Pubdate: Thu, 15 Oct 2009
Source: Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
Copyright: 2009 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  http://www.dailycamera.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/103
Author: Robert J. Corry, Jr.
Note: Robert J. Corry, Jr. is a Colorado defense attorney 
specializing in medical marijuana. He represents Jason Lauve and 
Sherri Versfelt.

THE TRUTH ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA

These are promising times for Colorado's medical marijuana patients. 
For years, they've suffered in the dark, desperately seeking only to 
follow their physicians' orders to use marijuana to address their 
debilitating medical conditions, taking their wheelchairs at midnight 
to the streets to purchase low-quality medicine at inflated prices, 
or struggling in the difficult and physically-taxing endeavor of 
growing it themselves in expensive indoor gardens. But finally, there 
is light at the end of the tunnel. Patients can visualize a world 
where the supply of medical marijuana is almost as safe to obtain as 
more dangerous and addictive hard narcotics such as Oxycontin, 
Percocet, or Fentanyl.

The optimism hasn't come easy. In August, the Boulder District 
Attorney's Office prosecuted Jason Lauve, a wheelchair-bound medical 
marijuana patient for two felony charges of possessing low-quality 
medical marijuana for his own use. While two high-level prosecutors 
participated in the four-day trial, these talented attorneys could 
not overcome simple facts: Jason was protected under the Colorado 
Constitution, which allows him to consume marijuana to treat extreme 
pain associated with his broken back.

In addition to understanding Lauve's legal rights, many jurors saw 
the light about marijuana's continued prohibition. Marijuana has 
alleviated human suffering for thousands of years, is not physically 
addictive, does not rip apart internal organs like harsh narcotics, 
and presents an all-natural and organic alternative to synthetic medicine.

After the verdict and an ensuing firestorm of taxpayer outrage, 
Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett opened his mind. He said that 
it would be better if marijuana were legal outright, and not just for 
medical purposes. This is an extraordinary statement from a 
prosecutor, and Garnett should be applauded for seeing that 
prohibition is a failed policy that only hurts those that have 
already suffered too much.

Garnett then reached out and explored clarifying Colorado's law 
through civil litigation, rather than criminal prosecution. In a 
letter to the Daily Camera on Sept. 20, Garnett wrote, "I would like 
to see these issues clarified outside the context of a criminal 
prosecution, .. . I have assured them that I will not prosecute 
dispensaries since I don't want the obvious lack of clarity about 
their operations to be resolved in a criminal context." (emphasis 
his.) Then, a week later, Garnett told County Commissioners that 
prosecuting marijuana cases (not just medical marijuana cases, but 
marijuana in general) is his office's lowest priority.

We can only hope that Garnett's words are met with action. Because 
before any civil discussions can occur, Garnett must begin by 
dismissing the current criminal charges pending against Sherri 
Versfelt, a young Nederland woman guilty of nothing more than 
suffering from a debilitating medical condition and legally consuming 
and dispensing small amounts of medical marijuana to other patients.

When government agents showed up at her home without a search 
warrant, they were dealing with someone who has no prior criminal 
convictions, no money, and no weapons. She did, however, have a 
state-issued Medical Marijuana Registry Card. Versfelt has already 
spent 27 days in jail because she could not afford to post bond. This 
coming at a time when we face a distressed economy, high 
unemployment, and the prospect of violent criminals being released 
from prison because the government has run out of our hard-earned tax money.

Versfelt is currently pregnant, due in December, and the extreme 
stress of a felony jury trial (scheduled to begin Oct. 19 at the 
Boulder County Justice Center) might be too much for her and her 
unborn son, especially because Sherri suffers from a severe long-time 
medical condition stemming from an adolescent surgery that makes her 
pregnancy itself a miracle. At age 14, she had a watermelon-sized 
growth removed, along with one of her ovaries.

For voters to take seriously Garnett's desire to be "the most 
progressive DA in Colorado," he must cease the fearsome prosecution 
of sick people and those who care for them. As long as peaceful 
citizens fear pounding on their doors by armed police, criminal 
charges, and the humiliation that comes from being accused, there can 
be no open and civil discussion, no trust.

Colorado voters made medical marijuana legal. Patients and caregivers 
are dispensing and consuming it legally. Jurors and taxpayers should 
not be subjected to lengthy trials over a plant. After a long dark 
road, Colorado's suffering medical marijuana patients finally have 
hope that better days lie ahead. Garnett can lead the way by turning 
words into action.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake