Medical marijuana lobbyists out in force during HB 1043 committee hearing (PHOTOS)

• Boycott Budding Health, Josh Stanley, and other MMIG dispensaries. They are out with their lobbyists to ban caregiving and have almost succeeded. Because of 1043, ALL CAREGIVERS will have to register their grow with the STATE!!! They will also have to pass inspection from fire, electrical, etc, thus raising costs and putting most out of business.

• Thanks for sharing this story with us, Patient.

• No patients testified in support of hb1043, which says it all for me. 5 members of MMIG and 2 members of ACT did support hb1043. Looks like the 'industry' groups are not on the same page as the patients, their customers. The PATIENTS can yank the 'industry' into nothingness. Patients will do whats right and just to protect themselves.

• On Monday, May 2, at 2pm, medical cannabis patients Dr. Mollie Fry and her husband, attorney Dale Schafer, will turn themselves in to federal authorities in Sacramento, California to begin serving five year prison terms for cultivating cannabis. Their family and friends, advocates from Americans for Safe Access, and other supporters will hold a rally and press conference at the federal courthouse in Sacramento beginning at 1pm. A clemency petition was filed at the end of April on their behalf in the federal Eastern District Court of Sacramento and sent to President Obama in an effort to avoid or shorten their imprisonment. Dr. Fry and Mr. Schafer were prosecuted in federal court for cultivating cannabis, though they were both qualified patients and never had more than 44 plants. Federal prosecutors successfully argued that they were guilty of felony cultivation and conspiracy that carries five-year mandatory minimum sentences because the number of plants they would have grown over several years added up to more than 100. Dr. Fry used cannabis to ease the effects of chemotherapy used to treat breast cancer; she had a radical mastectomy in 1997. Her experience led her to start a specialized clinic for medical cannabis patients. Mr. Schafer, an attorney, used cannabis to manage chronic back pain and symptoms related to his hemophilia. A candidate for district attorney in Eldorado County in 2001 and a contributor to the county's guidelines on cultivation, Schafer also taught cultivation classes for other patients and provided free medicine. On September 28, 2001, more than 20 state and federal agents raided their home and offices, seizing 34 plants and less than 2 pounds of cannabis. Dr. Fry's private patient records were also seized. Nearly four years later, in June 2005, Dr Fry and Mr. Schafer were arrested on federal charges of manufacturing and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana. They were convicted at trial in August 2007 and sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Frank Damrell to 5 years each. They also had their licenses to practice medicine and law revoked. They lost their appeal in November 2010, and in March Judge Damrell ordered them to surrender on May 2nd.

• As long as so-called "medical marijuana lobbyists" keep trying to suck up to the General Assembly and cannot muster enough gumption even to oppose bad legislation, their efforts are wasted. HB11-1043 would extend the General Assembly's unconstitutional authority over caregivers and provides that the location of every single plant deemed legal by the State other than patients' own be made known to any law enforcement agency upon request. I testified against this bill, which directly attacks caregivers and patients' access to their medicine. Later I went to a reception for Art Way to celebrate the opening of the Drug Policy Alliance's Denver office. I was the only person in the room to have attended the hearing -- not one of the luminaries representing various MMCs and advocacy groups, including Sensible Colorado, bothered to come!

• Josh Stanley is one sleazy douchebag. I am surprised he doesn't leave a slime trail wherever he goes....

• It only takes a few plants to put an extra trimmer to work

• if current players are crushed by competition, that would be good for patients. When people make a choice based on better product, service, and price, the industry is improved. Anyone who says otherwise is protecting their business interests, not the patients. Kathleen Chippi and Laura Kriho keep showing up where we all should be. God Bless them.

• There's room for improvement in the product quality on the shelves of MOST dispensaries, and the amount of excellent work being produced by private caregivers shows us again why some shops shouldn't be in business. The competition that exists now is artificial and based purely on advertising and access, not real medicine. The end of the moratorium would allow REAL competition, and the death of shitty herb and ignorant dispensary owners/tenders who were at the "right place at the right time."

• I'm not so sure that any jobs would be created by getting rid of the moratorium. This business is so thick with competition that it would be doubtful that any more dispensaries would be able to survive, especially when the ones already with doors open are struggling to stay afloat.

• Watching MMIG and the legislatures advocate for another year for the moratorium was pretty funny. In this time of high unemployment you would think putting people back to work would be a priority. I guess protecting the profits of its members in more important for MMIG then helping Colorado's medical marijuana industry and putting Coloradans back to work. Also why the hell was the Colorado Press and Broadcaster Associations lobbying in support of this bill? That does not sound like a faithful defender of the public's intrust. http://www.coloradocapitolwatch.com/lobbyists/HB11-1043/ ROMBERG, GREG HB-1043 02/2011 Supporting COLO PRESS ASSN ROMBERG, GREG HB-1043 02/2011 Supporting COLORADO BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION ROMBERG, GREG HB-1043 01/2011 Supporting COLO PRESS ASSN

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