Recently, I took a trip out west. From Colorado to California, the bridge between medical cannabis industry, advocacy, and patients connected. Although the purpose of the trip was to learn about the leading laboratory testing methods, standards, and technology – I found myself booking appointments with various advocates and professionals in the San Fransisco area a week before I left. My experience with California’s industry was both enlightening and enjoyable.

Although both States are considered to be among the most established medical cannabis markets in the Nation, some key differences distinguish the two. Both States have had medical cannabis programs in place for over a decade with Colorado establishing Amendment 20 in 2000 and California having Proposition 215 on the books for over 15 years.

Beyond the basic legal structure protecting patients and caregivers, both Cali and Colo have also passed revision bills to further clarify their medical cannabis programs and provide safe access for patients. Both states also have a high number of medical marijuana dispensaries operating in free, albeit different, markets.

Most Americans can remember the patient rights battles of the late 90′s and early 00′s. Chants like “DEA Go Away!” from thousands of sick patients across California showed the Nation the dirty side of a senseless war on drugs and brought to light the Government’s clear waste of resources prosecuting patients like criminals. In 2009, the Obama administration followed the President’s campaign promise and the “Ogden Memo” promised States and patients that the Federal government would not waste tax payer resources in prosecuting medical cannabis operations in compliance with State programs and laws. In Colorado, this Memo caused nearly 700 businesses to enter the market and the State legislature to take a new approach to medical cannabis distribution. Colorado became the first State to establish a State-wide medical marijuana business licensing model.

In Colorado, the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division (MMED) regulates business owners by requiring clean background checks, extensive and transparent documentation, as well as full tracking and surveillance of every gram of product cultivated and distributed by medical marijuana licensees.

Compare this model to California’s, and one sees a very distinctive difference.

In California, the State leaves medical marijuana laws like zoning and licensing up to each individual municipality and/or county. This ends up creating a myriad of unclear laws that have officials torn between outright enforcement and creating workable regulations. “Wild West” is the term used to describe the volatile, risky, and dynamic California medical marijuana industry. In large part, the social acceptance of liberalized cannabis has prevented restrictive laws and regulations from being set.  US District Attorneys in California have continually pressured the industry and its business owners promising recent crackdowns on businesses usurping State laws.

Part of the problem comes from the scrutiny faced by medical marijuana physicians in California who dole out recommendations to patients who never register for a medical marijuana license with the State. To visit a dispensary, California patients need only a recommendation from a doctor to establish an affirmative defense. Since Gov. Schwarzenegger lessened the criminal penalties on all marijuana users shortly after Proposition 19 failed, the fine for illegal cannabis use in California is $100. The cost to visit a doctor is about $50. Once patients add in the cost to register with the State and County, the price to get one’s medical marijuana license becomes more than the fine to use cannabis illegally. Instead of an incentive for people to complete the patient registration process, patients do the bare minimum to see a doctor in order to obtain marijuana. Only a small fraction of medical marijuana patients in California register for a license with the State. In Colorado, medical marijuana centers cannot serve patients that only have a physician’s recommendation. State issued licenses (Red Cards) are required to be verified before patients can access a medical marijuana center in Colorado.

In speaking with a medical marijuana attorney in San Rafael, I learned that the Co-op Model reigns supreme in California; meaning patients form cooperatives wherein they grow and supply medical marijuana to each other. The medical marijuana is then distributed through the members’ co-op dispensary. By belonging to the co-op, or dispensary, patients can purchase medication and also provide product, “at cost”, to the dispensary. The problem, according to the California lawyer, is that each patient/provider can belong to multiple cooperatives. Some growers, for example, belong to hundreds of co-ops. This model creates a dual supply model for dispensaries selling to patients. In one model, growers compete over prices among a plethora of potential buyers (LA is estimated to have nearly a thousand medical marijuana dispensaries). In the other model, dispensary owners also own the cultivation assets used to supply the co-op dispensary. Co-ops are required to be operated as non-profit entities according to California law. Except for a few places like Oakland, these dispensaries are rarely licensed or regulated by city authorities.

