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SB-109 Moves Forward

The first attempt to un-lawfully reform Colorado's medical marijuana industry moved forward today out of committee and into the Senate after 200 people pack a large courtroom and 60 people, mainly patients, spent 2 hours sharing there life story.

The first bill, sponsored by Sen Romer is SB109, and it deals only with the doctors patient relationship. The 2nd proposed bull oops i meant bill, has no sponsor (now i understand that i'm rather new at all this and i missed most of civics class but how can a bill be introduced with no sponsor???) and has not yet been proposed, as of yet. It was cleverly drafted by the County Sheriffs of Colorado Association. This bill deals with a few really key things but most importantly, the number of patients that a caregiver is allowed to have. Right now there is no limit to the number of patients a caregiver can have, but the bill will limit that number to a 5 patient limit per caregiver, thus killing all dispensaries.

Today the Senate Health and Human Services Committee only took on the doctor patient relationship and didn't touch the dispensary portion of the bill.

For the record Mile High NORML DOES NOT SUPPORT SB-109 in its entirety.

Some serious items are need to be removed and or changed before it is something that patients and future patients will be comfortable with.

One of the new provision of the bill would have forced people under 21 to get the approval of two doctors before being allowed access to medical marijuana.Luckily this provision was later removed by the members of the senate committee.

Senate Bill 109 also would redefine the term "bona-fide physician-patient relationship" from Article XVIII, Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution (Colorado's Medical Marijuana Law).

The new definition requires the patient to receive a full physical exam by a physician in order to obtain a Medical Marijuana Registry Card. In addition, "follow-up care and treatment" by that same physician would be required every year.

This will dramatically increase the cost of of a Medical Marijuana Registry card to the medical marijuana patient. Patients who are for the most part on a fixed income.

SB109
- Raises the costs to patients by requiring extra exams and record keeping
- Raises the costs to patients by not allowing their previous medical history to be used to determine whether they would benefit from medical marijuana
- Restricts the rights of patients to use their doctor of there choosing
- Is discriminatory, because no other medicine in the state or nation is regulated so
harshly

The committee finally voted to approve the bill, 6-1

Sen. Romer pledged to work with patients to address some of the affordability issues that this bill would cause. He acknowledged that the bill isn't perfect, but said, to the displeasure of the crowd, that it is the "the beginning of the end of the wild west."