Board of Health Hearing Update
Nov. 3, 2009
The conference room was packed and the phone lines were jammed.
The Board of Health voted to delete their definition of "significant
responsibility" from their rules, leaving the definition of
"primary care-giver" decided last week by the Court of
Appeals the only definition, which says a caregiver must provide
a patient with other services in addition to medicine.
There will be a full public hearing on this issue on Dec. 16.
Medical Cannabis Ruling May Affect Colorado Caregivers
Read the Colo. Court of Appeals opinion here:
http://www.cobar.org/opinions/opinion.cfm?opinionid=7372&courtid=1
Medical Cannabis Ruling May Affect Colorado Caregivers
For immediate release: Oct. 29, 2009
Contact: Cannabis Therapy Institute
Phone: (641) 715-3900 ext. 70966
The Colorado Court of Appeals issued a ruling today (10/29) creating
the first case law on Colorado's Medical Marijuana Law (Article
XVIII, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution). The court ruled
that a medical marijuana caregiver must know their patients personally
and must provide them with other services in addition to the acquisition
of medical marijuana. However, the decision came in the appeal of
a defendant who was arrested *before* the Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment issued rules this summer clarifying
the patient/caregiver relationship. So the Court of Appeals opinion
may not have any immediate bearing on medical marijuana caregivers
currently operating in compliance with those rules and regulations,
but it may show the future direction the Court is likely to take
on this issue.
Read the Colo. Court of Appeals opinion here:
http://www.cobar.org/opinions/opinion.cfm?opinionid=7372&courtid=1
The opinion was issued on Oct. 29 in the case of Colorado v. Clendenin.
Stacy Clendenin was a caregiver in Boulder County who was convicted
in October 2006 of marijuana cultivation and was denied the right
to have patients testify at her trial if those patients did not
know Stacy personally while she was serving as their caregiver.
Her attorney, Rob Corry, argued in the appeal that there is no law
that requires the primary caregiver to have face-to-face contact
with the patient and that the trial court erred by making an arbitrary
decision to prevent patient witnesses from testifying. Corry argued
that the Colorado State Board of Health recently supported Corry's
interpretation of the law, in new rules that went into effect on
August 30, 2009, which state that "significant responsibility"
could mean simply providing a patient with medical marijuana.
http://www.colorado420.com/news/clendenin/
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/hs/medicalmarijuana/AdoptedRules0200900360.pdf
Rob Corry issued a statement to the Cannabis Therapy Institute
that said: "The Court of Appeals' opinion is narrow and by
its own terms only applies to defendants who went to trial before
August 30, 2009, the effective date of the Colorado Board of Health
Regulations providing that a person need only provide medicine to
satisfy the constitutional definition of caregiver. (See page 13-14
of Clendenin opinion.) There are encouraging sentiments in Judge
Loeb's concurrence, where he states there could be legislative clarification
to correct a possible lack of protection for everyone in the supply
chain. We will almost certainly appeal this opinion to the Colorado
Supreme Court and will be working with the legislature if it chooses
to follow Judge Loeb's guidance and protect all suppliers of medicine."
Jeff Gard, a Boulder attorney who specializes in medical marijuana
laws, had a more conservative view of the ruling. His statement
says:
"It is more critical than ever to view the medical marijuana
laws as conservatively as possible. Under the Clendenin case, the
Court of Appeals ruled that the primary care-giver affirmative defense
does not apply where the provision of marijuana is itself the substance
of the relationship. As I have told prospective caregivers who seek
my advice, caregiving means more than cultivating and/or providing
medical marijuana to your patient and any such activities must be
limited only to patients who have assigned you to be their caregiver.
Caregiving requires a personal relationship and providing medical
marijuana to your patient is only one small part of managing the
patient's well-being."
Officials with state's Medical Marijuana Registry program will
be meeting with their attorneys next week to discuss the legal impact
of the ruling. When asked how the ruling would affect the Registry's
rules, Mark Salley, spokesperson for the Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment told the CTI that, "The Department
will be evaluating the Court's ruling and the possible impact of
medical marijuana rules currently in place."
Laura Kriho, spokesperson for the Cannabis Therapy Institute, was
not surprised by the ruling. "We hope this has no immediate
negative effect on patients' safe access to their medicine, and
we are not in favor of any government regulation that will restrict
medical cannabis therapies or caregiving relationships," she
said. "However, we do feel that anything that encourages our
caregivers to take better care of their patients will only be good
for the patients. If caregivers strive to attain the spirit of this
decision, we can expect medical care for patients overall to improve,"
she said.
"If caregivers decide to use this decision as a model on how
to run their businesses or to set up patient service collectives,
patients and communities will thrive," says Timothy Tipton
of the Rocky Mountain Caregivers Cooperative. "This should
encourage other professionals that provide caregiving services and
alternative therapies to begin to include medical cannabis in their
practices. This will only serve to boost the industry to another
level of service for our patients."
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Cannabis Therapy Institute
P.O. Box 19084, Boulder, CO 80308
Phone: (641) 715-3900 ext. 70966
Web: http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com
Email: info@cannabistherapyinstitute.com
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