In Colorado, owners are required to have full vertical integration. This means each licensee owns 100% of their business, from cultivation to distribution assets and operations. The law requires that 70% of what is produced at the licensed grow facility be sold to retail patients at the licensed dispensary; called a Medical Marijuana Center in Colorado. This requirement facilitates the tracking of product and helps ensure, along with camera requirements, that marijuana isn’t sold outside of the licensed model. California lacks laws that can track marijuana cultivation and distribution and dispensaries are not required to record their operations on film. California also lacks any background checks or applications from owners nor transparency in business operations which puts their industry in a murky light and makes law enforcement difficult and costly. Investigatory measures like applications and background checks help facilitate the role of law enforcement. Making the identification of criminal elements in the Colorado industry much easier. Since enforcement of MMED rules and regulations began July 1st, Colorado has begun to weed out the bad apples.

Even though States like Colorado can show the Feds that they have their industry under control, there is still a cohesive effort on the part of Obama’s administration to undermine the progressive efforts of this industry. From IRS tax code complications to the federal pressure on banks to close medical marijuana business accounts, Obama is waging a senseless war on a prosperous sector of American industry in the name of continued medical marijuana prohibition. This recent policy shift flies in the face of his administration’s promise not to waste resources on participants who are in compliance with State laws. Given the unrest that has formed tea parties and occupation movements across the country, its a bewildering wonder how U.S. District Attorneys can target job creating industries and the safe access they provide for patients. It is even more mind-blowing that patients are being targeted like they were in California a decade ago, with the ATF denying 2nd Amendment rights for the defenseless, but getting caught red handed selling thousands of guns to violent cartels. Cartels who kill as a competitive practice, who license themselves over any government, and who derive 60% of their revenue from illegal marijuana sales in the U.S.

In one year, Colorado has emerged as an industry leader with the most State protection and regulation on the books. Although California still dominates the market in terms of the number of participants and economic power, it lacks the protection that comes with State legitimization through licensing and regulation.  Indeed, many other States are adopting the Colorado model as they move forward with medical cannabis reintroduction and industry legitimization.

Many of the advocates I spoke to in Oakland also agreed with this sentiment and have worked to establish licensing with the City to legitimize their coffee shops and dispensaries. As of my trip, there were 4 allowed in the City and Oakland was considering the allowance of 4 more businesses. Over 250 applied for the licenses; resounding a similar story of the economy-derived licensing demand in Washington D.C. when they began their industry model this year. With State and National politicians now seeing the rising economic power that comes with taking cannabis distribution out of the hands of the cartels and into the businesses of the American people, California and Colorado have become prime examples of how medical marijuana business can be operated in the U.S.

Different in their laws, models, and programs; but the same in ending violence along our borders and in revitalizing the economy.

Tags: California medical marijuana, colorado medical marijuana, Colorado MMJ, Colorado MMJ Industry, iComply, marijuana prohibtion, Medical Cannabis Industry, Medical Marijuana, medical marijuana laws, mmj california, patient rights, Politics and Medical Cannabis

As I think about the world, I know it’s finitely placed. We orbit around our daily sun, never often thinking about more than what is in front of us. The day’s events take a mental priority for reasons we all narrate as stories of our lives. Each of us makes our decisions and we walk paths toward ends that warrant expenditures of our time.  I see the nature of our species and how our history teaches us lessons to clarify definitions of ourselves. “Humanity” means many things to different people.

Change in our world comes with new technology, ideas, and movements we collectively create. In working with the CSMCC, I’ve seen firsthand the new change taking place on the frontlines of America’s war on drugs. As in California, Colorado’s cannabis patients make easy targets by being open about their medical marijuana use. They also make convenient human shields for 80 million recreational users who cannot defend their drug of choice because the plant is illegal.

People are finally coming around from being blindsided by lies about cannabis over the last eighty years. It’s as if we are finally waking from a stupor of our own disbelief. It’s not all our fault; ignorant elected officials started the war in the first place.

Just a year ago, patients and supporters of medical cannabis rejoiced. President Obama issued a memo directive asking federal prosecutors not to harass medical cannabis patients, caregivers, and businesses in compliance with State laws. As medical cannabis is a constitutional right in Colorado, this directive allowed the start of the fastest growing industry in Colorado today.

This has lead to millions of dollars worth of commerce, hundreds of new businesses, thousands of patients, and positive market potential. All during the Great Recession. Now Obama has delivered the change he promised in his campaign. He’s changed his mind on medical cannabis.

