Medical pot’s uncharted commerce creates its own way, infrastructure

Though anybody can write in to the Citizen (you can comment below any article, or e-mail us at salidacitizen@gmail.com), one of our goals is to hire professional journalists to look into important local issues that affect our community. In the last few weeks one issue kept coming up; medical marijuana. So we hired veteran reporter Ann Marie Swan to dig in a little deeper. Please comment below and let us know what you think. Your elected officials are reading and listening. If there is anything you’d like us to look into please drop us a note or give a call. We’d like to thank our advertisers seen to the left, for their commitment to local investigative journalism. This week will be unveiling a larger view of the subject. Please stay tuned and pass it on. Thanks for caring, Bill & Trey 719.539.0177

By Ann Marie Swan

Cloud City Compassionate Care, Leadville’s first medical-marijuana dispensary, is easy to pass up. It’s located in a nondescript dull, brown building with one sign on the side. But walking through the door, the pungent scent assures me this is indeed the place.

About eight cannabis patients visited the dispensary within two hours on a recent afternoon, sitting in the paneled waiting room, watching a muted TV, listening to Reggae playing softly in the background. One of the three owners has an American pit bull terrier, Stitch, who moves through the room, getting stroked hello. Some patients talked quietly, others didn’t.

The clinic at Poplar and East Eleventh is about 150 yards from a large sign that reads, “We (heart) Leadville – great living at 10,200.”

The low-key look is intentional. “We didn’t want to throw it on Main,” said owner Dan Berggren. “We don’t want to flaunt medical marijuana. It’s only for registered Colorado patients.”

Colorado voters legalized marijuana for medicinal use in 2000 with the passage of Amendment 20.  And being fairly close to Salida, Compassionate Care sees its share of medical pot patients from our town. Salida’s first medical marijuana dispensary, Medical 420, opened on Saturday. And a medical cannabis retreat has opened in Crestone, High Valley Healing Center.

The Obama administration in March urged ending most dispensary raids. For the most part, law-enforcement agencies have let the dispensaries be. This is possibly because Amendment 20 suggests that authorities would have to continue cultivating any marijuana plants seized from dispensaries or grow facilities until a conviction in court is obtained.

Berggren sees this as a relief for law enforcement, as well, and says police officers are sick of “kicking in doors of legal operations.”

“That’s someone’s medicine,” Berggren said.

The Leadville dispensary, the first in Lake County, has been open since October. And the business is growing like a, well, you know. Berggren brushes open the accordion file of patient forms that will likely need to be updated to a full-size file cabinet soon. Neighbors have been “awesome,” and the only problem concerns parking in the tight space. “We’re just a business,” Berggren said with a shrug.

And it may be, but this uncharted commerce is creating its own infrastructure. Dispensaries are spending money around town on security systems, legal consultations, insurance policies and bakers, for example.

Clinic aims to be considerate of neighbors

Compassionate Care owners would not allow their plants to be photographed. Owner Josh Sodic feels published images of pot plants at their dispensary could offend some locals. Berggren did, however, show a marijuana seed menu with varieties they sell for different ailments. Jack’s Cleaner II is a potent strain “good for extreme pain and increasing appetite,” with an advisory that it’s not for occasional smokers. Querkle is “good for sleep and relaxing,” with the “lemon berry taste of sour grape gum.”

For patients who would rather eat than smoke cannabis, there are a variety of baked goods. Some are gluten-free, sealed and smartly packaged, baked in a Food and Drug Administration-approved kitchen.

The owners say the clinic is is on good terms with the community. Sodic says he can trace his Leadville heritage back generations and wants to be considerate of those with different viewpoints about medical marijuana. Clinic owners emphasize they want to coexist respectfully with neighbors and are in the business for the long haul. Unlike some Front Range dispensaries, Sodic said, “We’re not trying to get rich. Not here for six months, then kill this. We’re here to help.”

