Medical marijuana vote a victory for patients

By Claire Trageser
The Denver Post

"A proposal that would have effectively shut down medical-marijuana dispensaries was rejected Monday night by the Colorado Board of Health.

In addition to voting down a plan to limit medical-marijuana caregivers to five patients each, the board also refused to require that caregivers help patients with daily activities. The board did, however, agree to changes meant to prevent fraud — and left the door open to revisiting the cap on patients another time.

"We're happy the board did the compassionate thing," said Brian Vicente, the director of Sensible Colorado. "This is a win for Coloradan sick patients and the voters."

Three of the nine board members voted for the cap, including the board's president, Glenn Schlabs. "I don't believe we need to model our rule-making on comments of the people who came forward to speak today," he said. "I don't feel compelled to fashion regulation that appeals to you. That's why we're the board of health."

[There are] 7,630 registered patients in Colorado. That number could rise to 15,000 this year, a state official says."

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12879945

http://sensiblecolorado.org/