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Marijuana battle brewing Medical pot advocates vow fight if state implements new rules Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer Friday, July 17, 2009
Andy Cookston, left, and Juan Diaz stand in their south Denver marijuana dispensary called Cannabis Medical. Denver Daily News photo by Peter Marcus.

Andy Cookston stands in his south Denver printing shop flanked by two like-minded herbal scientists.

On this particular day he is concerned about not being able to serve the needs of all of his patients. That’s right. Patients walk through the doors of Digital Impact Communications — they’re set on finding a cure for whatever ails them most.

Behind the scenes of this printing business is a place where Digital Impact Communications becomes Cannabis Medical, 762 Kalamath St. — a sanctuary in the city where Cookston and his colleagues, Juan Diaz and Randy Morrison, provide a healing service filled with ginger snaps and chocolate drops.

Oh, and everything’s filled with medical marijuana strains like Purple Avalanche, Sour Diesel and Blueberry. Patients can also just take the stuff home and stuff it in a pipe.

The health department on Monday will consider making things a bit more complicated for Cookston’s caregiving operation, which he operates with his wife, Lori. On Monday, the Board of Health will vote on a proposal that would limit caregivers to five patients, as well as require them to provide so-called “significant care,” like cooking, cleaning and scrubbing toilets.

A unified clan of opponents — running the gamut from HIV-AIDS patients to bodies fighting cancer — have all been shouting, “No.”

Lawsuits are already planned if the vote of the nine-member board doesn’t go their way.

In the meantime, Cookston is hoping his two-dozen or so patients aren’t hurt along the way.

“That means you’ll have another illegal market to deal with,” starts Cookston, still standing in the printing portion of his store. “If they limit growth, a guy like me is not going to let down 15 people in wheelchairs. I’m not going to do it.”

The health department says its “proposals are in keeping with Amendment 20, approved by Colorado voters in November 2000.”

On the specific topic of requiring caregivers to also provide “significant care” services, the health department says what they would be doing is, “Clarifying what is required to have ‘significant responsibility for managing the well-being of the patient.’”

Smoking mad

The whole issue has Brian Vicente, executive director of pro-medical marijuana group Sensible Colorado, smoking mad.

“Could you imagine if your doctor instructed you to use a medication, but when you went to pick it up your pharmacist said, ‘Sorry, I’ve already helped five people today?’” asked Vicente, who also serves as counsel to Cookston.

Dispensaries have shot up across Colorado since President Obama took office and eased federal crackdowns on medical marijuana growing and dispensing operations. It’s estimated that more than 40 dispensaries are operating legally across Colorado, according to Vicente. Of those, at least 10 are in Denver. Many more operate underground. And perhaps even worse, some of the more than 7,600 patients seek street dealers.

Concerns are being raised that if the health department imposes the new regulations, more patients would look to the street, or certainly to dispensaries forced to go underground. Cookston says that would be a tragic option compared to his studio, complete with leather couch, flat screen television and friendly service. The display case is filled with mason jars bursting with green, candies, cookies, teas, hash oils and coffee beans, to name a few. There’s vaporizers and papers; information pamphlets and instructions.

“The services we provide are outstanding to the point of 24-hour service any day of the week,” says Cookston.

He says without the health department requiring him to provide “significant” services, he already does. On deliveries, Cookston and his colleagues offer to pick up groceries or items from the store on the way over to their patients’ houses.

Another group called the Colorado Coalition for Patients and Caregivers is also rallying to the cause. A small group of them gathered yesterday at the Department of Public Health and Environment’s building on Cherry Creek Drive South. Later they gathered at the office of Republican Attorney General John Suthers. The purpose of their gatherings was to call for the resignation of James B. Martin, executive director of the health department, and Suthers. They also want to see the proposed rule changes withdrawn.

“The draft proposal to redefine caregivers as personal assistants and limit them to five patients would thwart the entire purpose of the amendment, driving patients back to the black market and preventing many from obtaining the medicine they need,” states Robert Chase, with Colorado Coalition for Patients and Caregivers.

The group — along with Sensible Colorado, caregivers, patients and their families, doctors, professors, Boulder Democratic Congressman Jared Polis, former State Rep. Gary Lindstrom, lawyers, disability rights groups and simple advocates — are opposing the push. They will gather at the Auraria Campus on Monday morning to voice their opposition. It is scheduled to be the health department’s largest public hearing in history, said Vicente. So much so that it was moved to the Auraria Campus to accommodate the expected turnout. 

The other side is expected to bring law enforcement and state officials to the public hearing to support the rule changes.

The Denver Daily News sought comment from Suthers’ office, but calls and an e-mail between the paper and his spokesman were missed.  The health department would not elaborate past its statement provided by Mark Salley, spokesman for the department.

Meanwhile, Vicente says if the health department votes in favor of the changes, it will “commit the state to spending a significant amount of money and expending scarce legal resources defending it against an inevitable lawsuit.” 

The state has already once had to argue in favor of the five-patient cap. In 2004, the Board of Health actually passed the rule change, but opponents sued and a judge overturned the policy because it violated open meetings law. 

Vicente points out that now is not the time for the state to be spending money fighting lawsuits.

“The Colorado Attorney General’s Office is already so overburdened that Gov. Ritter had to hire his former law firm to oversee state business — and at great expense to the taxpayers,” Vicente said of a recent Denver Post report that Ritter gave a no-bid contract with stimulus dollars to his former firm. “The board of health’s proposal is a classic example of a solution in search of a problem.” 

Board of Health public hearing on proposed changes to the Medical Marijuana Registry Program:

WHEN: Monday, 9 a.m.

WHERE: Tivoli Student Union, Conference Room 250, 900 Auraria Parkway, on the Auraria Campus

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