and we will. we need to remember every Legislator who turned their back on the patients. Democrat or Republican - they will be replaced.
If any card holder isn't also registered to vote - DO IT TODAY.
If you've not gone out of your way to contact your reps, do it today.
Tell them you have been watching the process and are disappointed.
put this message in EVERY forum and comment section you can think of!
sent from the CTI
I am considering putting up a site with every lawmakers name, contact, and a record of their votes re:mmj and responses to letters on the situation. This is being rushed through, and it needs to haunt them come election time. If they think seats won't be lost over this they are nuts!
I put this out there, as maybe someone else will do it before I do ;)
---
For immediate release: Feb. 4, 2010
Contact: Cannabis Therapy Institute
1-877-420-4205
SB109 passed the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, by a unanimous
vote. Patients were forced to wait for up to 8 hours to testify, and many
of them went home sick to take their medicine, while they still can.
SB109 will harm patients by forcing the price of their physician's exams up
and by forcing the government into the patient-physician relationship in a
way never before seen in this country. No other medicine or herbal
substance is regulated in such a harsh manner, and no other practitioner or
user of any herbal medicine has been as persecuted and discriminated
against as much as those who use or recommend cannabis. Since cannabis is
the safest therapeutically-active substance known to man and a wise choice
for people wanting to wean themselves off of dangerous narcotics, this
makes the situation even more tragic.
The updated Fiscal Note on the bill, just released on 2/4, shows SB109 will
cost the state over $1 million, most of it to prosecute physicians.
http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/cli...e=SB109_r1.pdf
The state already has a system to investigate and prosecute physicians
through the Board of Medical Examiners. Why is an entirely new and
expensive regulatory regime needed? Can the state afford $1 million in this
time of economic crisis?
Furthermore, why is the state spending so much money when the alleged
"fraud and deceit" going on in the industry hasn't even been proven? Law
enforcement has supplied nothing except anecdotal evidence that there is a
problem. Where are the studies? The state insists on holding cannabis users
to a higher standard than users of any other substance, demanding that they
produce more studies and more research with every other breath. State
lawmakers insist that cannabis users must *prove* that they are in *real
pain* and *prove* than cannabis is the only thing that works for them, yet
the state is not required to *prove* that there really is a problem with
fraudulent physicians that will require over $1 million in taxpayer money
to fix.
Cannabis advocates also have anecdotal evidence that the real problem is
that patients are still getting arrested, prosecuted, losing their jobs,
their houses and their families. Senator Romer promised patients in
December that he would fix the patients' #1 concern for 10 years and give
law enforcement 24/7 access to the Registry, so that patients wouldn't have
to go to jail on nights and weekends when the Registry is closed. The
Registry system is so ineffective that police can't call to verify
someone's status after hours, yet instead of using patient fees to fix
that, they will use the patient's money to prosecute their physicians. It's
a million dollar witch hunt, and it's just the beginning.
Rep. Tom Massey (R-Poncha Springs) just released the medical marijuana
H-bomb bill yesterday that law enforcement has been working on for months.
This bill, as yet unnumbered, would harm patients in dozens of more ways.
http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute....mentbill01.pdf
Colorado lawmakers haven't even tried to pretend that they care about
cannabis patients. They are so afraid of this herbal medicine and bullied
by law enforcement that they aren't even acting with common courtesy
anymore. There has been no discussion with patients, and no attempts to
adopt any of their concerns.
One citizen testified today about the lack of concern for patients. He said
one of the slogans for the disabled community is "Nothing about us without
us." He encouraged the lawmakers to actually work with patients and form a
commission to study the real problems. He was disgusted that the lawmakers
acted so callously and with so little compassion for the people whose lives
they would actually affect, who are already suffering, sick and dying.
Cannabis Therapy Institutue - Medical Cannabis (Marijuana) Research, Education and Advocacy in Colorado
SB109 is now headed to the full House for amendments and a vote, so call
your House member as soon as you can. The #1 thing lawmakers need right now
is education. They all still think taking a Marinol pill is somehow
equivalent to having the benefit of over 70 cannabinoids in over 10,000
different strains, and they all think that smoking cannabis is the only way
to use it, so education needs to happen on a very basic level.
We are encouraging patients, caregivers, and advocates to contact their
House and Senate members and open a dialogue with them about cannabis and
compassion. Their education is clearly going to be a long-term project.
Contact Colorado General Assembly
Cannabis Therapy Institutue - Medical Cannabis (Marijuana) Research, Education and Advocacy in Colorado
