Colorado Gov Signs New Law On Mmj Dispensaries.

[greenbuddha]

Colorado further defined it's laws regarding MMJ and how patients can receive it.

 

http://cannabisnews.com/news/25/thread25724.shtml

 

New Medical-Marijuana Regs Now Law in Colorado

 

Posted by CN Staff on June 07, 2010 at 10:33:02 PT

By John Ingold, Denver Post

Source: Denver Post

 

Colorado -- Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law today two bills regulating and legitimizing the state's medical-marijuana industry. "The companion measures I signed today strike a delicate balance between protecting public safety and respecting the will of the voters," Ritter said in a statement.

The bills — which impose complicated licensing requirements on medical-marijuana dispensaries and crack down on unscrupulous doctors indiscriminately handing out marijuana recommendations — were some of the most high-profile measures passed in the legislature this year.

 

But Ritter signed the bills, House Bill 1284 and Senate Bill 109, this morning without the usual public ceremony such attention-grabbing legislation usually commands. Instead, the bills were signed privately along with a slate of 28 various other bills before Ritter headed out on a bill-signing tour in southwestern Colorado.

 

Supporters of the bills say they will professionalize the medical-marijuana industry and make it harder for people to abuse the system. But several prominent medical-marijuana advocates say the rules go too far, will drive marijuana dispensaries out of business and will push patients back into the underground marketplace. A team of lawyers has already begun recruiting potential plaintiffs for lawsuits challenging the laws' constitutionality.

 

A number of law enforcement officials, meanwhile, say the rules don't go far enough. They argue that, by permitting marijuana dispensaries, the legislature overstepped its constitutional authority.

 

Of the pair, Senate Bill 109, which requires that patients have a "bona fide" relationship with the doctors who recommend marijuana for them, had the less bumpy ride through the legislature.

 

The new law will require doctors to have completed a full assessment of the patient's medical history, to talk with the patient about the medical condition that has caused them to seek marijuana and to be available for follow-up care. The law also prevents doctors from getting paid by dispensaries to write recommendations.

 

Supporters hope the measures will eliminate fast food-style medical-marijuana-recommendation operations that critics say have swelled the state's registry with illegitimate patients.

 

"Senate Bill 109 will help prevent fraud and abuse," Ritter said in his statement today.

 

House Bill 1284, which creates strict new regulations for medical-marijuana businesses, generated considerably more controversy. The law requires that dispensaries be licensed at both the state and local levels, and it allows local governments — or voters — to ban dispensaries and large-scale marijuana-growing operations in their communities.

 

Mod Copy & pasted

[rambozo420]

Thanks for sharing.I'm at a loss for words but I will stress this concerns me deeply. All over a simple plant

[bobandtorey]

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/11/medical_marijuana_nearly_2000_mmj_patient_recommendations_nixed_over_quiet_rule_change.php

 

Medical marijuana: Nearly 2,000 MMJ patient recommendations nixed over quiet rule change

 

Over the past week or so, medical marijuana patients across the state have learned that doctor recommendations for the card allowing them to use MMJ have been rejected. Why? A new health department policy that slid into place almost unnoticed -- one that's likely to disenfranchise and anger nearly 2,000 patients, as well as infuriating impacted doctors and clinics.

 

Why? A change in definition for doctors approved to write medical marijuana recommendations that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment began enforcing late last month. Department spokesman Mark Salley confirms that eighteen doctors specializing in MMJ are now forbidden to recommend cannabis. But instead of informing the affected physicians, the department has been telling patients who received the recommendations, some of which date back to the early months of 2010. They've then been filling in the doctors, often in extremely heated ways.

 

Some background: Amendment 20, the 2000 measure that legalized medical marijuana in Colorado, defines a physician allowed to recommend medical marijuana as "a doctor of medicine who maintains, in good standing, a license to practice medicine issued by the state of Colorado." But in recent years, Ned Calonge, Colorado's chief medical officer until earlier this month, has been concerned about doctors who specialize in writing MMJ recommendations without engaging in followup care with patients.

 

In a 2009 Westword interview, Calonge decried such doctors, saying, "You might walk in to a dispensary, and they give you a pre-completed form. You check off chronic pain. They might do a blood-pressure check, and then a physician looks at you, asks you a couple of questions, signs your form and your application is complete. And that's not appropriate medical care. That's substandard." He added that recommendations from just fifteen doctors statewide led to 73 percent of the state's almost 16,000 MMJ licenses at that writing.

 

State Senator Chris Romer believed many of these patients didn't really need medical marijuana -- and he set out to tighten restrictions on doctors specializing in MMJ as a result. That's why Senate Bill 109, which he sponsored, defines a doctor in good standing like so:

 

THE PHYSICIAN HOLDS A DOCTOR OF MEDICINE OR DOCTOR OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE DEGREE FROM AN ACCREDITED MEDICAL SCHOOL; THE PHYSICIAN HOLDS A VALID, UNRESTRICTED LICENSE TO PRACTICE MEDICINE IN COLORADO; AND THE PHYSICIAN HAS A VALID AND UNRESTRICTED UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES REGISTRATION.

 

The key word in the passage above is "unrestricted." Some doctors' licenses are tagged with conditions or stipulations often related to a specific area of practice. And it so happens that many of the most prolific recommenders of medical marijuana have such restrictions. Until Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed SB 109 in June, these doctors could recommend medical marijuana -- and for months afterward, they continued to do so. Little did most of them know that recommendations written afterward, and even ones written in the months before the measure became law, would be rejected.

 

Dr. Janet Dean, an OB/GYN based in Denver, found this out the hard way.

 

Mod Copied & Pasted

[greenbuddha]

Thanks for sharing.I'm at a loss for words but I will stress this concerns me deeply. All over a simple plant

 

Ram my man... were ya been.

 

Keepin' well I hope.

[mrmanalishi]

Thanks for posting this. It's amazing what these "lawgivers' slide through behind closed doors.

Luckily people are on to their antics and the fight is on!

[+420Atheist]

At least the bona fied relationship bill spells out what a bona fied relationship is and it does not seem too hard to meet. I think my current certification doctor all ready meets that. That is a good thing in my opinion because you can more clearly meet a standard when you know what that standard is. We either need this in MI or we need a court decision that defines it.

[Guest 1TokeOverLine]

A good step in the right direction IMHO. Compassion still lives.

 

1T

[herb green]

Thanks Green Buddha...and Good Morning!

[greenbuddha]

Thanks Green Buddha...and Good Morning!

 

Have a GREAT day, Herb!