Medical marijuana: MMED working group cold shouldering Twirling Hippy's Jessica LeRoux?
In August 2010, the members of the Department of Revenue's medical marijuana working group were announced with some hoopla. But what a difference a year makes.
Jessica LeRoux.
Twirling Hippy confections' Jessica LeRoux, one of the 25 original members, would like to continue working with the group, but she can't get answers about whether she'll be allowed to do so, or even when it'll meet next.
According to LeRoux, the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division contacted members about taking part in a second round of panel discussions. "They asked us to give our qualifications and why we should be brought back," she recalls.
LeRoux penned a letter making her pitch -- it's on view in its entirety below -- and sent it to the Medical Marijuana Division's Dan Hartman and Mia Tsuchimoto in late June. Then, after three weeks of radio silence, she sent a followup letter. "I wanted to make plans for the summer, but I also wanted to be available to the group," she points out. "And I was told to go ahead and make plans. They said, 'We'll let you know if we need you' -- which gave me a vague feeling they weren't going to bring me back."
Dan Hartman.
Another clue: "MMED said a committee would meet to decide who would be brought back," she notes. "I asked to let me know if they wanted me to be on that committee, because I would help out, and I never got a response about that."
Because meetings were slated to begin in August, LeRoux is baffled about what's going on. But she'd still like to participate, in part because she feels she brings a different background than the others on the original panel, many of whom she describes as "lobbyists" or "people who are in business relationships together."
In contrast, she says, "I'm on the ground, delivering to rural parts of the state in person, and I talk to a lot of small, rural business owners who don't have anyone representing them on the panel. I'm one of the only small investors. I stand alone, and I feel like there should be representation from someone who's been fighting for medical marijuana. The only two other people on the panel I knew who had done any type of medical marijuana activism prior to 2009 were Rob Corry and Brian Vicente.
"I'm never going to be named Miss Congeniality," she concedes. "But I'm trying to empower everyone in the industry to act and know the law for themselves. That's really my goal. The big lobbying businesses aren't going to support me, but if the little, independent people survive, I'll survive. So that's my goal -- to empower the independents."
Page down to see a list of the original committee members and LeRoux's letter about continuing as a member of the group.
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