Quote Originally Posted by Tritech420
Good day all, I hope all here read the MMJ-News on a monthly basis. As a registered patient/caregiver/dispensary owner I want to let you know that several other dispensaries in this wonderful state have been out right lying to thier perspective patients. I have called several and I get this response, "you must assign us as your caregiver, and you may only obtain meds from us." This is an out right lie!!!!!!! Check out the 2009 Colorado Patients" Campaign @ [url=http://www.cannabisunivercity.webs.com/09copatientscampaign.htm]
as a registered Colorado MMJ patient has the right to obtain meds from any source no matter who your caregiver is!!!! It is time patients stand up and make the dispenaries realize that they will not survive without us, take away the membership fees, the outragous prices for meds, and quit lying to us!!!!!! A reputable dispensary will not require you to sign a contract, pay a membership fee, and will also show true compassion for thier patients by charging them according to thier income, not the dispensaries profit margin, in reality it only cost 400.00 to grow a pound of pot, so why are they charging 400.00 an ounce to folks on SSI or SS-DI? Get involved and speak out!!!!
While I agree with you that a patient should have the right to go wherever they want for their "caregiver" services, I completely disagree with your analysis here, and I'll begin with this:

1) Your link is broken, but I went on Cannabis U's site and checked out the Patient Campaign. This looks to be an effort within the community (and a good one I think) to try and get the state to accept multiple caregiver nominations per patient. It's what they want the law to be, not necessarily what it is.

From A-20:
??A patient who has not designated a primary caregiver at the time of application may do so in writing at any time during the effective period of the registry identification card, and the primary caregiver may act in this capacity after such designation.?

2) Just because the language in Amendment 20 implicitly gives a patient the option of not nominating caregiver, that is by no means the same as saying that a) they can buy from any dispensary, and b) the dispensary can sell to any patient that comes strolling to their door. Reading the next section from A-20 I think helps explain why I think that's not a smart idea:

(2) (a) ?? ? a patient or primary care-giver charged with a violation of the state's criminal laws related to the patient's medical use of marijuana will be deemed to have established an affirmative defense to such allegation where:

(III) The patient and his or her primary care-giver were collectively in possession of amounts of marijuana only as permitted under this section.?

This language here doesn??t help the dispensaries that are taking the ??de facto/ad hoc caregiver? argument. Primary doesn??t seem synonymous with ad hoc or de facto to me. It seems pretty clear that the spirit of the law is that either a) as a patient, you grow your own, or b) you assign those rights to a caregiver.

But if some non-patient walks into your door and you sell to them, well, you're selling one of your patient's product aren't you? That's the bottom line. You aren't suddenly growing on the spot for this stranger. You're dipping into your actual patient's products, to which they're legally entitled.

So to say that, because Amendment 20 doesn??t force you to choose a caregiver, you therefore can buy from anyone seems like total wishful thinking. It's a big jump, and one in which you may eventually take a big fall for. A safer interpretation would be to assume that the A-20 drafters meant that, if you don??t nominate a caregiver, you??re therefore growing for yourself. No mention of Walgreens is included in A-20, as much as we would like it.

Again, I support this and hope that patients and caregiver end up explicitly receiving this option. But it's not cool coming on here and labeling other dispensary owners liars about it. They're just being safer than you are - Mr. Dispensary Owner. Some could reasonably say that you have a not so altruistic interest in taking such a righteous stand.

Anyway, good luck, and remember - it's usually the fastest car on the highway that gets pulled over.