When cannabis prohibition began in 1937, the American Medical Association was the only dissenting voice to testify. Dr. Woodward was the head of the AMA at the time and offered stout protest in defense of medical cannabis. His testimony is powerful truth.

He cites hundreds of years worth of known medical knowledge about the cannabis plant and the lack of evidence of social disorder. Today, the AMA once again supports the medical benefit of cannabis for potentially hundreds of ailments, diseases, and health conditions. Most politicians will say they agree with the AMA’s stance.

With the plethora of problems Alcohol causes, it’s a wonder we hold a double standard when both “prescription medication” and drinking are socially acceptable forms of drug use. Vicodin is the number one LEGAL drug in the United States according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Yet Obama seems to think that arresting 800,000 people a year for cannabis possession is necessary. His Drug Czar, Kevin Sabet recently said, ““How can we imagine that a dangerous, illegal drug like marijuana should be voted on by the people? “

In a free democracy, how can we not?

We pay an average cost of $32,339 a year, per inmate to incarcerate people for recreational cannabis. That’s $24 billion a year by the way – not counting the billions spent trying to fight a plant from growing and coming across the violent border. All too often, federal mandatory minimum sentencing requires years of tax payers incurring these costs. With nationally skyrocketing debt, this is one MAJOR area of needless expense. It’s also a major opportunity for revenue and economic growth if regulated correctly.

Why can’t we pay teachers instead of covering the living expenses of non-violent cannabis criminals in overcrowded prisons?

Should marijuana possession, cultivation, and use be a FEDERAL crime at all? Maybe it’s time we seriously asked our government these questions.

At least Colorado understands the medical benefit for sick people to use this plant. Many other states will follow suit as people demand this service and right from government. 14 States so far… and counting. The truth of compassion speaks loudly.

We should ask leaders why they refuse to give medical cannabis patients justice in federal courts. HR3939 is sitting in Washington awaiting approval to give patients a federal defense when complying with state medical cannabis laws. That’s a fundamental issue of State’s rights and the right thing to do.

Still this bill sits as patients are prosecuted federally. Now Colorado government threatens to tag patients with radio identification chips and require biometric identification to access medical cannabis centers. Since when were sick patients equated to criminals and why are they treated as such?

Aren’t they only criminals because federal government deems using a plant a crime?

At least the founding fathers understood Genesis when God said, “I give unto thee ALL seed bearing plants.” George Washington told the colonists to take the Indian hemp seed and “sow it everywhere”. Ben Franklin owned a byproduct manufacturing plant and milled marijuana. The Declaration of Independence is written on hemp paper.

Ironically, these double standards have no basis of logic when prescription drug commercials advertise “heart attack and stroke” as possible “side effects” that “could lead to death”. Those are pretty powerful statements from Big Pharma about patented drugs that cost millions to develop. The cannabis plant cannot be patented to protect profits.

Prescription Drug advertising tells you the product is dangerous, yet we “ask our doctor” just like the commercial tells us to. Numerous articles and reports indicate the rising sales and use of prescription drugs. One could argue we’ve become hypochondriac as a society. If there is a natural alternative that could avoid nasty side effects like death, why wouldn’t we encourage people to seek relief in a safer substitute?

These reasons are exactly why Obama’s new stance on medical cannabis should be outraging voters, states, and patients tired of government intruding on the health and liberty of people who choose to use a safer alternative that helps them.

Tags: California medical marijuana, colorado medical marijuana, Colorado MMJ, Colorado MMJ Industry, iComply, marijuana prohibtion, Medical Cannabis Industry, Medical Marijuana, medical marijuana laws, mmj california, patient rights, Politics and Medical Cannabis

Misinformation in the name of freedom has long since been a problem of the government and a struggle for the people. The promise of liberty has been offered in the name of progress countless times in American history. The rights promised to people are later limited, restricted, or taken away by political agendas, fear, and social pressures. More often than not, the people lack a united voice to successfully oppose their government. They become victims of oppression instead of epitomes of liberty. 

This is exactly what medical cannabis patients face with their rights in Colorado today. Because of the taboo nature of this medicine and its federal prohibition for the last seventy-three years, patients face social pressure despite being given the constitutional right to medical cannabis over ten years ago. Passed by their fellow voters, Amendment 20 is a Colorado constitutional right passed by the people out of compassion for their fellow citizen. Currently, Colorado remains the only state to guarantee this right in its constitution, for its people.

