by Jennifer Dempsey
When Salida resident Harold Coffman was diagnosed with bladder cancer last year he began taking a cocktail of prescription drugs that included pain-relieving narcotics, antibiotics and laxatives to ease his pain.
On the recommendation of a friend, Coffman tried marijuana as an alternative pain reliever. The relief was almost instantaneous and he immediately went to his doctor in Salida to apply for a medical marijuana user’s license.
“When I told my doctor what prescription drugs I was taking and then told him I tried the marijuana he said, ‘Yes, that’s the best thing you could take, yes indeedy,’” said the 57-year old woodworker. “Pills constipate you and you’ll get addicted to them. Drugs have too many side affects, marijuana doesn’t. I’d rather smoke a little and be more comfortable.”
Coffman’s doctor (who asked to remain anonymous because, “I don’t want to be the go-to guy for people who want to smoke dope and not get caught”) said he was more than willing to sign Coffman’s application for the license.
“We already have Marinol, a THC derivative for nausea,” he said. “My impression is that for people with a terminal illness it helps them relax and check out. If a person has a terminal illness, let them do what they want to do.”
Medical marijuana, he said, is “The segue for legalization and I’m fine with that. If it were legal and regulated, like alcohol, we’d have a lot less lawlessness.”
This mindset is becoming the norm among many doctors, nurses, patients and even some political leaders in Colorado. But the medical marijuana issue remains muddled in confusion with inconsistent county, state, and federal laws and an unregulated marijuana dispensary market.
Even though his Salida doctor has signed the application for his medical marijuana license, Coffman is still waiting for a signature from his doctor in Denver.
“A lot of these doctors are being investigated so they don’t want to hand out licenses too soon,” Coffman explained. “They don’t want to jump the gun. In a way I see their point, but for people like me it’s like ‘hurry up already.’”
So while he waits for his medical marijuana license to come through, Coffman, like thousands of other cancer patients, will continue to get his marijuana the old-fashioned way: illegally.
What is legal?
In November 2000, Colorado voters passed Amendment 20 to the state’s constitution, which legalized the use of medical marijuana. To qualify, patients are required to obtain a recommendation from a doctor for using marijuana to alleviate debilitating conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, severe pain, nausea, and seizures. A patient issued a Medical Marijuana Registry identification card is allowed to possess no more than two ounces of marijuana and have no more than six marijuana plants.
While patients in Colorado have been able to use medical marijuana legally for almost a decade, it has been less than a year that dispensaries in Colorado could supply it legally. It wasn’t until the Obama Administration recently said that when it comes to medical marijuana, state laws override federal laws.
Clinics in Colorado
No one knows exactly how many dispensaries operate in Colorado because many are not licensed or tracked by the state, but estimates hover around 100 serving about 50,000 registered medical marijuana users statewide.
“Without question, there are more medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado than in any state other than California,” said Keith Stroup, founder of the national marijuana lobbying group NORML.
Dispensaries have appeared in counties and cities all over Colorado, including Aspen, Basalt, Carbondale, Boulder, Longmont, Denver, Crestone, and the biggest one is in Colorado Springs.
Matt Price, an employee from Nature’s Medicine dispensary in Durango, said the sudden emergence of dispensaries around the state is due to the President’s new policy on medical marijuana.
“It’s all happening because the Obama administration said federal laws have to follow state laws when it comes to medical marijuana and in Colorado it’s legal to possess medical marijuana as a registered patient,” he explained.
Nature’s Medicine has three other clinics in Gunnison, Loveland, and Grand Junction. They pay sales tax in two counties, and Price said they have had no problems with the law.
“We will not do business with anyone (who is) not legal,” he said. “We only deal with in-state legal growers. As long as you operate within the parameters of any business and as long as you follow state guidelines there won’t be a problem. The DEA has backed way off.”
Price said they haven’t experienced any negativity from the general population either.
“We’ve been more welcomed than discouraged,” he said. “Patients tell us they love the fact they can come into a store and get their medicine safely. Technically, you don’t have to go to a dispensary to buy pot. You can get it anywhere, but it’s a lot easier and safer to go to a dispensary. And it’s a more professional environment, you know exactly what you are getting. A 65-year old woman with cancer doesn’t want to go buy pot from someone off the street.”
Regulations and Moratoriums
However, lack of regulations and guidelines for dispensaries has led several counties to declare a moratorium on the clinics. A recent Gunnison Times article stated that the “Gunnison City Council passed on second reading a six-month moratorium banning the establishment and/or operations of medical marijuana dispensaries.”
