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For immediate release: Aug. 31, 2010
Dept. of Revenue Reveals Draft Rules for MMJ Industry
Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project Formed
Click here for VIDEO and PHOTOS:
{Denver} -- The Colorado Department of Revenue released 92 pages of draft
rules for the medical marijuana industry last week. The DOR will use these
draft rules as a basis to form permanent rules for the medical marijuana
industry.
Click here to read the draft rules (PDF file):
The draft rules were revealed on Friday, August 27, 2010 at the first
"workgroup" meeting of 25 people who will "give guidance" to the Department
of Revenue on their rulemaking process. This was the same workgroup meeting
that the DOR tried to hold in private, until CTI pressured the DOR to obey
the Open Meetings Act (Sunshine Law) and open the meeting to the public.
About 70 members of the public attended the meeting.
*Web Tracking System Announced*
At the meeting, the Dept. of Revenue revealed plans for a new web-based
"seed to sale" tracking system that they have been developing through
weekly meetings with several state agencies and outside consultants.
Medical cannabis activists are concerned that this tracking system will
violate patient confidentiality guaranteed in the Constitution.
Click here to watch a video of Matt Cook, head of the new Medical Marijuana
Enforcement Division of the Department of Revenue, describing the system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIHwxj_sD1s
*Surveillance and Recording Requirements*
The rules include 10 pages of new requirements for state-of-the-art video
surveillance and recording systems to be installed in every location that
sells, grows or processes medical marijuana. The draft rules require video
cameras to record every transaction and processing step from seed to sale,
inside and outside. They would require the Medical Marijuana Centers to
link their Point-Of-Sale system with their video surveillance system to
present a text overlay of every transaction on the video recording. The
draft rules require patients to place their Registry ID card and drivers
license in a 12 x 12 space on the counter under the security camera so it
could record their ID with every medical marijuana transaction. The
Department of Revenue wants to be able to access these surveillance cameras
through the Internet at any time. Medical cannabis activists are concerned
that these surveillance requirements will also violate patient privacy
rights.
*Constitutional Issues*
Caregivers operated medical marijuana businesses legally in Colorado for 10
years, until HB1284 was enacted this summer. The stated intention of HB1284
was to put 80% of dispensaries out of business. The Department of Revenue
was given the authority to regulate medical marijuana by HB1284, and they
have begun writing the hundreds of pages of regulations, which are forcing
these formerly legal business owners out of business.
There are good legal arguments that HB1284 is unconstitutional. Prior to
HB1284, medical marijuana businesses operated legally in Colorado for 10
years as care-givers under the protection of the Article XVIII, Section 14
of the Colorado Constitution (Colorado's Medical Marijuana Amendment).
HB1284 created a new entity called the "Medical Marijuana Center", which
has no constitutional protection. In fact, HB1284 requires MMC applicants
to give up their constitutional right to be a care-giver. In exchange for
these constitutional rights, the state has created the "statutory
privilege" of applying to become a "Medical Marijuana Center". Statutes and
regulations can be changed at whim by politicians or bureaucrats, offering
little protection. However, a constitutional right gives greater protection
than statutes, and can only be changed by a vote of the people.
In normal circumstances, no one would dream of giving up their
constitutional rights in exchange for a "statutory privilege". However,
many caregivers and dispensary owners felt they had no choice but to try to
comply with the new "statutory privilege" laws, as they had invested their
entire life savings into their businesses. Caregivers reluctantly gave up
their constitutional right to provide medicine for their patients, and now
they are faced with volumes of new regulations and thousands of dollars
more in costs to bring their "centers" into compliance.
*Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project*
The solution is to overturn HB1284 as unconstitutional. The Cannabis
Therapy Institute is helping publicize the Patient and Caregiver Rights
Litigation Project. The PCRLP has several attorneys working from different
legal angles to clarify and restore Colorado's Constitutional right to be a
caregiver.
The PCRLP needs the help of the entire industry to make this project
successful. On Aug. 1, the medical marijuana industry in Colorado gave the
state $10 million in application fees so the state could regulate them out
of existence. If dispensary owners gave only 10% of that amount to the
Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project, they could overturn all of
these unconstitutional laws and put businesses back on the same track they
were before HB1284.
If patients have to swipe a card and get into a government database every
time they buy medicine, no patient will want to be part of the program.
*Get Involved*
If you would like to fight for your Constitutional rights, please send an
email to the Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project:
[email protected].
Please describe your particular case and how you would like to be involved
in this project. They are currently seeking plaintiffs and funders.
For 10 years prior to HB1284, caregivers in Colorado were allowed to
provide medical marijuana to their patients in a safe, compassionate way.
It is time for the industry to fight back against these un-Constitutional
laws and take the industry back from government regulators, who only seek
ways to put dispensaries out of business and open patients to unprecedented
levels of scrutiny.
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