The medical benefit of the cannabis plant is apparent for those who know a patient finding relief in this alternative treatment. Medical Cannabis is recognized nationally by the American Medical Association for its benefits. Cannabis has been a treatment for hundreds of conditions, across a breadth of civilizations and cultures, for over five thousand years of human history. Every year, more and more states legalize cannabis for medicinal use, out of human compassion.

Every Coloradoan is guaranteed the right to choose a safer form of medicine if we should ever have a debilitating chronic condition affecting our lives. The basic human right to happiness and the pursuit thereof is symbolized in the better quality of life this plant brings to the patients who choose to use it.

Choice is the key issue when it comes to the battle for patient rights. Choice is synonymous with the Amendment right and the personal freedom to choose what’s best for one’s health. Patient demand has created a natural, free, “white-market” for medical cannabis. The State government recently passed House Bill 1284 to regulate this new and quickly growing industry.

HB 1284 regulates the existing market by requiring clean criminal background checks, extensive fees, and exasperating paperwork (over 6lbs) from medical cannabis centers and their owners. It establishes a regulatory administration of government, like the FDA, to ensure medicine quality, and to set standards for market participants. The regulations are typical of short-sighted government as HB 1284 allows a legislative loophole for “banning” medical center businesses by local governments.

As a result, many governments across the state have chosen the ban option including Grand Junction, Aurora, Pueblo, Superior, Vail, and Centennial. Aurora saw a 217% increase in neighborhood grow operations with 40% of their police resources now focused on identifying legitimate operations from illegitimate ones[1]. 

Salida recently overturned their ban recognizing the potential lawsuit involved in banning a guaranteed right “to dispense” medical cannabis. How can one dispense without a dispensary model? This is akin to saying we should vote to ban gun stores because they aren’t specifically covered in the 2nd Amendment.

This faulty logic is exactly the rhetoric being supported by misinformation and by various politicians mongering fear among citizens over private, medical use of cannabis.

The opposition misleads citizens and encourages votes for issues like “1-A” which proposes a ban of medical cannabis centers, without a grandfathering clause, in unincorporated El Paso county. Millions of dollars, thousands of patients, and every citizen is at risk by this measure. The misinformation of lawmakers has people blind to seeing that banning regulated centers does not get rid of medical cannabis from society.

In fact, the result is quite the opposite.

Banning centers causes Amendment 20 law to supersede House Bill 1284 regulation. The default “caregiver model” in the Amendment is an unregulated, untaxed, and unseen distribution of medical cannabis. Patients will be forced to use to anonymous caregivers that CANNOT BE CONTROLLED to exercise their liberty.

As seen in Aurora’s dilemma, a ban is an obvious mistake.

With issues like 1-A on the ballot, El Paso County government is allowing non-patients to decide how patients exercise a liberty already guaranteed to them. This is morally wrong as patients have economically decided they prefer to access their medicine from secure and regulated facilities. Who are we to deny them their right or the right of business to help them?

Everyone should ask their politicians this same question when they refuse to see how their actions impact people’s lives.

Because this is a right guaranteed to patients, all “1-A” will do is close secure businesses, abandon jobs, vacate commercial real estate, and force thousands of patients to find medicine from neighborhood caregivers (who are restricted by HB 1284 to a max of 5 patients and cannot be regulated).

“1-A” simply changes the distribution model for medical cannabis; from a little over one hundred centers to thousands of caregivers in our neighborhoods.

Citizens should know medical cannabis from a center is preferable to making patients drive into residential neighborhoods to buy medical marijuana. Vote No on 1-A to protect the rights of patients and business owners from even more government intervention.

Visit    http://www.citizensforsafercommunities.org/ for more information and to help protect your community from the law of unintended consequences.

[1] Colorado Springs Business Journal, Greenberg, Allen
://csbj.com/2010/07/30/let%E2%80%99s-ban-the-idea-of-medical-marijuana-bans/

Tags: California medical marijuana, colorado medical marijuana, Colorado MMJ, Colorado MMJ Industry, iComply, marijuana prohibtion, Medical Cannabis Industry, Medical Marijuana, medical marijuana laws, mmj california, patient rights, Politics and Medical Cannabis