Medical Marijuana Morass

Medical marijuana – in the Colorado Constitution!  What a mess. 

The LCSO has had several high profile cases recently where we’ve investigated large scale marijuana grows.  We’ve come under quite a bit of criticism for enforcing the laws against drug dealing when it comes to marijuana.  The blog sites are ripping us.   The people who write that stuff appear to be morons – or stoned.  But I repeat myself.

Personally, I think legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes was a mistake.  The FDA has not approved smoking marijuana for any medical condition or disease.  On the contrary, they determined that there were no sound scientific studies that support the medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United Sates.  The American Medical Association has not endorsed the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.   Nor have the legitimate medical associations.  Many associations point out the potential harmful affects of smoking that outweigh any potential benefits.  The support for the use of marijuana as medicine comes from the 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).  That report stated there “may” be potential benefits for some patients.  The potential therapeutic value comes from the main chemical component in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannaninol (THC), but the report added that there were other more effective medications than smoked marijuana.  They advocated for a different delivery system for THC than smoking.  The FDA has approved a synthetic THC that has been proven to be safer and more effective than smoked marijuana.

Despite all this, the good citizens of Colorado approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes.  Regardless of my personal belief, I am charged to enforce the law as written and the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office will do so.  Here-in lies the problem.  This was enacted as an Amendment to the Colorado Constitution, not statute.   As such, it was written and promoted by proponents of legalizing marijuana.  It didn’t go through a full vetting process with the legislature that would identify flaws.  There was no opportunity for law enforcement to address some of the practical problems with this poorly constructed amendment.  Hence, we have to enforce a law that has more questions than answers, and it’s almost impossible to fix since it’s a Constitutional Amendment and not statute.

Let’s just assume that there is a legitimate use for marijuana as medication.  The amendment authorizes its use under certain conditions.  I have no issue with the patients who are using it under the specified conditions for the stated purpose.  We aren’t targeting those patients or their care-givers.  We are going after those profiteers who are hiding behind the amendment and abusing the good intentions of those who voted for it.

Patients with a “debilitating medical condition” are permitted to have “no more than two ounces of a usable form of marijuana” and “no more than six plants, with three or fewer being mature, flowering plants that are producing a usable form of marijuana.”  Two ounces!  Six plants!  Debilitating medical condition!

Patients must receive a registry identification card (permit) from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment after submitting copies of their medical records or written documentation from their physician stating they have a debilitating condition.  In some states with similar laws, the doctor-patient scams and abuses have been well documented.  One of my fellow sheriffs recently told me about a local ophthalmologist who issued the documentation for a patient with a bad back.  He must have had a really long optic nerve.  I’ve had unresolved back problems for years.  I guess I’ve made a mistake by going to an MD and a chiropractor.  I never thought of checking with my eye doctor.  

The electorate correctly acknowledged that some individuals suffering from a “debilitating medical condition” may not be able to care for themselves and tend to their plants.  To address this, the amendment authorizes a “primary care-giver” to do so for them.  A primary care-giver is defined as a person “who is eighteen years of age or older and has a significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient who has a debilitating medical condition.”  Any person who has a child, spouse or parent with a debilitating medical condition knows how difficult being a primary care-giver is.  It’s difficult.  It’s challenging.  It’s exhausting.  The Health Department rules allow a person to be designated as the primary care-giver for up to five patients.  Five!  Here’s where the wheel completely fell off the cart.  An activist metro area judge determined that the state couldn’t limit the number.  A primary care-giver could have an unlimited number of so-called patients.

Here’s where the drug dealers moved in.  What we’re encountering are persons with a card claiming to have a debilitating condition, also claiming to be the primary care-giver for a spouse who also has a debilitating condition.  Now we’ve gone from six plants to twelve.  The other spouse then makes the same claim.  Twelve plants to twenty four.  Then they will get copies of the cards held by other patients, and CLAIM to be the PRIMARY CARE-GIVER for HUNDREDS of other people with debilitating medical conditions.  Now I’m not a lawyer, but a drug dealer simply supplying someone with marijuana, even if it is for a legitimate medical purpose, hardly qualifies as a PRIMARY CARE-GIVER.  I don’t think my pharmacist at Walgreen’s meets the definition of a primary care-giver just because he sells me my medications.  Dope dealers don’t meet this definition either. The people I know who truly have debilitating medical conditions such as described in the law don’t have the energy and stamina to grow and cultivate hundreds or thousands of plants.  Many people who are scamming this claim they are debilitated to the point they can’t work, but they can run a pretty sophisticated greenhouse operation and drug distribution ring.

