Marijuana

Man who gave Colorado’s Jack Splitt cannabis oil charged with manufacturing

DENVER – The man who’d been making cannabis oil for Jack Splitt, whose use of the oil to treat his debilitating medical conditions led to the creation of a state law in 2015 to allow the use of certain medical marijuana products in Colorado schools, now faces felony charges for alleged drug manufacturing.

Mark Pedersen, 60, had been providing oil to Jack before his sudden death on Aug. 25, 2016. The boy, who was 15 when he died, had severe cerebral palsy and dystonia. Continue reading

Cory Gardner backs bipartisan legislation to increase medical marijuana research

DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner is cosponsoring a bipartisan bill aimed at increasing the possibility of more federal research into the medical benefits of marijuana.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced the Marijuana Effective Drug Study (MEDS) Act of 2017 on Wednesday, with a pun-laden press release and speech on the Senate floor coming from the Utah Republican.

Hatch said it was “high time” to address medical marijuana research, saying the various state medical marijuana programs haven’t led to the federal government “delving into the weeds” on research. (The remainder of his brief press release made references to “strains,” “blunt,” “roll out the MEDS Act,” “joint effort” and a “kumbaya moment for both parties.”)

Gardner joined Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., Thom Tillis, R-N.C. in cosponsoring the bill.

“Our medical community continues to find new ways medical marijuana can help patients but currently there are too many barriers that are holding back even further advancements and research,” Gardner said in a statement. “This legislation is simple. It will make it easier for our universities, hospitals, and scientists to look at new ways that medical marijuana can be used for treatment.”

According to the senators, the legislation, if approved, would streamline the marijuana research registration process in order to foster more research on the potential medical benefits of marijuana.

It wouldn’t ask the Drug Enforcement Administration to reschedule marijuana, which currently holds the DEA’s highest classification for drugs—Schedule I—along with opiates, cocaine, hallucinogens and others.

The legislation aims to increase research as to whether the FDA might be able to approve drugs with THC—marijuana’s primary psychoactive ingredient. It also would require the U.S. attorney general to increase the national marijuana quota to increase research capabilities.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse would be required to develop and publish recommendations for growing research marijuana as well, among other aims of the bill.

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana use, and Colorado was among the leaders when voters approved the program in 2000.

Gardner has warmed to medical marijuana in recent years. Earlier this summer, he and another bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation to help legal marijuana businesses bank in the U.S.

And on several occasions over the past couple years, Gardner cosponsored legislation aimed at letting epileptic patients gain better access to CBD treatments.

The MEDS Act is one of several marijuana-related bills making its way through Congress.

Sessions to Hickenlooper: Marijuana still unsafe; task force report says crackdown unlikely

DENVER – U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions made clear in a letter sent to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper that the governor received this week that he still believes an Obama-era Justice Department memo does nothing to protect states with legal marijuana from being prosecuted by the federal government, but documents obtained by the AP show a federal task force on marijuana might think otherwise.

Hickenlooper and the governors of Alaska, Oregon and Washington sent a letter to Sessions and the Treasury Secretary in early April urging Sessions and the Justice Department to work with them and come see their states’ programs before changing any federal rules regarding marijuana. Continue reading

Man sentenced in Colo. shooting preceded by $10K sale of broccoli that was supposed to be marijuana

AURORA, Colo. – One of two drug dealers who sold two people a $10,000 bag of broccoli, then shot the buyers when they got angry for being duped in what was supposed to be a marijuana deal, was sentenced to 16 years in prison late last week.

Sababu Colbert-Evans, 26, received the sentence after being convicted in May of attempted first-degree murder and several lesser charges. He’ll serve the sentences concurrently, and will be on parole for 5 years after he’s released from prison.

The attempted murder charge carries a mandatory minimum of 16 years in prison, and he’ll serve his sentences on the other charges concurrently

His partner in the crime, Tercell Davis (a.k.a. 22 Jump Street), has already pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder and will be sentenced Aug. 7.

The shooting happened at Aurora’s mall on March 15 of last year.

A day earlier, Davis had given the bag of recently-purchased broccoli to the prospective buyers in exchange for $10,000.

But the buyers left the scene without realizing they had bought broccoli instead of pot, so they arranged another deal for the next night while using different names.

Around 7:30 p.m. on March 15, the buyers showed up to the parking lot of the Town Center at Aurora to get the marijuana they thought they’d bought the day before.

