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Colorado Medical Cannabis Policy Group Open Letter

Open Letter To:

Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett, Boulder County Commissioners, Boulder City Council, Erie City Council, Denver City Council, Lafayette City Council, Longmont City Council, Louisville City Council, Loveland City Council, Berthoud Town Clerk, Larimer County Sheriff's office, Durango City Council, and other interested parties.

To all interested parties:

The Cannabis Therapy Institute is dedicated to medicinal cannabis education, research and advocacy. Article XVIII, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution, Colorado's Medical Marijuana Amendment, allows a patient to possess cannabis for medicinal needs. If the patient cannot obtain the medicine for themselves, the Amendment allows them to have their primary caregiver obtain or grow it for them.

To better serve the needs of the many patients who are now using cannabis as medicine, caregivers have opened medicinal cannabis dispensaries. Unfortunately, Colorado's Medical Marijuana Amendment does not regulate caregivers in any way, leaving a large gray area in the law. For instance, matters related to proper tax collection, security, and dispensing standards are not defined.

In addition, federal law still does not contain an exemption for medical cannabis, creating further confusion about the law. However, the Obama Administration has promised not to enforce federal law in states that have medical cannabis laws, as long as the dispensaries are following their state and local laws.

For these reasons, it is important to clarify the rights and duties of caregivers, so that they may be compliant with state and local law, and thereby be (hopefully) tolerated by federal law enforcement.

The Cannabis Therapy Institute is forming the Medical Cannabis Policy Group composed of the top experts in Colorado on the legal, medical and societal aspects of medicinal cannabis. The Policy Group will develop model policies and best practices guidelines for medical cannabis caregivers, dispensaries and collectives that can be used to clarify the current law. These guidelines will value patient safety and privacy foremost, but also take into consideration the concerns of the local community and law enforcement. Our goal is to bring all interested parties together so we can develop a mutual understanding of what it takes to be compliant under the law for patients and caregivers.

We would like to invite you to join this discussion. Please send us an email with the contact information of the representative of your group who will be your liaison to the medical cannabis community. We look forward to opening a positive and productive dialogue so that we can move forward with our mutual goal of helping patients achieve safe access to medical cannabis within the guidelines of the Article XVIII, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution.

Sincerely,

Jason Lauve
Medical cannabis patient

Laura Kriho
Cannabis Therapy Institute

Hillary Hedgpeth
Colorado 420 Coalition

James Marks
THC Ministry - Boulder

Alexander Douglas
NORML@CU

Erin Marcove
Cannabis Medical Expert

Bob and Kim Cohen
Boulder patient advocates

Timothy Tipton
Rocky Mountain Caregivers Cooperative

Joseph Vigorito
Colorado Legal Eagles

Linda Smoke, Primary Caregiver
Dispensary Co-Owner, Tranquility Healing Center

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