Colorado Marijuana News

The state will need a pot of money to maintain the medical marijuana
registry

published: July 30, 2009

Medical marijuana patients scored a victory last week when the Colorado
Board of Health rejected a change to state regulations on the subject.
The change would have limited to five the number of patients that can be
served by "caregivers, " a nebulous group that includes an
ever-increasing number of medical marijuana dispensaries.

But the vote created potential losers, too – namely, the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment, which manages the state's
medical marijuana registry.

It's estimated that there will be 15,000 patients on that registry by
the end of 2009, up from 2,000 two years ago. To keep up, the state
needs more manpower and more money, says State Registrar Ron Hyman.

Each new medical marijuana patient pays a $90 fee — which, if the
prediction of 15,000 patients this year holds true, would add up to
$1.35 million — but CDPHE can't tap into that money without the
state legislature' s blessing, says Colorado's chief medical officer, Ned
Calonge. And lawmakers could decide to use the money for other purposes.

"We're still wrestling with what our options are," Calonge says.

The central question seems to be this: Can the state, mired in a budget
crisis, afford to run its booming medical marijuana program? And after
hearing the testimony of AIDS patients and Iraq War vets who rely on
marijuana, can it afford not to?

For love and money: Amy Rubin, Denver's own love doctor is big on the
Internet, and this week, she'll get even bigger when a billboard
featuring her online radio show, Amy's Heart, goes up just off of Colfax
Avenue and Park Avenue West.

Dr. Rubin – who also runs www.FindingYourHear tsDesire. com, a
combination inspirational advice/astrology/ shopping website — isn't
actually an M.D. No, she's just a single girl who spends her time trying
to convince other single girls not to be so pathetic about their hunt
for a man. Her message: Love yourself and others will follow. Last
month, the blond bombshell did just that, appearing naked on the cover
of Soul's Journey Magazine (put out by the folks behind the radio
station).

"The image is love goddess-y," Rubin said recently, admitting that she
was initially worried about lying in a bed of roses in the nude but
figured, "There's no reason in the world you can't be extraordinary on
the outside and the inside."

Scene and herd: The White House could get a little taste of Denver if
President Barack Obama is able to pull off a meeting over beers with
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge, Massachusetts, police
sergeant James Crowley, who arrested Gates on July 16 for trying to
break into his own home.

While Obama will have a Bud, Crowley has requested a Blue Moon, the
now-ubiquitous Coors product created inside Coors Field at the Blue Moon
Brewery at the Sandlot.

Sandlot brewer Tom Hail hadn't heard about the powwow or the beer
choice, but he thinks it's cool. As for the reason Blue Moon may make it
to the presidential palace, he laughs, "Don't give me any credit for
that."

http://www.westword .com/2009- 07-30/news/ the-state- will-need- a-pot-of- mon\
ey-to-maintain- the-medical- marijuana- registry