[420 Girl]

With the Orchard City Town Board ready to consider a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries, officials learned last week that an “herbal dispensary” in Eckert has been established as a limited liability corporation since July.

Orchard City Mayor Don Suppes said he did not know about Grand Mesa Herbal Dispensary LLC on Nov. 4 when he announced his plans to propose a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries in town.

“I really don’t think it makes any difference as far as a moratorium goes if anyone might already be legally dispensing marijuana,” Suppes said. “There’s not too much we could do about that.”

The town board has not yet seen nor acted on the moratorium idea. Suppes added that he will propose it at the trustee’s December meeting as an emergency ordinance that would take effect immediately upon passage.

Earlier this year, The Grand Mesa Herbal Dispensary LLC placed advertisements saying, “Now accepting patients. Please call to schedule an appointment.”

A call last week to the cell phone number given in an ad was answered by a recorded woman’s voice. It said, “Hello, and thank you for calling the dispensary.” The call then switched to an automated voice attendant offering to take a message.

“What we do is strictly low-key. The only reason we got into this is because my wife was discovered with inoperable cancer,” the LLC’s registered agent, Jay, told the DCI. “I was asked by a local oncologist to start the dispensary,”

When asked about the town’s proposed moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries, Jay said, “I’ve lived here (in Orchard City) 17 years, We all know this is a conservative area. I have a license. My plan was to open a location in Telluride. Telluride is an adult town, and I thought they would legalize it (marijuana) there the way Breckenridge did.”

Breckenridge voters approved a measure to legalize adult possession of marijuana on Nov. 3.

There were no questions concerning legalizing marijuana on Telluride’s Nov. 3 election ballot. Instead, the town has adopted its own moratorium and Grand mesa Herbal Dispensary’s application for a store front operation there was turned down.

“We haven’t even been charging the patients we work with,” Jay said. “But now, with a moratorium, I will have to begin charging them just so I can prove that I’m a legitimate business.”

He explained that Grand Mesa Herbal Dispensary only deals with terminally ill patients. Though Jay would not state the number of patients they have, he said they are all Orchard City or Delta County residents.

“They are all doctor approved and have their state Registry cards. Yesterday I visited one of our patients in Hotchkiss; an elderly lady with terminal cancer. The marijuana has been a godsend for her. She can actually eat now after her chemotherapy sessions”

Though Colorado’s medical marijuana law protects patients and caregivers from state and local prosecution, federal laws against marijuana possession and sale still apply.

Since there is no state licensing of dispensaries, the terms “permit” or “license” used in regard to medical marijuana is often a reference to the Medical Marijuana Registry Identification Card. The cards are issued by the CDPHE. They allow individuals to possess and use marijuana for medical reasons. People who provide medical marijuana to a patient are required to have a copy of the patient’s Registry Identification Card.

As part of the application process, a patient designates a “primary caregiver.” The primary caregiver must be a person over 18 years of age who will have “significant responsibility” for managing the patient’s well being. No specific medical training is required to be a primary caregiver.

Patients with a Medical Registry Identification Card may buy, grow, possess and use marijuana for medical reasons. Designated primary caregivers are able to grow and possess, and buy and sell medical marijuana for use by their patients.

On Monday, Nov. 16, the Colorado Attorney General John Suthers issued a formal opinion that medical marijuana, in most instances, should be subject to state and local sales taxes. “Many other questions surrounding medical marijuana and Amendment 20 to the Colorado Constitution will have to be resolved by the courts or the Colorado legislature,” noted Suthers.

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