The John Doe Radio Show

Here are some of the main points talked about and basically agreed upon by the Medical Marijuana Stakeholders in Colorado. Patients, Doctors, Dispensary Owners, and Growers got together at the Denver University Law Center on Saturday December 19th, 2009 to discuss a battle plan for the coming legislative session in Colorado.

The basic idea that was reiterated throughout the meeting was that legislators have no idea what is best for the Medical Marijuana community, and in no way is the Med MJ community going to allow the coming legislative session to do any harm to the Medical Marijuana program in Colorado. I again verified with Rob Corry, Colorado’s leading reform lawyer, he is confident any change the community is not confident with can and will be overturned in court because of the structure of our Constitutional Amendment 20.

It is important to have a voice in all of this if you are a Marijuana stakeholder. I encourage those who weren’t able to make this meeting contact Senator Chris Romer, and/or Denver Council-member Charlie Brown to voice your opinion. We as a Medical Marijuana community are trying to stand strong against the onslaught of continued misinformation. By holding meetings to help control misinformation and rally against it we are doing what is paramount to the cause we are trying to protect. Keeping food information flowing. The fracture of information from one group to another is also a concern in the Med MJ community. Everyone has an idea of how things should be run and we all think that’s the way is should be. Period. Unfortunately we all don’t live in our own little worlds and it is also integral to what we are trying to accomplish that we all stay on the same page. Meetings like this one pull the community together.

On State Level Regulation:

• Establish a Statewide, uniform application and licensing process for dispensaries and caregivers.
• Establish a DORA Board (Department of Regulatory Affairs) to serve as a licensing authority for clinics and growers. The board should be compromised of experts from the Medical Marijuana field including patients, caregivers, medical professionals, and others.
• Establish a uniform Sales Tax Statewide and regular retail tax at City/County level.
• Allow incorporated caregiver entities to be recognized as a caregiver, including protection for employees of these organizations.
• Define the difference between personal/small grower and commercial grower. Provide the caregivers with ID’s.
• Utilize a health and safety enforcement, food quality & labeling requirements for MMJ edibles.
• Allow local municipalities to regulate zoning issues, but not ban dispensaries.
• Establish a 24 hour call line for law enforcement personnel.
• Prohibit employers from firing an employee on the sole basis of off-work, off-site Medical marijuana use.
• Provide Colorado Universities the authority to research Medical Marijuana.

I hope this helps you all to understand the direction the stakeholders are trying to take with regulation in regards to Medical Marijuana. We are insuring that any regulation will have a positive effect on our system and solidify what we are are making already work in Colorado.

Visit www.SensibleColorado.org for more info or reach me at JohnDoe@johndoeradio.com.