It gets worse from an enforcement point of view.  The primary care-givers don’t have to be designated by the patient and the state doesn’t maintain a registry of care-givers or issue them any sort of permit or license.  When we encounter a large grow operation, we are supposed to divine whether it is a legitimate operation run by a primary care-giver or an illegal marijuana distribution ring.  The state does maintain a database of patients holding registry cards, but it is not accessible to law enforcement officers to determine the validity of a claim due to HIPPA regulations.  We can ask for verification of a card Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, via a FAX, but not by phone.  They’ll get back to us in a few days.  The problem is that we don’t work Monday through Friday, 8 to 5; we have situations that need to be handled immediately, not in a few days; and the registry doesn’t address the primary care-giver, grower issue.  There’s no way for us to know.  

Further complicating things, another court ruled that the alleged patient didn’t have to be registered with the Health Department.  After being caught with illegal plants, they could raise the medical issue after the fact and then get registered.  Raise the issue AFTER the police have already taken their illegal crop.

Now for the biggest problem we face.  “Any property interest that is possessed, owned, or used in connection with the medical use of marijuana or acts incidental to such use, shall not be harmed, neglected, injured, or destroyed while in the possession of state or local law enforcement officials where such property has been seized in connection with the claimed medical use of marijuana.”  This means not only the equipment, but the live plants.  This is impossible for us to comply with, especially when the claim of medical use isn’t raised until after we’ve dismantled the operation and cut the plants.  How in the world are we supposed to fertilize, water and grow thousands of plants?  We don’t have the personnel, space, resources or time to operate a full-blown greenhouse (even if we used inmate labor, which would be ill advised.)  Then if the District Attorney decides not to prosecute or can’t due to some technical issue that has nothing to do with the medical use claim, we have to return the live plants, thus committing a federal crime.  Ouch!  Talk about a no win situation.  For Star Trek aficionados, this is our Kobayashi Maru scenario.

There’s one other thing that sticks in my craw - the obscene amount of money being made by these drug dealers.  Many of those who claim care-giver status are making millions of dollars and paying nothing in taxes.  Millions in profits!  No taxes!  Stop and think.  If these dealers were legitimate primary care-givers with a significant responsibility for the care of a loved one as anticipated by the amendment, they wouldn’t be trying to make a huge profit off of that person.  If I had a parent, spouse or child who truly needed help with this, I wouldn’t be charging them $400 an ounce for growing some plants anymore than I would charge them $50 a pound for bringing them hamburger.

It’s a scam.  The people who are clandestinely growing hundreds or thousands of marijuana plants and selling pounds of their product at $250 to $400 an ounce are dope dealers.  Plain and simple!  Those of us in the law enforcement arena are charged with identifying these scofflaws and bringing them to justice.

So, how do we fix this mess?

First, primary care-givers need to be identified in a state registry and issued a tamper proof permit.  Each patient should be required to identify a single primary care-giver and there should be a limit on the number of patients a care-giver can provide service to. 

Second, there should be some legitimate connection between the patient and care-giver and enforcement of the definition that the care-giver has a significant responsibility for the care of the individual.

Third, a person who has a debilitating medical condition shouldn’t be designated as the primary caregiver for other individuals with debilitating medical conditions.

Fourth, the patient and care-giver registries need to be accessible to law enforcement personnel twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, so we can immediately determine the legality of a person in possession of finished product or live plants.

Fifth, the Colorado Department of Health needs to verify and legitimize the medical documentation of the debilitating medical condition.  There should be a limit on the number of medical marijuana designations a physician can make, or at least they should be tracked so the quacks who are prostituting themselves for a quick buck can be identified and their medical license pulled.

Sixth, if the marijuana is going to be sold to a patient by a second party, the product and business needs to be regulated.  At a minimum, premises should be licensed and inspected by the Health Department and the fire department.  These premises are fire traps with dozens or hundreds of extension cords that don’t meet code.

Seventh, if marijuana is going to be sold to a patient by a second party, there should be a sales tax collected and the profit or income should also be taxed.

Until then, even if the bloggers don’t like it, we will continue to pursue those so called care-givers who violate the spirit and the letter of the ill conceived medical marijuana amendment.