“We welcome the moratorium,” Price said. “There does need to be regulations, zoning laws, standards. It makes the city more comfortable. A lot of people are uneducated about what’s going on. (The moratorium) will give us all time to sit down and discuss how things should be run.”
To marijuana grower David Smith (not his real name), the most important aspect of creating a legitimate medical marijuana industry is to regulate the supply.
“One of the questions that needs to be addressed is how clinics get their supply,” he said. “At the moment there is no regulation for where the marijuana comes from. It’s the same as saying ‘Sure you can make and sell gin even if you made it in your bathtub.’”
A typical clinic, he explained, offers between tento 40 different strains for addressing specific symptoms of different ailments.
“Growing marijuana is a science and needs to be done by experts who can supply a variety of strains in a variety of strengths for a variety of illnesses,” he said. “There need to be state-sanctioned growers for clinics that are taxed and regulated. That is going to legitimize the entire process. Regulating the supply will help the growers, the dispensaries, and ultimately the patients, because it will control costs and quality of the product. If you create a legitimate business prospect for growers then you squelch the underground black market element.”
Caregivers
Currently there is no marijuana dispensary in Chaffee County, but there are several licensed suppliers, known as “caregivers.”
Howard resident Connie Miller has been receiving medical marijuana from a caregiver for 25 years for glaucoma.
As former president of the Rocky Mountain Hemp Association in Denver, Miller has seen many changes in the medical marijuana movement, both good and bad. Good changes, she said, include law enforcers leaving patients and licensed caregivers alone. Bad changes include some dispensaries and caregivers charging exorbitant prices. Miller, who gets her medicine free from her caregiver, thinks dispensaries should operate on a sliding scale according to a patient’s ability to pay. Miller said her caregiver is considering opening a dispensary in Chaffee County.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “I can go out and buy just as good a smoke on the street cheaper, a lot cheaper. We thought buying from a dispensary would be less than street price, not more than street price, but it seems to have gone the other way. It’s not fair for patients. The pricing in dispensaries needs to be regulated.”
She said there also need to be more regulations for doctors who give out licenses.
“People are getting licenses for real stupid reasons,” she said. “Oh, I’ve got a hangnail … It’s frustrating when you realize that after all your work people are taking advantage of the situation.”
Who knows?
Like many people not directly involved in the medical marijuana movement, Chaffee County Commissioner Frank Holman admitted he doesn’t “know anything about it. But if (dispensaries) are regulated, I don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “It helps relieve pain and the side effects are much less than wtih prescription drugs. I just don’t see the big deal. I’m okay with it.”
Then he added with a laugh, “I’ll probably get the axe for this.”
Salida City Council Member Jay Moore said “Our society’s attitude towards this plant is very ambivalent. We here in Salida haven’t been faced with trying to understand (this issue) it in all its complexities like other counties. I do know our City Planner has already taken a peek of what the rules and regulations are in Chaffee County. I believe she was aware that someone was thinking about opening a dispensary. As far as I know we don’t have anything on our books saying it can’t be done.”
A retired geriatrician, Moore said he understands why some doctors are wary of signing applications for user’s license.
“If I knew I was going to be investigated by the DEA for prescribing narcotics, I would be very cautious, too,” he said. “And as a physician I would be very ambivalent about giving out licenses because you don’t know what people are actually getting.”
But one thing he does believe in is the compassionate use of medical marijuana for terminally ill patients.
“We should not be withholding something that will make somebody’s last days of life more comfortable because we have an opinion about the drug,” he said. “Thinking that if we let elderly, terminally ill patients use marijuana that means that some 15 year old will get hooked on it. This is a very melodramatic plant in our society. It’ll be fun to see how our society hacks its way through this door.”
Salida Mayor Chuck Rose also admitted he “was not fluent in this matter,” but said he would not oppose a regulated dispensary in the area.
“As a former paramedic, I have seen enough cancer patients for whom marijuana was the only thing that worked as an antiemetic (a drug that is effective against vomiting and nausea),” Rose said. “As far as I am concerned, whatever a cancer patient needs for pain relief he/she should get it. By keeping marijuana illegal, we’ve created an industry that cannot be taxed and we’ve created criminals out of people who aren’t.”
Jennifer Dempsey is a freelance writer and director of the Salida Circus. www.salidacircus.com
