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Lawmakers Say Raid Shows Need for Marijuana Rules
Posted by CN Staff on February 15, 2010 at 18:10:15 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: Summit Daily News 
Denver --  Lawmakers trying to regulate Colorado's expanding medical marijuana industry say last week's raid of a grass-growing operation highlights the need to clarify which operations are legal and which aren't.Under the Obama administration's new policy, the Drug Enforcement Administration isn't supposed to target anyone who is in clear compliance with state laws that allow the use of medical marijuana. But Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, and Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said Monday it's not clear exactly what compliance means under Colorado's law.
The law allows patients to possess up to two ounces of marijuana or for caregivers to grow up to six marijuana plants for each patient. However, the law also allows them to claim it was medically necessary for them to grow more.It doesn't address dispensaries and who can sell medical marijuana to patients not growing their own.On Friday, DEA agents removed over 120 marijuana plants from the Highlands Ranch home of a man who said he was a medical marijuana provider. Special agent Jeffrey Sweetin said he became suspicious because the homeowner told the media he expected to make up to $400,000 a year. He also said he was concerned because the grow was in a residential neighborhood near an elementary school and the power needed to grow marijuana poses a safety hazard.Massey and Romer have proposed creating a state authority to license dispensaries, which they want to convert to non-profit marijuana centers. Centers would have to pay a licensing fee and be subject to inspections. They would also have to grow their own marijuana.“Hopefully, when the session ends there will be clear guidelines, and we won't have this uncertainty and ambiguity,” Massey said.Dispensaries agree they're on shaky ground without clear state regulations. But many don't like the ones on the table now.Matt Brown, executive director of Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation, a coalition of medical marijuana dispensaries and patients, said requiring dispensaries to grow their own pot would be easier for the state to regulate but would eventually put smaller operations out of business.He said dispensaries are hoping to make changes to the proposal (House Bill 1284), perhaps borrowing some ideas from how the state regulates other industries. For example, he said top-level casino employees are more strictly regulated than employees on the casino floor, which might be a better way to regulate dispensaries.He thinks large-scale grows, like the one in Highlands Ranch, should be limited to industrial and agricultural areas with the power lines to accommodate them.People growing marijuana for up to five patients would be able to grow up to 30 plants at their homes under the Massey-Romer bill. Unless the state issues a waiver, anyone serving more than five people would have to be licensed.The bill isn't set to get its first hearing until March 4 because lawmakers want to finish balancing this year's budget first. Another proposal (Senate Bill 109) that would bar doctors from writing recommendations inside dispensaries has passed the Senate and could be debated in the House at the end of next week.Some medical marijuana advocates, meanwhile, are preparing to take their own set of regulations to the ballot if they think lawmakers end up making it too difficult for patients to get marijuana.Source: Summit Daily News (CO)Published: Monday, February 15, 2010Copyright: 2010 Summit Daily NewsURL: http://drugsense.org/url/Or91kJ6vContact: http://drugsense.org/url/yBSkElsLWebsite: http://www.summitdaily.com/home.phpCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #8 posted by charmed quark on February 16, 2010 at 15:50:57 PT
electrical power
There's no reason you can't have, say, 300 amp service (enough for 36,000 watts of lights) in a residential neighborhood. Around here, some people go overboard with christmas lights and several households in a row will be pulling 200 or more amps and the power company has to upgrade the local transformers. This would be similar. Not a major problem. At least I think so. But having this many lights in a small space might be a fire hazard even if everything was up to code
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Comment #7 posted by Had Enough on February 16, 2010 at 10:38:32 PT
Electric...
All the more reasons to re-legalize cannabis...Safe legitimate businesses operating...with proper electric services up to National Electrical Code standards...All will benefit...The wireman who install the equipment...the supply houses that sell the electrical equipment...the power company who supplies the electric...the business owners knowing they don’t have to cut corners...the people living in the vicinities can be more assured of a safe operation...and last but not least...the insurance companies that have to pay for fire damaged structures...“” Special agent Jeffrey Sweetin said he became suspicious because the homeowner told the media he expected to make up to $400,000 a year. He also said he was concerned because the grow was in a residential neighborhood near an elementary school and the power needed to grow marijuana poses a safety hazard.””When you hear the sounds from ‘Special agent Jeffrey Sweetin’...you are hearing the sounds of a dinosaurs tail thrashing...One of these days that thrashing tail will crash in the wrong place...or just maybe, it just has???
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on February 16, 2010 at 08:18:21 PT
I Don't Like Marijuana Because......
Sometimes why people say no to particularly medical marijuana is beyond me. They must have to think very hard to come up with enough reasons to keep jailing people who don't agree with them.
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Comment #5 posted by JoeCitizen on February 16, 2010 at 08:12:55 PT
Sam Adams - Info, not feelings
"I've got a feeling this particular guy was not violating any local electrical codes whatsoever."How do you know? Unless you have sources of info about this situation other than the article, you can't possibly know what was happening or not."You don't know that this was a "yuppy McMansion." You don't know about the state of the panel box, nor how many lights this guy was trying to put in there.And no one said anything about greenhouse gasses, that's not part of the article at all. You just threw that in there for effect.A while back, I had some involvement with guys who were growing cannabis in a residential home. They tried to put 9000 watts worth of lighting in the basement. The old panel box there couldn't handle it, and caught fire. It was lucky the house didn't burn down.They replaced the box with a bigger one. Was the work done by a real electrician? Nope. Was it up to code? Maybe, but quite possibly not.Was ANY of that safe, or fair to their neighbors, who were just trying to live in their houses, not use them as greenhouses? No, it most certainly was not.I don't automatically trust the word of a DEA agent. But I don't automatically assume these growers were harmless either.Frankly, I don't know. Unless you know more than the article says, neither do you.
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Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on February 16, 2010 at 07:48:05 PT
Colorado
interesting, we have some fresh, new lies for Colorado!Now the govt. is concerned about "power lines" that can handle this load! That is the biggest BS I've ever seen. I've seen yuppy McMansions around here with 3000 watts of tract lighting on the first floor alone! Americans LOVE to burn bright spotlights outside all night long, and tract light up the wazoo inside.Yet we never worried about that phenonmena, or the greenhouse gas ramifications of it, until the lights are used to grow cannabis....for sick people.If people are violating a specific electrical code then enforce the law. I've got a feeling this particular guy was not violating any local electrical codes whatsoever.
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Comment #3 posted by runruff on February 15, 2010 at 23:43:50 PT
I believe the tree of life mentioned....
...was not an apple tree. From hemp to apples is something I would expect from Jerry Fallwell.We have reverends here at C/News who are realistic about the historic Bible in every way. If you have a religion, don't cheapen it by making it politically correct!
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on February 15, 2010 at 23:38:47 PT
Religion; the road to perpetual ignorance!
Religious leaders are such zealots they think it is their job to tie up the loose ends left by god.
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on February 15, 2010 at 18:46:27 PT
Newly released, Spiritual cannabis INSIGHT
I want to share this with C-News friends who know and believe cannabis has spiritual implications. It will help understand much.-0-Cannabis: The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Version 2.6.2 of 2/1/2010-12:22 a.m. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" --- John 8:32. http://ioannis.virtualcomposer2000.com/writing/Cannabis.html#intro
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