Security For All

Apparently there are some folks out there in the great state of Colorado confusing the roles of caregiver and dope dealer. Or would like to. Or would like us to. Attempts to the clarify the issue by the Colorado State Board of Health and Environment has succeeded only in making the distinction even more hazy. According to this article by Tom McGhee in the Denver Post there is a whole lotta confusion going on.

Last summer, the Board of Health defined a list of duties that could be considered “significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient,” for someone to qualify as a caregiver entitled to provide marijuana. But the language made it possible to qualify even if the only thing they did was provide marijuana to a patient.

The board removed the entire definition, intending to take up the issue on Dec. 16 at a public meeting.

Colorado Department of Public Health Executive Director Jim Martin said a Colorado Court of Appeals opinion released last week forced the board to take quick action.

“I don’t believe this leaves the board any leeway,” he said of the ruling made Thursday in the case of Stacy Clendenin.

In 2006, Clendenin was charged with cultivation of marijuana in her Longmont home, which is a felony.

Clendenin argued that the marijuana she grew was distributed to authorized medical-marijuana patients through dispensaries. The court found that Clendenin needed to know the patients.

By changing the rule, the state Board of Health has given itself time to consider whether to repeal the language permanently.

But it could force dispensaries and growers to offer other care as well, said attorney Warren Edson, who represents dispensaries and growers.

While many dispensaries offer other services to those buying their marijuana, it would be impossible for growers who supply the dispensaries to offer anything but the drug, said Edson.

The rule change exposes [marijuana] growing operations to criminal prosecution, he said.

“They told us in July, you don’t have to do anything but (provide) pot,” Edson said. “We have a whole industry that has grown up that is screwed.”

It isn’t the intention of the board to throw a kink in business plans of those selling medical marijuana, said health department spokesman Mark Salley. “I think it is the Court of Appeals decision that might have changed the game. All this board did was make sure it was not in contradiction with the court.”

Yep a whole new industry that popped up like weed [snicker] going up in smoke [guffaw]. Sorry, but this subject just begs the tokin’ puns. And far be it from me to take the high road.

Still you have to wonder about those unfortunate caregivers of the past, when the government was all about Reefer Madness and disinclined to tolerate them. Even to the point of incarcerating them. Will they finally be recognized as societal assets rather than parasites? Guess we’ll just have to wait for the smoke to clear. Or not.

Party on, dudes!