cannabisnews.com: Colorado Works Out Logistic of Medicinal Marijuana





Colorado Works Out Logistic of Medicinal Marijuana
Posted by FoM on March 05, 2001 at 15:43:44 PT
By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News of Colorado
Source: Nando Times
State officials have been quietly working to get a program in place by June 1 that would allow ailing Coloradans to smoke marijuana for medical reasons. In November, voters approved Amendment 20, which decriminalized marijuana for medical use, but the issue has been overshadowed by the debate on three other ballot issues: growth, guns and more money for education. 
"We got together the day after the election to start working on this," said Cindy Parmenter, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Amendment 20 created a registry of patients who use marijuana to treat medical conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, HIV and severe pain. Patients would need a letter from their doctor about their medical condition in order to get a state ID card that allows them to have up to six marijuana plants in their house and 2 ounces of pot in their possession. But the amendment doesn't address how the patients will get the marijuana. "That question has come up numerous times. You can't go to King Soopers (grocery store) and you can't go to your doctor for a marijuana prescription," said Dr. Richard Hoffman, state epidemiologist and chief medical officer. "We don't have the answers administratively," he said. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a California case that questions whether marijuana can be provided to seriously ill patients, even though distribution of drugs is a crime. The state of Colorado will make decisions about its program at a Board of Health meeting March 21. Hoffman said considerations include regulations and sanctions. Coloradans who abuse the program would face criminal charges under legislation that Rep. Mark Cloer, R-Colorado Springs, is proposing. Crimes include making counterfeit ID cards, using another person's card, or fraudulently claiming to have a medical condition. Cloer said he also wants to include a provision to make certain that anyone with an ID card who is arrested on certain charges, such as suspicion of driving while under the influence of marijuana, can't try to wiggle out of an indictment by claiming he or she had a legal reason to smoke pot. "There has to be responsible use," he said. Complete Title: Colorado Works Out Logistics of Medicinal Marijuana Program Source: The Nando TimesAuthor: Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News of ColoradoPublished: March 5, 2001Copyright: 2001 Nando Media - 2000 AP OnlineContact: tom nandomedia.comWebsite: http://www.nandotimes.comRelated Articles & Web Site:Coloradans For Medical Rights http://www.medicalmarijuana.com/Defend Amendment 20http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7708.shtmlPatients Inquire On Medical Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7620.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by rick hilleary on July 07, 2001 at 11:33:18 PT:
Glenwood Springs Medical Pot arrest
7/3/01 Medical pot debate stirred by arrest in Glenwood By David Frey/Special to the Daily News  For Chris Peckat, marijuana is medicine.Like his mother, his uncle and his grandmother, he has a hereditary spinal-cord disorder that causes his legs to become gradually weaker and stiffer. When he walks, the 20-year-old El Jebel man leans heavily on a straight black cane, dragging his crooked legs beneath him, his feet bent inward. A lump bulges from his waist where a pump feeds a slow drip of muscle relaxants into his body. That helps ease the tightening muscles, Peckat said, but it doesn't stop the pain.Marijuana does, he said. He smokes it twice a day -- once in the afternoon, and again before bed."At night, my feet are just throbbing. Bam! Bam!" he said. "I take a couple puffs. A couple minutes later, I feel pretty good."Peckat has dealt with this condition, called spastic paraparesis, for about three years, through five surgeries. Doctors say with a relentless regimen of daily exercise he might beat it, Peckat said, but in the meantime, he faces sometimes-crippling pain every day. Last November, Colorado voters made Peckat's medicine a legal drug for people who suffer diseases with symptoms that may be eased by marijuana. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled using marijuana is still a federal crime.That leaves people like Peckat caught between a rock and a hard place. Local law enforcement feel caught in the same bind. Last week, Peckat became a sort of test case in the valley, when he came before Glenwood Springs' municipal court on a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession."The law is pretty messed up right now," said Glenwood Springs City Attorney Teresa Williams, who decided to not prosecute Peckat on the charge. "We've got Colorado on one side and the Supreme Court on the other and I just don't want to fight that fight." On May 20, Glenwood police charged Peckat after he was found smoking pot in a room at Glenwood Springs' Homestead Inn. Peckat had left his prescription at home. He hadn't registered for a state identification card that would exempt him from prosecution. Also, police said, Colorado's Amendment 20, which legalized medical marijuana, had not yet gone into effect yet when they confronted him.But after looking at the details of the case, Williams said, she decided not to prosecute."He was obviously debilitated. He had a prescription from his doctor. He was in the process