Cannabis Therapy Institute statement on Senator Romer's proposed bill - 11/15/2009 - part 1

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Caregiver Limits and "Pain Panels" Unconstitutional; Large-Scale Production Should Be Encouraged

The first details of state Sen. Chris Romer's (D-Denver) proposed medical marijuana bill were reported by Erica Meltzer in the Boulder Daily Camera on Nov. 15.

The bill would require medical cannabis caregivers to:
- Obtain a license from the state if they have two or more patients
- Develop health care plans for their patients
- Offer more services than selling marijuana to patients
- Pass criminal background checks
The bill would also:
- Require an additional medical review board to look at all applicants from patients who are under 25 years old.
- Create a licensing system for large-scale medical cannabis production
While we have not seen Sen. Romer's bill in writing, we are disturbed by his quoted intentions to put half of all medical cannabis caregivers in Colorado out of business. We need more caregiving facilities in Colorado to keep up with demand for this safe, effective medicine, not fewer.
Here are the Cannabis Therapy Institute's comments on the bill's provisions:
***No: Caregiver Limits
The Cannabis Therapy Institute believes that any limits on patients' safe access to their medicine are unconstitutional. The Constitution defines caregiver as a person "eighteen years of age or older" who has "significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient who has a debilitating medical condition." The Constitution puts no limits on the number of caregivers the patient can help, nor does it require them to register with the state or to develop health plans or to pass background checks. The complexity and difficulty of providing a patient with medical cannabis clearly constitutes significant responsibility in and of itself, as the state Board of Health agreed on July 20. A Court of Appeals decision that state a caregiver had to "do more" than provide medical marijuana erroneously relied on interpretations of California law that have no bearing on Colorado's constitutional amendment.  Any attempt to limit this definition will certainly get overturned in court, so it is a waste of taxpayer money to try to pursue such unconstitutional requirements.
***No: Pain Panels
The Cannabis Therapy Institute also opposes the creation of a medical review board that would be allowed to override the recommendation of a physician that a patient might benefit from the medical use of cannabis. The physician/patient relationship is sacrosanct, and the state has no right or authority to deny a patient's Constitutional right to use cannabis as medicine if their physician recommends it, regardless of the patient's age. The state should not come between a patient and his physician with the equivalent of a "Pain Panel" that gets to determine whether or not a qualified patient is in "true" pain. The idea that Sen. Romer wants the government to be able to override a physician's advice to his patient is ludicrous, discriminatory, and reeks of totalitarian rule.
***Yes: Large-Scale Production
We do agree with Sen. Romer that the state should license large-scale cultivation operations. Large-scale production would have several benefits. First, the price of cannabis would decrease. Criminal elements would then be less interested in it, and security would become less of an issue.
Large-scale production would also make available the larger quantities necessary to manufacture medicines from cannabis oils, like the Rick Simpson oil featured in the documentary "Run from the Cure".  When members of the CTI met with Sen. Romer on Oct. 26, he said that a lot of entities in state government are looking at medical marijuana revenue as their "cash cow". Instead of trying to over-regulate and tax caregiving businesses, we suggest that the Senator look one step higher up the supply chain. Everyone knows that the real money in this industry is for the growers. The state should enact a licensing scheme for the state to contract with farmers and growers to produce cannabis as a medicine crop on a larger scale. Our estimates show that a farmer could make at least $15 million per acre at current prices (5,000 plants per acre at 1 pound per plant at $3000/pound). Even if the influx of product on the market caused the price to drop in half, $7.5 million/acre is still quite lucrative. Money enough for everyone that wants it, and the criminals go broke because the price will plummet, making a criminal enterprise in cannabis unprofitable. The state shouldn't look at the small caregiving businesses as their "cash cow". Don't over-regulate them. Let them flourish because they create new jobs. Small businesses will be the basis for our economic recovery. Don't tax and zone them out of existence. Instead, become one of their suppliers and move one step up the supply chain to increase state revenue through licensing of large-scale production
In 1915, the USDA was encouraging farmers to grown cannabis as medicine:
In 2010, we need to make sure our farmers have a fair chance at competition in this growing Colorado industry.
*Senator's Proposed Bill Endangers Patients*
In our meetings with Senators Romer and Steadman, we discussed the urgent need for a Patient Bill of Rights to protect patients who are losing their jobs, families and housing due to their choice of medicine. We discussed the discrimination patients are facing in schools and their local governments. We also promoted the need for strengthening the immunity and affirmative defense protections to lessen patients' and caregivers' fears of arrest. We pointed out the need for police training on compassionate medical marijuana law enforcement. None of these patient-protection measures were mentioned by Sen. Romer.
If Senator Romer intends to destroy the access of Colorado patients to *half* of their caregivers, this will harm patients. We cannot support this law enforcement model to medicine.

Cannabis Therapy Institute statement on Senator Romer's proposed bill - 11/15/2009 -part 2