[420 Girl]

There they go, stepping on the grass again.

More than eight years after Colorado voters legalized medicinal marijuana, the state's bureaucracy is dragging its feet, making it difficult for patients, doctors and suppliers to do what a constitutional amendment allows.

In June, the Colorado Board of Health will meet to discuss proposed rules that would limit the number of patients an individual supplier can serve to just five. That means the few medicinal pot stores that have opened, including one on Fillmore Street in Colorado Springs, would be out of business.

"They're undermining the referendum," said Dr. Randall Bjork, a Colorado Springs neurologist. "From a medical perspective, it works well."

Bjork said medical marijuana can help patients with frequent seizures, muscle spasms and pain from spinal cord injuries. He said he's recently read of a doctor's research in using medical pot on patients with Parkinson's disease.

Bjork is impressed with Cannabis Therapeutics at 907 E. Fillmore St., operated by Michael Lee.

Lee "is absolutely doing it by the letter of the law. He's doing it right," Bjork said.

Lee, who serves customers from all over Colorado, said if you want to know what kind of people use medicinal marijuana, "look in the mirror. You wouldn't know them passing them in a grocery store."

Lee's store has many non-smokable products for patients who either shouldn't inhale smoke or simply don't want to. But to buy anything there, a patient must show proof of belonging to Colorado's medicinal marijuana registry, which has more than 5,000 names on it.

Medicinal pot can be prescribed for AIDS/HIV, cancer, glaucoma, cachexia, severe pain or nausea, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, or other conditions as long as a doctor thinks marijuana will help. Patients must pay $90 to get on the registry maintained by the state, but they don't get much for their money.

The state won't tell people which doctors will recommend medicinal marijuana, but it acknowledges there are more than 500 in Colorado who are doing it. The state also won't tell patients where they can get medical marijuana.

Ned Calonge, who runs the medical pot program for the Colorado Department of Health an Environment, said "We're trying to walk the line" between state and federal laws and that "we've seen more abuse and illegal activity."

But Brian Vicente, an attorney for Sensible Colorado, said the state's proposal is "tantamount to saying to a Walgreen's that you can only serve five patients a year." He pledged a lawsuit if new regulations weaken the constitutional amendment.

State officials may feel like they are in a bind, but it's our constitution, too. It would be nice if they got around to acknowledging that.

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