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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

SB109 to go the the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 4!

Proponents for and against Colorado's medical marijuana industry have called for regulation and a lot of proposes ideas haven't gotten very far.

Well, SB109 is a bill that is steadily working it way through the Colorado legislature. If you are against SB109 you had better speak up now or forever hold your peace.

House Judiciary Committee
Hearing on SB109
Thursday., Feb. 4, 2010
Time: 1:30pm

Location: Old Supreme Court Chambers
2nd Floor on the North Side
State Capitol Building
200 E. Colfax, Denver, CO

For last-minute updates and changes, call the Bill Room:
(303) 866-3055

Click here for more information on the bill itself.

Ultimately, I agree with the legislatures underlying reasoning for regulation on the relationship between the doctors and the dispensaries but I am adamantly against the regulations that interfere with the doctor/patient relationship and confidentiality.

I would not want pharmaceutical companies sponsoring doctors to write prescriptions for their medications; why should medical marijuana be any different? If dispensaries want to "court" doctors and give them perks, that's fine.

However, any regulation that is designed to treat doctor's who make medical marijuana recommendations any different that other doctors is an unreasonable intrusion on the doctors and patient's rights.

This bill requires the recommending doctor to perform a complete physical on a patient before issuing a physician's recommendation. To my knowledge, this requirement isn't found in any other area of medicine. Patients usually have a primary physician that performs these checkup and, when a problem is found, the doctor refers the patient to a specialist. Physicians familiar with the benefits of medical marijuana are specialists in this field. They should only be held to the same standard as any other medical specialist.

Finally, to address the issue of fraud by the physicians. There is already a regulatory administrative agency to deal with physicians that abuse their credentials. It is called the Department of Regulatory Agencies. People can file complaints against doctors and the agency will act on them. In these dismal economic times it makes no sense to create additional bureaucratic costs to create a solution that already exists!

I encourage the Colorado legislature to vote no on SB109 in its current form. Please make your voice heard!
Law Office of Craig Small