Medical marijuana fees, bill prompt proposed class-action lawsuit

Rob Corry.

Is Corry sympathetic to Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division's financial straits, which McCann's measure is intended to address? Not at all. "The MMED was sold to the community as a self-funding entity. It was going to fund itself by collecting these licensing fees, and it did. It collected $9 million-plus from our industry through fees that started at $7,500 for the basic center license and went up from there. Where did that money go? What was it used for? There are many questions, but that's a side debate -- because this is a violation of the promises made at the very beginning about MMED funding itself.

"My experience with MMED is that it's too hostile to the industry and has taken feathers out of its own nest by denying licenses left and right for arbitrary reasons -- and then the entities that should be paying licensing fees for the future cease to exist. So the MMED probably deserves to be in this situation."

The police database also worries Corry, "depending on how it's structured -- and the bill doesn't go into specifics about that. I think it's possible to construct one that's legal and complies with the constitution. If a patient presents a registry card, law enforcement has the power to confirm it with the CDPHE, and we don't have a problem with that. But if it's searchable by name, it could pop up in every traffic stop, just like a concealed-weapons permit. that's a violation of a patient's confidentiality. So the bill needs to be amended to make the database searchable only by unique registry number."

If, as Corry contends, the CDPHE collected more funds than necessary to pay for administration of the program, "patients need to be refunded," he says. Hence the class-action lawsuit, teased with a notice filed with Colorado Attorney General John Suthers's office yesterday and a separate letter to Colorado senators; they're both on view below.

"Whichever way the legislature acts, we're proceeding with this class action," he emphasizes. And if the bill passes and the $10 million surplus being held by the CDPHE is redistributed, "then the state will have to find it elsewhere when we prevail."

Here are the aforementioned letters.

HB 12-1358 Letter to Senate MMR Transfer Notice Letter

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More from our Marijuana archive: "Marijuana: HB 1358 would fund police computer access to patient database."