Denver Post's Greene: What is state smoking?

This article appeared in the local section of the paper today!

Denver Post

On good days, Jason Young walks with a cane or uses a wheelchair. On bad ones, he can't get out of bed.

"The pain overwhelms me without something to take care of it," says the 33-year-old multiple sclerosis patient from Denver.

At first, he treated his muscle spasms with prescribed Percocet, which made him drool. Then he switched to Vicodin, which made him dumb.

Finally, Young turned to a different treatment — daily fixes of high-grade marijuana. Now he's having more good days than bad.

"The law works," he says. "The state is trying to fix a policy that isn't broken."

Young is one of 7,630 Coloradans registered under a voter-approved law legalizing marijuana for people with medical problems. The state doesn't track the number of so-called caregivers designated to grow and dispense the "medicine."

(Turns out that terms like "dealer" and "pot" are frowned upon by health officials.)

The caregiving business has boomed since Barack Obama signaled that his administration won't prosecute medical users or suppliers who follow state laws. Some 30 dispensaries have opened in Colorado since he took office.

One of the busiest is Patients' Choice on South Broadway, offering 18 organic strains to take the edge off everything from broken bones to nausea. Its "A-Train" herb offers a peppy buzz that's light on the lungs. I'm told. And "Maui Wowie" promises sleep for insomniacs.

Young is partial to a prescribed blend of "Endless Sky" and "Island Sweet Skunk," and to orange-flavor hashish lollipops that ease pain smoke-free.

Co-owner Jim Bent claims his shop has 300 customers; he and partners opened it in February.

To keep business budding, he and fellow caregivers are rallying against a proposed policy to limit their clientele to only five patients per provider. The reforms also would redefine "caregiver" to mean someone who also cooks, cleans or gives rides to sick users.

The first attempt to curb legal dealing went up in smoke.

That was after the Board of Health passed the five-patient cap in 2004. Legalization advocates persuaded a judge to overturn the policy because the meeting was held in secret.

The board has scheduled a hearing on its proposed rule changes for July 20. It has taken the unusual step of renting a bigger room to accommodate members of the public, 350 of whom already have commented by e-mail.

Oddly, the same officials pushing the reforms refuse to discuss the rationale behind them.

"We just don't get out and beat a drum and make a case of what the department's position is going to be," says health spokesman Mark Salley in a statement that sounds pretty paranoid to me.

Meantime, critics are fuming, arguing the changes stray from what voters passed in 2000.

"They would block safe access, limit choices and rip patients from their caregivers," says Brian Vicente of Sensible Colorado, a nonprofit pushing for legalization.

Advocates also argue the proposals would steer sick people to black-market cannabis that could be moldy, laced with chemicals and expensive. Caregivers take umbrage at the suggestion that cultivating marijuana isn't caring enough. They gripe that the redefinition diminishes their talents.

"I grow medicine, top-notch, with unparalleled professionalism," says Todd Young, a self-described "urban shamanist" from Boulder.

"No one would ever think of making a neighborhood Walgreens pharmacist prepare food and wipe up after patients."

Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.