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers recently said the state can collect sales tax on medical marijuana. Suthers also wants to see dispensaries obtain retail sales licenses. Berggren didn’t have the numbers handy, but says the clinic will certainly pay a lot of taxes after its successful start. Owner Daniel Pedrow said on the phone that the clinic has been “well-received.”

Competition is coming to town, as a new dispensary is set to open on East Seventh Street in Leadville. But Compassionate Care owners aren’t worried. “Our product is top-notch,” Berggren said, who inspects his cannabis under a microscope. It’s locally grown and “word of mouth and quality is all you need in this biz.”

The street price for marijuana is about $100.00 for a quarter of an ounce and $50.00 for an eighth. Berggren says patients who have selected him and his partners as caregivers pay less than the street price. The clinic also offers some free medicine each month for patients who are members, he said.

Some locals oppose dispensaries

Not everyone is happy about dispensaries in Leadville. One local wrote to the Leadville Herald in October concerned about the “moral decline” as a second dispensary planned to open on East Seventh Street. Building owners Kevin and Susan Neadeau defended their position in the paper’s letters section, writing that their building has been vacant for almost a year and “the county would benefit with a tax-paying business in the location instead of an empty building.” The Neadeaus  also wrote that “a prospective tenant wants to use it to run a legal business.”

Leadville’s City Council approved a conditional use permit for the location last week, with one condition being the sign not have the words “marijuana, pot or high.” Leadville has since imposed a moratorium on any more applications for medical-marijuana dispensaries.

One worry for municipalities is that stoners without medical conditions will find a way into the clinic to buy pot legally. An argument is that habitual pot smokers become anxious if they don’t smoke, thereby, becoming patients who battle anxiety. One patient, Tim Hanson of Leadville, says he’s seen Compassionate Care turn away people who didn’t meet the state’s requirements.

“How do we properly dispense and distribute?”

There is some murky area and risk involved for dispensary owners, as federal law prohibits medical marijuana but state law allows it. Amendment 20 did not spell out guidelines for distribution, although language indicates it may allow distribution in Article 14, 2d. [3] And distribution is the key word.

There are no state regulations that control dispensaries, beyond the number of plants allowed per registered patient and the requirement of state taxes. It’s often safer for patients to buy pot from dispensaries, rather then attract burglars by growing it at home.

“It’s a myth that distribution is illegal,” said Dan Pope, volunteer patient outreach coordinator at Sensible Colorado, a marijuana-advocacy group. “How do we properly dispense and distribute? The constitution allows it but the legal framework is yet to be determined.”

Pope, a patient and caregiver with muscular dystrophy, was a plaintiff in a 2007 case when the state tried to limit five patients per caregiver. Pope was denied, then sued the state. A settlement was reached with the state required to inform all patients and caregivers when rules changed.

Next, a Colorado Board of Health decision in July 2009 did not limit the number of patients that medical-marijuana dispensaries can have. It also defined a caregiver as someone who provides medical marijuana to patients.

That definition became questionable when the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of a medical-marijuana grower, saying that caregivers must have more meaningful contact with patients than just supplying them with marijuana.

The ruling caused the Board of Health to call an emergency meeting Nov. 3, at which it struck its most recent definition of caregiver, throwing the industry into more uncertainty.

On Nov. 10, Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves invalidated the Board of Health’s actions for changing medical-marijuana rules without providing adequate notice to patients. The Board of Health’s hearing was deemed in violation of Colorado Open Meetings Laws and the outcome of the 2007 ruling that patients and caregivers must be informed when rules change.

Pope said a business model of a dispensary is needed that is in “unambiguous compliance with state law.” Federal resources will not pursue those dispensaries, he says.

On Sat., Dec. 19, Sensible Colorado and allies will host a stakeholder meeting to craft a unified legislative agenda for 2010. Berggren said he’ll be involved to “put this gray area aside, then there are no questions.”

If a different administration is elected that urges the Drug Enforcement Administration to raid dispensaries, the industry could go up in smoke. But Compassionate Care owners aren’t worried. Colorado is one of 14 states that legalized the use of marijuana for medical use. Seventeen states have it on the November 2010 ballot. Sodic says the medical marijuana cause is “going so far forward, I don’t think people would let it happen.”

