Eagle County continued to give medical
marijuana a thumbs-up in the Nov. 2 election.

According to Eagle County's unofficial counts Wednesday morning,
ballot measure 1B passed, with 7,877 votes in favor of allowing
medical pot operations in unincorporated areas of the county. Six
thousand, three hundred and four votes were tallied against the measure.

Minturn residents also voted to allow dispensaries.

Woodland sees dispensaries as any other contributing local business.

"In the case of the Sweet Leaf Pioneer, (Manzanares) is a
contributing member of the business community in that he is employing
people," Woodland said.

Prohibition Ammunition: Marijuana Advocates Often Cite Failed 1920s Era Laws

When debating the medical marijuana issue, people often refer to the
nation's failed experience with Prohibition.

In 1920, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the sale,
manufacturing and transport of alcohol in the United States. Congress
approved the National Prohibition Act over President Woodrow Wilson's
veto on Oct. 28, 1919. It established the legal definition of
intoxicating liquor, as well as penalties for producing it. Though
the Volstead Act, as the legislation was popularly known, prohibited
the sale of alcohol, the federal government did little to enforce the
law. According to a Wikipedia entry citing the National Archives as
its source, by 1925 in New York City alone, there were anywhere from
30,000 speakeasy clubs.

Prohibition successfully reduced the amount of liquor consumed in the
United States, but it also is credited with stimulating criminal
activity by unintentionally encouraging illegal bootlegging
operations. Prohibition became increasingly unpopular during the
Great Depression, especially in large cities.

On Dec. 5, 1933, the ratification of the 21st Amendment repealed the
18th Amendment.

The Dec. 27, 1933 edition of The Eagle Valley Enterprise included a
syndicated column called "Washington Digest" by William Bruckart,
which outlined the provisions of the new law and predicted regulation
of liquor sales would ultimately be a local problem.

"As to the local option problem, Washington observers are able only
to guess that there will be many heated fights in numerous
communities throughout the country. People always have fought over
the prohibition question since it has been an issue, and they will
argue about it now in many areas that otherwise are noted for their
peaceful atmospheres where people are used to talking politics in
smaller doses," he wrote.

But it didn't take long after the ratification of the 21st Amendment
for a local entrepreneur to take advantage of the new law. By Jan. 5,
1934, S.S. Lemon advertised the opening of The Gypsum Liquor Store.
His business announcement proclaimed "Buy liquor legally. We are
complying with the law in every respect and it is up to the consumer
to help put the bootlegger out of business by purchasing only legal
liquor, guaranteed by the federal and state governments."

Lemon's stock included bonded and cut whiskies, old wines, gins and
brandies. His business slogan was "It is smart to be legal."