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Action Alert: Protest Board of Health Proposed Rules Changes for Medicinal Cannabis Caregivers Compiled by: Colorado Citizens for Compassionate Cannabis March 2: Written Comments Deadline Feb 20: Pre-Public Hearing "Conference" and Silent Protest March 18: Public Hearing The Colorado Board of Health is proposing sweeping new rules to regulate medical cannabis that contradict the intent of Article 18, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution, Colorado's medical cannabis law that was approved by voters in 2000. These proposed rules only serve to make it more difficult for patients to get their medicine by forcing them back into the black market. The Board of Health should be compassionate and helpful towards these sick and dying people and not put more obstacles in their way. Currently, patients with a debilitating medical condition and approval of their physician may legally possess up to two ounces of cannabis and grow up to six plants. If they are unable to grow the medicine themselves, the Constitution allows them to appoint a primary caregiver to provide the medicine for them. The Constitution does not set limits on how many patients for whom a person can be the caregiver, nor does it set limits on the type of person that can be considered the patient's caregiver. The Board of Health's proposed new rules set limits on caregivers that are clearly unconstitutional. 1) The Board of Health wants to require caregivers to provide other services to the patient besides cannabis-related ones. The other services required would amount to those of a full-time nursing assistant and would have to include transportation, housekeeping, meal preparation, shopping and making medical care arrangements for the patient. Currently, a person can be a medicinal cannabis caregiver without providing other services. The Constitution only states that the caregiver must have "significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient", which would include providing them with medicine. It does not impose any other requirements on caregivers 2) The Health Department is proposing a 5-patient-per-caregiver limit on the number of patients for whom a caregiver could provide. Currently, a caregiver can provide for many patients. Most patients do not have the knowledge or are too sick to grow their own cannabis. It takes years of practice to learn how to grow an adequate supply of cannabis for one patient with only the 6 plants allowed by the Constitution. Cannabis cultivation experts have been enlisted to serve as caregivers and have not been limited on how many patients they are able to serve. As reported in Westword, therapeutic cannabis dispensaries have formed all over Colorado to provide for multiple patients. The dispensaries are able to produce medicines in quantities large enough to keep the cost to the patient at a minimum and to create edible forms of cannabis, such as cookies, brownies and other foods. Cooking with cannabis requires a much larger amount of the raw substance than smoking cannabis does. However, eating medicinal cannabis food is a far healthier way to ingest the medicine than inhaling its smoke is, especially for those with chronic conditions. In fact, having caregivers provide for multiple patients has been the only way that poorly-written Article 18, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution has worked at all. At the time, the out-of-state authors of Colorado's Medicinal Cannabis Law were widely criticized for not addressing the issue of cannabis dispensaries clearly enough and for not providing any legal way for patients to obtain medicinal cannabis outside of the black market. This left a gray area in the law that the Health Department has since tried to exploit in order to deny patients their Consitutionally-protected medicine. In the nine years since the law was approved by voters, the state of Colorado has been more concerned with putting roadblocks in the way of patients instead of trying to help implement the law. The possible upcoming change in federal policy concerning medicinal cannabis makes it the perfect time for Colorado to develop a plan to provide safe access to cannabis for patients. President Obama has made repeated campaign promises that he would stop the federal prosecution of cannabis patients and create a "green economy." . Recently, the White House reiterated their intention to change federal policy to allow states to regulate cannabis without federal intervention. In light of this new federal policy, it is time for Colorado to regulate medicinal cannabis statewide in a way that provides safe and inexpensive access to cannabis. The Colorado Board of Health should be issuing rules that encourage and regulate cannabis dispensaries, just like any other pharmaceutical manufacturer. Or alternatively, they could enlist the aid of the Colorado Department of Agriculture and the Ag School at CSU to create a regulated state-run cannabis dispensary program. We are urging Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to form the Colorado Therapeutic Cannabis Commission, as described in the Compassionate Therapeutic Cannabis Act, an initiatve that was proposed as an alternative to the flawed Article 18, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution. The Colorado Therapeutic Cannabis Commission would be a statewide panel of experts charged with the duty of ensuring patients can obtain an affordable and adequate supply of therapeutic cannabis. The key to successful implementation of Article 18, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution is to put the patient first and find a way to provide them with medicine in a safe and cost-effective manner without endangering them by forcing them to deal with the black market.