Breckenridge and Denver decriminalized adult possession of under an ounce of marijuana.

Sodic and Berggren talk about Americans from all walks of life who medicate with cannabis. Patients undering chemo, living with everything from lupus to rods in their spine. Many are suffering from side-effects from prescribed pharmaceuticals. “We’re for the people, by the people,” Sodic said.

Compassionate Care owners are caregivers and patients, as well. They’ve done their research, driving to the Front Range to check out dispensaries. Some clinics were shady. After sampling product that was pricey and ineffective as medicine, they were inspired to open their own clinic. They approached the city and law enforcement with their ideas and plan. “We wanted the town to know,” said Berggren, who became a patient after struggling with injuries from extreme sports.  “I don’t want trouble.”

Pot patient’s personal process

Hanson, 42, is a registered, card-carrying cannabis patient at Compassionate Care and uses marijuana to sleep and gain weight. He credits medical marijuana with helping him build his health and strength to get off Phentanol and Oxycontin that were prescribed to treat dejenerative disc disease.

Hanson has been through seven surgeries, most on his neck. He’s been prescribed heavy painkillers and other drugs for years, including Opana, Norco and Soma. “How good of a dad could I be?” said Hanson, who has a 13-year-old son.

This drug combination completely kills his appetite, and he can’t eat. At 6 feet 2 inches tall, he feels healthiest at about 190 pounds. But his weight can plummet to as low as 148 pounds. He eats or smokes pot in the evening to stimulate his appetite and sleep through the night. By getting a handle on his weight, he gained strength for the battle of not taking the heaviest narcotics, which were horrible, he said.

Medical marijiuana “saved my life,” he said.

Hanson says he knew he had to stop taking hard-core narcotics when he passed out while driving to the West Coast, a result of the drugs. He’s tried Marinol, the pharmaceutical drug with THC, but it didn’t work for him. “I got headaches from the other ingredients,” said Hanson, a former river guide who loved Colorado’s outdoor sports.

He registered to be a cannabis patient six months ago but his boy doesn’t know. “I’m nervous,” Hanson said. “When the day comes, I’ll explain it.”

Despite everything that Hanson has been through, “He’s got nothing but love,” said Berggren.

Hanson has struggled with the thought of being on a registered list as a patient using medical marijuana. And it’s not just some patients who don’t want to be on a list. Doctors don’t either. One of Hanson’s doctors asked him to seek out a different physician because he didn’t want to be “on the list” of those prescribing medical marijuana. Hanson’s former primary care physician opposes medical marijuana but “she’ll pump me with Oxycontin,” Hanson said.

This has helped create a market on the Front Range, where doctors can charge up to $400.00 for a visit and prescription. Hanson says the only crime in the medical-marijuana system is the “crooked doctors getting away with this.”

Dr. Paul Ammatelli, former chief of staff at Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center, says he understands why some medical doctors would be hesitant to write a prescription for medical marijuana as they are still finding their comfort zones. The culture of Western medicine is “slow moving and conservative,” said Ammatelli, who is practicing at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane, Wash.

The medical-marijuana system is “a newer model and regs are still being worked out,” he said.

Ammatelli knows of a dispensary in the Spokane area that was recently shut down.

Malpractice lawsuits are serious concerns for physicians who are trying to do right by the patient, so it’s important that they are “in bounds,” he said. Physicians may not want to be on the front edge. “They don’t want to be pigeonholed as the doc to go to for marijuana,” Ammatelli explained.

However, “it doesn’t mean they won’t see it through,” said Ammatelli, who practiced medicine in rural Colorado for 15 years. “At the federal level, we’re redesigning health care. I worry more about the adverse health effects of excessive tobacco and alcohol compared with marijuana. I can envision a day, not too far off, when medical marijuana can take its place alongside other controlled substances prescribed by doctors.”