TANGLE OF LAWS MUDDY MEDICAL POT USE

DENVER -- Contradictory laws have left Coloradans who qualify to use medical
marijuana struggling to get the drug, three years after voters approved its
use.

While state law allows certified users to buy, own, transport and grow limited
amounts of marijuana, federal law forbids it. Also, many doctors are hesitant
to authorize the treatment.

Today, 320 Colorado residents ranging in age from 18 to 76 have the
certification to use medical marijuana. Those patients come from 39 of
Colorado's 64 counties.

Oregon, which has a similar law, has more than 4,000 certified users.

Those who may apply for certification include critically ill people suffering
from severe pain and nausea, seizures, muscle spasms, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma,
cancer or cachexia.

However state law does not allow the state to help certified users acquire it,
said Gail Kelsey, administrator of Colorado's Medical Marijuana Registry.

Chuck Stout, director of the Boulder County Health Department, said the state
could fix that by selling confiscated marijuana, which would ordinarily get
burned, to certified users.

Federal officials said they won't be implementing Stout's idea any time soon.

"We are not about to turn our seizures over to research labs for
redistribution, but if he can convince state officials, that is fine," said
John Suthers, U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado.

Miles Madorin, staff attorney for the District Attorney's Council, said the
state legislature would have to make an exception to existing laws to permit
the distribution of marijuana.

Meanwhile, Gov. Bill Owens and Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar have
warned doctors that they risk federal prosecution if they sign marijuana
certificates.

"I don't want to be a test case," said Dr. Dean Beasley of Boulder, even though
191 of his colleagues have signed medical marijuana consent forms.

Dr. Patty Ammon, who has been practicing medicine in Ouray County for a decade,
said she won't risk her medical license by recommending medical marijuana.

But, Ammon said, "It is incredibly shortsighted and misguided to make it
illegal when it can be so beneficial."

The pharmaceutical industry is making so much money on "ridiculously expensive
drugs" for nausea and vomiting, both of which can be alleviated by marijuana,
she said.

Nine other states also have approved medical pot: Alaska, Arizona, California,
Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

There have been no marijuana-related convictions of patients or doctors on
Colorado's registry, Kelsey said.