Larimer County suspends rides to mmj dispensary for blind man
Donnie Hayes, 47, says Larimer County officials have instructed drivers with the Larimer Lift ?? a paratransit service provided to disabled residents living outside city limits ?? to stop taking him to a medical marijuana dispensary in Fort Collins.
Hayes, who is blind, said the decision has left him with no way to acquire the medical marijuana he uses to treat pain and depression. The 47-year-old says he has a state-issued medical marijuana registry card.
??I could get what I need off the streets, but I don??t want to,? he said. ??I want to find a caregiver I can trust.?
Officials want to clarify whether transporting mari-juana from a dispensary in a county-owned vehicle violates federal law and by extension the federal funding that sup-ports the paratransit service, said Gary Darling, director of criminal justice services. Possession of marijuana is a federal crime.
??We??re not in a position to judge what he is doing when we transport him,? Darling said. ??We just want to make sure we??re not putting anything at risk by doing it.? Darling said administrators with Larimer Lift are waiting to get an opinion from the county attorney??s office on how to handle the situation.
Hayes uses the Larimer Lift to come into Fort Collins to run errands, such as shopping and banking. Drivers took him to a dispensary on West Elizabeth a couple of times before program administrators told them to stop. He enjoys using the program and the drivers that take him around, Hayes said, but now he??s in a tough spot. ??I don??t know what I??m supposed to do,? he said. ??It??s not like I should be hitchhiking into Fort Collins.?
Dial-A-Ride, the paratransit service offered in Fort Collins, would take clients to a dispen-sary, said Marlys Sittner, general manager of the city bus service Transfort. The Americans with Dis-abilities Act does not allow paratransit providers to ??pri-oritize? trips for clients, she said. The service would take a client to a dispensary. ??We??ll go to any address a passenger requests to go to within our service area,? she said. ??We don??t deem which trips are more important that any other trip.? Transfort and Dial-A-Ride drivers do not scrutinize what passengers are carrying with them, she said.
Hayes said he does not have a designated caregiver at the moment. He would consider going with a delivery service, but he??s not sure who he can trust.
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***ACTION ALERT***
Fort Collins City Council
TONIGHT, TUESDAY March 16, 2010 at 6:00PM
For a view of the proposed regulations, please browse to the medicinal marijuana item on the Fort Collins City Council agenda page for a look at what the new regulations would be. The actual changes to the code begin on page 39 of the pdf file. There still appear to be issues with the zoning aspects, which may force patients to find new caregivers in most instances. If you wish to speak at the meeting, arrive early, and be prepared to give cognizant speech for three minutes.
Where: Fort Collins City Council Chambers
City Hall West, 300 Laporte Avenue
Fort Collins, CO
PLEASE HELP RESPOND TONIGHT TO THE CITY COUNCIL FOR THIS SICK CAREGIVER WHO CAN'T MAKE IT............
One unamed caregivers perspective on the proposed ordinance and how it would affect their life:
"The Fort Collins City Council will vote after a second reading of the ordinance that will ban caregiver growing in residential neighborhoods and make it illegal to grow more than 12 plants (only six blooming) and 8 oz. for personal use. It does not matter if you own your home or have a doctor's approval to grow more meds because you need them. They seem not to care that Lauve-vs-Boulder County already established the right of patients to grow and possess as much medicine as they or their doctor says they need.
This ordinance will also restrict mmj businesses to less than 2% of the land in the city on the outskirts of town, where, I might add, THERE ARE NO RENTAL UNITS AVAILABLE for mmj businesses. I know. I've walked block by block, called on all vacancies, and was universally turned down because they refuse to rent to mmj businesses. I've confirmed this with three local realtors who specialize in helping mmj business to find locations.
There are 98 legal business that will need new spaces, yet there's no place for them to relocate to. Of all the legal businesses currently operating, the local paper reports that only 3 of them are located in "acceptable" locations. It is unknown if the 3 businesses' owners will be able to pass the background checks, so even though they meet the location requirement, they still may be forced out of business. Fort Collins could end up with no legal mmj businesses.
I was told by several council members that THE ONLY item they will reconsider at this time is the transition period before the new rules take effect. City staff is pushing for a 60-day grace period; a few members might go for a 4-month transition. And yet, given that there are no legal spaces to relocate to, and because all home occupations will be illegal, like mine, a more realistic goal is one year for the new rules to take effect.
For me, it means almost certainly losing my house. I can't afford my mortgage and a commercial lease, even if I could find a suitable location within the city, and I can't afford my mortgage unless I can continue to grow plants and be a caregiver to my patients. Homes in my neighborhood are currently selling for $20,000 less than what we owe, so even if I sell, we'll lose everything.
In one fell swoop, without a reasonable transition period, the city ordinance will push me from a tax-paying, self-sufficient disabled cancer survivor whose adjusted gross family income was $16,500 last year, to homeless, bankrupt, unemployed, and unable to grow enough medicine for myself, let alone enough to meet the needs of my 30 patients who depend on me. The stress is making my health conditions much worse, making it that much harder to find creative solutions to this dilemma."
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