Davis brought Colbert-Evans along with him this time, and brought another bag of broccoli as well.

The parties started to fight, and Davis and Colbert-Evans shot at the buyers 11 times. One of them was hit in the torso, but recovered.

“This may be the first time that broccoli has been bad for someone’s health,” 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler said after Colbert-Evans’ sentencing.

DPD sting leads to consumption citations for Denver Church of Cannabis leaders over 4/20 ceremony

DENVER – Three of the founders of Denver’s International Church of Cannabis were cited for public consumption of marijuana and violating the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act for their 4/20 rally after several undercover Denver police officers were able to get inside the church’s event that day.

Steve Berke and two other founders of the newly-minted cannabis church, near Denver’s Washington Park, say the citations weren’t delivered until several days after April 20, something the Denver City Attorney’s Office confirmed. None of the other people at the ceremony were cited. Continue reading

Man brings nearly 2 pounds of trash bag weed to Lakewood hospital

DENVER – There’s good weed and bad weed, and then there’s trash bag weed.

Lakewood police arrested a homeless man Wednesday evening who showed up to the emergency room at Belmar Swedish Medical Center with 1.8 pounds of pot inside a trash bag—and it didn’t appear to be the high-quality stuff Colorado sells.

The transient, who is either 49 or 50 years old, according to police, had arrived at the emergency room just before 6 p.m. to get treatment for non-life-threatening health conditions.

A Lakewood Police Department spokesman told Denver7 the man was admitted to the hospital, and the marijuana was found during a search of his belongings.

He has yet to be charged, though charges might follow the man’s release, police said.

“We all know marijuana is legal for adults 21+…but you can’t take a trash bag full into the hospital. Oops!” the department tweeted.

Denver’s final social marijuana consumption rules released; waiver, ventilation requirements dropped

DENVER – Denver’s licensing department on Friday released the final adopted rules that business wanting to allow the social use of marijuana in their buildings will have to adhere to in order to get a permit.

Denver voters approved Initiative 300 last November, which opens up the possibility for the existence of the clubs. The city, state and local organizations have been hammering out exactly what requirements the businesses have to follow since. Continue reading

Top science journal takes issue with Justice Dept. heads’ ideas on marijuana and health

DENVER – The country’s oldest monthly magazine, Scientific American, slammed the Justice Department’s top two officials for their recent comments on marijuana in a column published Wednesday.

First, Massroots.com on Monday reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had sent a letter to congressional leaders asking them to help him undo the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which stopped the DOJ from using federal money to prosecute people inside states with legal medical marijuana programs.

“I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime,” Sessions wrote in the letter. “The Department must be in a position to use all laws available to combat the transnational drug organizations and dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives.”

The letter went on to ask lawmakers to include language in the next fiscal year’s budget that says marijuana can lead to “significant negative health effects.”

Sessions has left many wondering what the Justice Department will do with states’ medical and recreational marijuana programs, as he has made veiled statements in the past few months. As a congressman, he became well-known in marijuana advocacy circles for his declaration that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”

He at one point compared medical marijuana users to opioid users, and has batted down any scientific studies that say medical marijuana may greatly reduce opioid use among abusers trying to get clean.

But it’s unclear if Sessions’ request will hold any water with lawmakers, who have passed the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment in each fiscal year’s budget since it was first introduced. A review of marijuana laws is set to be completed by July, according to Massroots.

And the 2013 Cole Memo from the Justice Department specifically implemented guidelines for how states could avoid interference from federal agents and prosecutors—something Sessions has said was “valuable.”

But on Tuesday, Sessions’ deputy, Rosenstein, told both the House and Senate’s appropriations committees that the Justice Department would continue to keep marijuana as a Schedule I drug—the classification used for the most dangerous drugs.

“It’s illegal, and that is the federal policy with regards to marijuana,” Rosenstein said.

But he also noted that the Cole Memo is in effect, which he called it a “policy which is an effort to balance the conflicting interests with regard to marijuana.”

He also said, like Sessions has in the past, said that “scientists have found that there’s no accepted medical use for” marijuana—a notion that Scientific American shredded in its Wednesday column.

“This epidemic is one of addiction and overdose deaths fueled by opioids—heroin, fentanyl and prescription painkillers—not marijuana,” Scientific American’s Dina Fine Maron wrote. “In fact, places where the U.S. has legalized medical marijuana have lower rates of opioid deaths.”

