Romer Pulls MMJ Dispensary Scheme -- Vows to Fight On

Romer Pulls MM Dispensary Scheme - Vows to Fight On

After having his medical marijuana dispensary regulation scheme attacked by all sides, Senator Chris Romer has pulled the bill from consideration.

The sweeping medical marijuana dispensary regulation bill put forward last week by Senator Chris Romer is dead before it was even introduced. After enduring withering criticism from medical marijuana advocates, legal scholars, law enforcement agencies, and even medical marijuana opponents, Romer pulled the bill late Saturday night.

In an excellent analysis in the Huffington Post, Colorado medical marijuana advocates and attorneys Jessica and Robert Corry break down the many reasons Romer's bill was stillborn.

Strangely, the first reason Romer was forced to cut his losses prematurely had nothing to do with the contents of the bill, per se. Rather, since the regulations Romer proposed would tax medical marijuana dispensaries, it violated Colorado's Taxpayers' Bill of Rights Act which specifies all bills that change tax policy must originate in Colorado's House, not its Senate. Likewise, Romer's bill came under fire from constitutional scholars because it removed fifth amendment protection which protects citizens from self-incrimination.

While these issues are technical matters of law that doomed the regulations from the start, medical marijuana advocates, even moderate ones, were appalled at the layers of bureaucracy Romer's bill added to an already effective system of dispensing medical marijuana. Beyond the needless artificial restriction of supply Romer's scheme would cause, it would create an entire new government bureaucracy that would oversee everything related to medical marijuana - from how doctors may be paid for their services to how many patients a dispensary may have.

Despite this dramatic defeat, Romer isn't finished. The day after killing his own legislation, he announced plans to formulate version 2.0 of the bill - this one limiting the number of patients a medical marijuana dispensary may serve to a mere five. Such a plan is untenable on its face. No business can function if it is permitted only five customers. Such limits are also, Corry says, arbitrary, and of questionable constitutional legitimacy.

Pain Management of Colorado is firmly committed to sensible regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries. Yet it cannot abide the overly-restrictive efforts of some firebrand politicians, efforts that will benefit neither dispensaries, nor patients, nor the public at large.