of getting his card from the state," she said. And, she noted, police found Peckat with his pot pipe, but no marijuana."I just didn't feel like that rose to the level of a violation," she said. On this case, looking at those circumstances, she said, dropping the case was "in the interest of justice." But Williams said she couldn't speculate about future cases. "This is the first case I've heard of coming up in municipal court," said Carolynne White, staff attorney for the Colorado Municipal League. "It's pretty rare."As similar cases appear, White said, it will likely be up to each municipality to figure out how to handle it."Each law enforcement agency and each city attorney and each judge is going to have to figure out how to deal with it," White said. "I see this primarily as a conflict between the state and the federal government."The next time it happens in Glenwood, Police Lt. Lou Vallario said, there will be another arrest. "It really does put us in the middle of it," he said. "Our department is going to take the line that it's illegal unless they can prove that it's legal."Basalt police are taking the same stance."We're treating it like an affirmative defense," said Basalt Chief of Police Keith Ikeda. Like pleading self-defense, he said, suspects may have a right to smoke it, but they'll have to prove it in court.Not so in Aspen."We're simply going to follow state law," said Aspen Chief of Police Joe Cortez. As long as the user has the state-issued card and just enough pot for personal use, he said, police will treat it as legal.In Carbondale, Police Sgt. Greg Knott said his department has yet to talk about what it would do.Bob Weiner, chief deputy district attorney for the 9th Judicial District, said his office finds itself in a similar bind as local law enforcement."Obviously under the supremacy clause (of the constitution), the federal government is supreme to that of the state," said Weiner, who knew of no medical marijuana cases seen by his office. "However, what that means in real terms when you've got an issue like this is yet to be determined. That's why we would have to look at it case by case."A half-burnt joint tucked James Dean-style behind his double-pierced ear, Peckat may never be a poster boy for medical marijuana. But if he is a rebel, he has a cause, and in Colorado, it's a legal one.He admits to being no stranger to pot. He started smoking it in junior high, he said, years before his condition was diagnosed. And he enjoys it.But, Peckat said, he had quit smoking marijuana before he learned that he could use it to help ease his pain. When he found out Colorado law may allow him to obtain pot legally for his condition, he talked with a doctor in Basalt who later issued him a prescription for the drug. Since getting that prescription in April, Peckat has been smoking it twice a day. "I back him 100 percent on this," said his stepmother Tonja Peckat, who said she can see an improvement in him since he began using marijuana to help with the pain. He's less hunched over, she said, and better able to cope with daily life."I look at it this way," she said. "To each his own. I'm not like an advocate for juveniles to use it, but if they say it helps them, and there's medical evidence proving that it does help people, then I'm all for it."Across Colorado, 32 people have been issued state medical marijuana ID cards, and four more are pending.But even if state law says it's legal to smoke it, obtaining marijuana is not so easy. Before his citation, Peckat said, he grew it himself -- three two-foot plants grown indoors with special lights. That's allowed by Colorado's Amendment 20. After his run-in with the law, Peckat said, he threw out those plants. Technically, he isn't quite legal anyway. Although he has the paperwork, he still has not paid the $140 registration fee to get the card that could exempt him from prosecution. Peckat, who runs a business installing home and car entertainment systems, said he is trying to raise funds to pay for the annual fee.Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar, who personally opposed the medical marijuana amendment, determined in May that the Supreme Court's ruling didn't invalidate the state law, but, he said, growing and possessing the drug is still against federal law.On that, state and federal authorities agree. "We will prosecute. Period," said Steven Karkos, group supervisor for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Denver, who said his agency issued a one-paragraph statement clarifying that the federal government's policy on marijuana had not changed."We're status quo," he said. "You do it. You grow it. You smoke it. You pay for it."(Begin ital) Chris Peckat can be reached at 753 Elder Ct., Rifle, CO 81650 (End ital) 
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Comment #2 posted by Kevin Hebert on March 06, 2001 at 10:54:07 PT:
You're right, Meagain
I don't know anyone, anywhere who wants to legalize drugs so that they can do them and then jump in their car. All we want is to take the black market away from drugs, so that they can be regulated and used responsibly by responsible people. If users choose to use drugs and then do irresponsible things, they should definitely be held accountable for their actions. However, putting people in jail for responsible use is wrong.
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Comment #1 posted by meagain on March 05, 2001 at 18:16:29 PT
Knot just knockin on wood
"There has to be responsible use," he said.  Yes this is all we ask for.
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