Romer Tucks Tail and Runs from most of MMJ Bill

[canaguy27]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-romer/colorado-medical-marijuan_b_417488.html

He is chickening out at letting the LEO bill go forth in the house while taking a simpler bill to the senate.

part of it:

Without a patient face like Janice Beecher or an effective lobbying and education campaign by the MMJ community, I see more and more obstacles to any editorial, bi-partisan or even limited partisan support for a set of common sense rules.

So my attempts to bring medical marijuana out of the shadows through a complex regulatory structure are now over. Significant portions of law enforcement and the MMJ community are at this point unwilling to find common ground. Both sides are stuck and focused on their narrow needs and wants after a 30-year battle on the war on drugs. Medical cases like Janice's compel us to come together and make truly common sense policy and regulations for a reasonable market for medical marijuana. We need to propose a model that will not only destigmatize medical marijuana by working to keep it out of the hands of those who would only seek to use it recreationally, but more importantly to create a fair and regulated market that is best for the patients who can benefit immensely from it.

So where do we go from here? In order to buy a few weeks for Janice and others to mobilize, we now will divide the legislation into two bills. The first bill, which I will sponsor in the Colorado Senate, will deal solely with the need for a meaningful doctor patient relationship to get a MMJ referral and the creation of a 24-hour per day registry for patients. This is the one part of the bill that most reasonable people can agree on.

The second bill dealing with dispensaries and growing operations will start in the House and most likely will be very similar to the Sheriff Association's proposed legislation, including a five patient cap per caregiver. I will continue to fight for clinics to serve patients like Janice, but I am getting increasingly skeptical that either side understands her needs.

What a shame. We really could have set the national model for medical marijuana including research and sophisticated evidence-based medicine, but the same old fight on both sides--and the failed status quo--appears to have prevailed.

I am sorry Janice. The black eye has happened. Some members of law enforcement seem to not believe or truly care about your pain or the pain and suffering of thousands of patients just like you, many of whom are afraid to speak out. It is the dispensaries versus law enforcement and neither seems to have the time or inclination to care.

Are there any more patients willing to go public? Are there any law enforcement officers in Colorado willing to admit that patients like Janice will be forced back into the black market? Time is running out and the legislative session begins next week.

Tomorrow night will be very interesting...

 

[pikes peak 69]

Can't find his e-mail. Anyone have it?
Thanks
pp69

 

[DrFrankenstrain]

This really is disappointing. I had hoped that romers bill would be the one to really open the doors to sensible regulations and legislation. I dont know if I agree with Romer's take on law enforcement's thinking on this. I just got visited by the North Metro Drug Task Force Agency just prior to x-mas. I was in the grey area with my plants and was 100+ plants over, but they left me and my grow alone they clipped some of my top buds took them in to be tested.. came back and apologized to me for the way things went and thanked me for being courageous enough to start a business in such a infant industry that is very grey all around. Then they thanked me for having my shit together and they ended up telling me that with all the investigations they have done that I was one of the very few that was actually trying to do this the right way even though I was over on my count but it is because of me trying so hard to do it the right way that I got to keep my grow so I can continue to help my patients. So with that said.. I am not to sure I agree with Romers statement because I do think that they are starting to care, but we cant expect them to care overnight. The police have their job to do no matter what and we cannot expect anything less from them. It is my job in my company to get rules and regulations changed by courts.. force the legislation into action. See you there tomorrow at the meeting if you are going to be there. sorry for the rant.

 

[Cat Jockey]

I had hoped that romers bill would be the one to really open the doors to sensible regulations and legislation.

I gotta ask ... why in the world would you invite and hope for governmental control, enforced at the end of a gun, over your life.

There is riff raff in every industry and new industries initially have a higher percentage of such. If the government gets involved, they only replace the riff raff.

We do not need regulations to sort out the riff raff. The market place will do that just fine and quite quickly if left alone.

I have no problems with cities regulating dispensaries, as they do bars, strip clubs, etc. and setting guidelines about how many and where they may open. That is consistent with our history. I have no problem with they already installed mechanisms getting a bit of a hnadle on the shady docs, but that is it.

Those two things I mentioned are already implementable. There does not need to be any new state wide laws.

Keep in mind too that one man's sensible is another man's fucking outrageous.

 

[ColoMediCann]

Can't find his e-mail. Anyone have it?
Thanks
pp69

[email protected]

[email protected]

 

[Cat Jockey]

I'll shut up after this post about it, but since I see Romer's e-mail being floated around ...

... don't waste your time. I have no doubt people like Sensible Colorado had good intentions when they met with Romer but the reality is that they took it upon themselves to negotiate the terms of surrender of the MMJ community.

Sensible Colorado did not just finish a process of working hand in hand with government officials for the betterment of the community. They admitted defeat and ngociated the terms of their surrender.

You are not going to have any impact upon Romer by e-mailing him. His mind is made up and more importantly, his political pride a career has been thrown out there so ge will not back down.

I hope everyone knows as well that they do not read their emails, their staffers do and then just fill out a checkmark in the pro or con column of that issue and let the elected official know of the general mood. So don't waste 3 hours of your day crafting some loquacious essay defining your case 'cause a staffer is going to spend 30 seconds reading it and then delete it.

E-mail the other Senators. E-mail every other single Senator but Romer.

 

[Cat Jockey]

Okay, I lied. I had an after thought after I logged out, but I have some gardening to do so I will shut the hell up about this after this post.

Not looking for any type of argument about it, but I guarantee you that most people on MJ sites are politically to the left of me. The point of that is my perspective on what I would do.

The Republican party is scrambling for Independent voters, swing voters and the party's identity. Go after them. Blitz Kreig every Republican with a friendly reminder that stalwarts of modern conservative thought like Milton Freidman and William F. Buckley Jr. were pro drug legalization.

The Republicans are very sensitive to the sentiment of big government and governmental intrusion into private matters. Romer is intruding in private matters with the men with guns standing behind him supporting him. If you are a progressive, communist, anarchist, etc., put that aside and start talking to those that can oppose Romer. The Republican party is ripe for coordinated propositioning from people like us right now.

Fuck Romer and forget about it. Forget about any Democrat that is in tow to Romer. That battle is already lost. Fight a new battle against Romer but this time recruit help from the other side.

The enemy of your enemy is your friend.

 

[canaguy27]

Where is the video from the stakeholders meeting at DU last month? Romer was promising to help us all. We need to edit that video, share it, and post his true colors.

 

[ColoMediCann]

Good points, Cat Jockey. Remind the Republicans of the party rhetoric they toss out and give them an opportunity to stand behind it.

 

[Cat Jockey]

One more point to bring up in e-mails:

10% national unemployment. Why do they want to take jobs away from us? Jobs that deal in the industry of production and distribution of a legal product - Medical MJ. Legal jobs and good people being forced upon the unemployment rolls in a country with double digit unemployment numbers.

Further, due to the fiscal irresponsibility of you and your fellow elected representatives, our state has a financial problem. Dispensaries pay taxes. The State needs that money to fix your screw ups - don't look a gift horse in the mouth,

Tell me Mr./Ms. Senator/Representative, why do you want to take a job I have created for myself away from me and turn me into a net tax receiver instead of a net tax payer?