MARIJUANA LAWS RIFE WITH COMPLEXITIES

As you might expect, the legal profession covets the opportunity to
develop a new specialty. And, thanks to medical marijuana, it has
recently been able to do so.

It all began in 2000 with voter approval of Amendment 20. Amendment 20
added a new Section 14 to Article XVIII of the Colorado Constitution.
As constitutional amendments go, Section 14 is quite detailed. It
describes a regime whereby individuals suffering from a "debilitating
medical condition" can have access to marijuana as a medication,
without anyone involved in the process going to jail. "Debilitating
medical condition" means cancer, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),
glaucoma and any other condition that involves severe pain, severe
nausea, seizures or muscle spasms.

Under Section 14, the state is to maintain a confidential list of
patients who, after examination by a physician in a bona fide
patient-physician relationship, have been diagnosed as having a
debilitating disease that could be helped by the use of marijuana.
Such patients, if they apply to the state, are to be given a
registration card that they can show to law enforcement officers.
Section 14 states the quantity of marijuana a registered patient can
possess - two ounces - and the number of marijuana plants a patient or
caregiver can be growing - six, three of which can be "mature."

But, despite this degree of detail, Section 14 left many questions
unanswered, in particular with regard to the commercial production and
sale of medical marijuana. Due to these vagaries, medical marijuana
dispensaries started springing up across the state. This activity
accelerated in 2009 after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it
wasn't going to waste federal time and money trying to enforce certain
marijuana laws.

And then, medical marijuana abuses started to make headlines. By way
of example, there were allegations in the media that medical marijuana
dispensaries were paying physicians to give out medical marijuana
authorizations to just about anyone who asked.

This circumstance led to the passage of two bills by the 2010 Colorado
legislature intended to give further structure to the use, cultivation
and sale of medical marijuana. Senate Bill 109 firms up Section 14's
concept of a "bona fide patient-physician relationship" and restricts
financial entanglements between physicians and medical marijuana
entrepreneurs. House Bill 1284 (60 pages long) sets up an elaborate
state and local licensing arrangement that provides for dispensary
licenses, cultivation licenses and licenses for businesses that
manufacture marijuana-infused products.

This has parallels to Colorado's liquor-license system but with the
wrinkle that retail purchasers must also have a license of sorts. As
attorneys who practice liquor-licensing law will tell you, Colorado's
laws in that area are a swirling mix of vague rules and unpredictable
local politics, producing a reasonably steady source of income. It
seems unlikely that this state's medical marijuana laws will fare any
better.

Jim Flynn is a private attorney at Flynn Wright & Fredman LLC in
Colorado Springs.