Dramatic Legal Victory for Patients and Providers

Yesterday, November 10, 2009, Sensible Colorado attorneys delivered a huge victory in overturning the Board of Health’s 11/3/09 decision which limited patients’ rights.  See coverage of the story HERE

As background, late on Nov. 2, Sensible Colorado received word that the state was looking to hold a stealth meeting to narrow the definition of who could provide medical marijuana.  Our staff immediately sent out an alert and over 200 of our supporters responded by either calling-in or attending the Board’s 11/3 meeting.  At that meeting, after refusing to hear from any affected patients or caregivers, the Board voted to require caregivers to provide supplementary — and often unnecessary services — beyond supplying medical marijuana to sick patients.

At yesterday’s hearing, Sensible Colorado Board member Robert Corry, along with staff member Brian Vicente, and attorney Lauren Davis, successfully argued that the 11/3 “stealth” meeting was a violation of the Colorado Open Meetings Law.  After hearing about the state’s complete disregard for public testimony and their lack of notice to affected parties, Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves ruled in favor of patients and invalidated the Board’s recent finding.

In a stinging rebuke to the state, Judge Naves chided the Board of Health for failing to recognize the rights of patients who use medical marijuana to treat serious medical conditions saying:

“These people have without dispute, serious problems for which they have prescriptions for medical marijuana.  There was no mention of the impact of this change on these people.  There is no consideration of how plaintiffs and others who need medical marijuana would obtain it”

Please stay tuned for further alerts, as this area of the law is dynamic.

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