Boulder County Resident Suing Colorado Over Medical Marijuana Policy

By Jefferson Dodge Boulder Weekly

At least one Boulder County resident is planning to challenge state laws regulating the medical marijuana industry in court this month, and dispensaries are being asked to chip in to fund the effort.

Kathleen Chippi, a Nederland resident and former dispensary owner, says that within the next week, she plans to file a constitutional challenge to legislation such as HB 1284, which sets up strict regulations and surveillance systems for dispensaries and other medical marijuana operations in the state. Chippi and other advocates say the new laws go too far and violate patients’ rights secured under Amendment 20 of the Colorado Constitution, which was passed by the state’s voters in 2000.

“I’m just asking that we abide by the Constitution,” Chippi says. “That’s not radical.”

Chippi says that she still needs to raise about $10,000 to cover her legal costs, but she is determined to file the legal challenge through her attorney, Andrew Reid, even if she doesn’t have the funds before the July 1 deadline.

Chippi and Laura Kriho of the Cannabis Therapy Institute, which is helping support the legal challenge, say they have grown tired of medical marijuana attorneys like Rob Corry who they say have been dragging their feet after pledging to file similar lawsuits.

Kriho says she has been getting an increasing number of calls from dispensary owners who are frustrated in their attempts to adhere to the stringent and costly monitoring and security systems they must set up by July 1 under the new state laws and regulations.

“They’re trying to jump through the hoops and are now at the end of their ropes,” she says.

Jason Lauve, the medical marijuana patient who was acquitted by a jury in a high-profile August 2009 case after being prosecuted for possessing more marijuana than allowed under Amendment 20, has been circulating an email raising funds for a constitutional challenge to the state’s medical marijuana laws as well. It’s unclear whether he is raising funds for Chippi’s lawsuit or his own, but in an email he discusses retaining Reid.

Lauve says in his email that the challenge will be narrowly focused on a few specific areas, including patient privacy, allowing doctors into medical marijuana centers, the five patient-per-caregiver limit, caregiver registration and local bans/regulations.

He did not return calls by press time.

Among Kriho’s concerns are the radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that will be used to track medical marijuana from seed to sale, using readers similar to those used to inventory merchandise in stores. Kriho says she is concerned that if the signal from those RFID tags is not encrypted, someone could buy a reader and scan for marijuana outside warehouses or patients’ homes and “see what RFID tags you have in your medicine cabinet.”

Reid represented Chippi in her unsuccessful attempt in January to convince the Colorado Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of the state’s medical marijuana laws. Reid, who describes himself as a constitutional lawyer — not a medical marijuana attorney or legalization crusader — confirmed that he still represents Chippi and has another active lawsuit involving Douglas County dispensaries in which he is challenging the constitutionality of the state’s laws and regulations.

For more information on Chippi’s effort, see
http://www.CannabisLawsuits.com

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Re-distributed as a Public Service by the:
Cannabis Therapy Institute
P.O. Box 19084, Boulder, CO 80308
Phone: 877-420-4205
Web: www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com
Email: info@cannabistherapyinstitute.com

Man Says He Was Fired For Smoking Medical Marijuana

DENVER – Paul Curry says his seven years at MillerCoors came to an abrupt end with one simple conversation.

“They just told me to pack my bags. They brought in security, I emptied out my locker and they told me to go home,” he said.

While MillerCoors cannot comment on the decision to let Curry go, Curry says he was told he was being fired because he had just tested positive for marijuana. Not a surprise, says Curry.

“I’ve been on the [medical marijuana registry] for about a year,” he said.

“All he had was one single positive UA for THC which means that he had used marijuana in that last 30 days. That’s all it means,” Curry’s attorney Rob Corry said.

Corry has made a living advocating on behalf of medical marijuana users over the last few years.

“He’s a medical marijuana patient. He’s trying to follow his doctor’s orders, and he’s trying to do everything he can to manage his [pain],” Corry said.

Corry and Curry insist that the one-time MillerCoors maintenance mechanic was not “high” in any way at the time of the test. They also say his usage was never a factor in his job performance.

As of Tuesday afternoon, MillerCoors had yet to respond to numerous inquiries from 9NEWS, but because the issue falls into the realm of “personnel matters,” it was unlikely to say much about its decision to let Curry go regardless.

On Tuesday, Corry and Curry came to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment in an effort to secure Curry unemployment benefits. Curry has previously been denied the benefits because of the nature of his dismissal.

Curry and Corry met with a hearing officer for the department. Corry says a decision should come in a few weeks.

A decision made last year by the Colorado Industrial Claim Appeals Office (ICAO) indicates they will likely have a difficult time succeeding in obtaining the benefits. The ICAO is part of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and last year issued an opinion that denied unemployment benefits to an unnamed person who was fired after testing positive for marijuana.

“When the Department of Labor issued that opinion, it decided to take a position on that issue,” Holland and Hart employment attorney Emily Hobbs-Wright said.

9NEWS spoke with Hobbs-Wright and fellow Holland and Hart attorney Alyssa Yatsko on Tuesday about the ramifications of the ICAO opinion. Both agreed the decision should not be taken lightly by employees who currently use medical marijuana.

“It’s definitely a risk if you choose to use medical marijuana. It could impact your job,” Hobbs-Wright said.

Amendment 20 (the amendment to the Colorado Constitution that allows the use of medical marijuana on the state level) does include language that offers at least some insight here. It reads, in part, “Nothing in this section shall require any employer to accommodate the medical use of marijuana in any work place.”

That section, based upon the ICAO opinion, has now been interpreted by some to indicate that employees will be at risk for termination should they test positive for marijuana while in the workplace, even when it’s not even presumed that they’re under the influence of marijuana at the time of the test.

As of its last report in late March, the state indicated there were 123,890 people on the Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry.

9NEWS Legal Analyst Scott Robinson says there appears to be plenty of grey area here.

“The number of individuals alone who are using medical marijuana guarantees that this issue will be a hotbed of litigation for years to come,” he said. “The marijuana issue is unique. It’s the only substance in the entire country which is legal locally but illegal everywhere,” he added, pointing to federal law which still outlaws the use and distribution of marijuana.