The author then went on to note several scientific, peer-reviewed studies that seem to contradict both Sessions’ and Rosenstein’s stances.

One of studies was done by University of Michigan researchers and published last year. It found that chronic pain sufferers who used cannabis saw a 64 percent drop in opioid use.

Another study, from the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that yearly overdose deaths involving opioids were close to 25 percent lower in states with medical marijuana programs.

The column also noted that dependency for marijuana users was far lower than users of opioids, tobacco, alcohol and cocaine, and that “it is virtually impossible to lethally overdose on marijuana,” citing the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Attorney General Cynthia Coffman have both been active in finding out how the feds may deal with marijuana under the new administration.

Hickenlooper, along with governors of other states with legal marijuana programs, sent a letter to the Treasury and Justice departments in April asking Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to “engage” them directly before changing any regulations on the federal level.

Hickenlooper also earlier this year said he believed marijuana was a states’ rights issue and that state sovereignty should be respected.

Coffman personally invited Sessions and his staff to come visit Colorado to see its program first-hand, but the Justice Department has so far not made good on her request.

New marijuana growing rules taking hold in Colorado by start of next year: what you need to know

DENVER – Colorado law enforcement and marijuana growers will have to make some adjustments regarding marijuana growing in the state over the next six months, as two new laws aimed at reducing illegal marijuana cultivation and dealing will take effect.

Gov. John Hickenlooper signed two bills last week aimed directly at cutting down on high plant limits and reducing the flow of Colorado pot to other states—something law enforcement agencies say has become an increasing problem in recent years.

House Bill 1220 will cap the number of plants allowed for recreational users to only 12 per house or “residential property,” and will cap the number of plants for medical marijuana growers and caregivers at 24.

The law will allow local jurisdictions and municipalities to enact rules to allow growers to raise more plants than the statewide limit, however.

Denver, Colorado Springs, Douglas County, Carbondale and Lafayette were among the jurisdictions that had already capped the number of marijuana plants allowed to be grown on residential property at 12.

Colorado had been the only of dozens of states that have medical marijuana programs to allow patients or caregivers to grow more than 16 plants. The state allowed them to grow up to 99 based off a doctor’s recommendation.

House Bill 1220, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2018, will also allow district attorneys to charge people who break the new plant limit law.

A first offense involving more than 12 plants will be considered a level 1 drug petty offense punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.

A second or subsequent offense involving between 12 and 24 plants will carry a level 1 drug misdemeanor charge, and a second or subsequent offense involving more than 24 plants will be considered a level 3 drug felony.

The bill’s sponsors, Rep. Cole Wist, R-Centennial and Rep. KC Becker, D-Boulder, said the bill will establish much-needed safeguards against illegal growing, which leads to a larger black market for Colorado pot.

And starting on July 1, state and local officials will start cracking down on illegal marijuana growers and distributors as a result of House Bill 1221, which Hickenlooper also signed last week.

The bill creates an enforcement grant program that will allow local jurisdictions to apply for grant money to fight illegal grows and distribution networks, with priority added to rural municipalities and counties with small budgets to do such work.

The bill defines “rural areas” as counties with fewer than 200,000 people and towns or cities with less than 30,000 people that is at least 10 miles away from a town or city with more than 50,000 people.

The grants will help small district attorney’s offices and agencies to cover the costs incurred by identifying and busting unlicensed grows.

The money for the grants would come from either the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund or the Proposition AA refund account. Under the bill, any money not dispersed through grants that is appropriated can be spent the next year without being re-appropriated.

The bill also mandates that beginning Nov. 1, 2019, the Division of Local Government would have to update to Senate and House committees on the program’s effectiveness. Subsequent updates would be required on or before Nov. 1 of each following year.

Around $5.94 million has already been appropriated to the Department of Local Affairs to enact the program starting July 1. Nearly all of the money will be used for the grant program, though $21,000 will cover the purchase of new IT services and around $4,700 will cover legal services.

The bill also allows the prosecution of anyone not in compliance with state caregiver guidelines to begin under the new law starting July 1.

After years-long fight, Colorado approves medical marijuana treatment for PTSD

DENVER – Coloradans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will now be able to treat their conditions with doctor-approved medical marijuana, bringing a close to a years-long fight.

Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 17 Monday, which will allow physicians, after consultation and a medical background review, to prescribe patients suffering from doctor-diagnosed PTSD with medical marijuana treatments. Continue reading