A Slice of Life

A Denver business shows real compassion in a predicament involving pizza and parenting

By Jake Browne

It’s the end of a long day at work and the pain you suffer is unbearable because you’d be fired on the spot if your boss caught you “high” on the clock. There’s no time to make dinner when you get home, so you medicate and order a pizza, much to the delight of your children. It’s an all too common day in the life of a medical marijuana patient.

What you don’t expect is a thunderous knock to interrupt one of the few moments in your hectic day that you get to spend with your family. For Frederick Smith, the harassment was enough.

And it started when the pizza delivery guy called the cops on Smith after smelling the meds at his home.

When Kayvan Khalatbari, owner of the Denver-based Sexy Pizza, heard the news, he sprung into action. As a supporter of the adult-use of marijuana (and co-founder of a Denver medical cannabis wellness center), both medical and recreational, the actions of the delivery driver shocked him.

“It was bullshit,” vents Khalatbari.

“There’re over 100,000 patients in Colorado. Trying to single them out because they smell marijuana and they have a kid is silly.”

Believing that no patient should be put in Smith’s position, Sexy Pizza made a generous offer: free pizza until the 2012 ballot initiative that seeks to regulate marijuana like alcohol is voted on. If the measure passes, Smith is entitled to free pizza . . . for life.

The community was quick to commend Sexy Pizza for not shying away from the cannabis connection.

“We’ve had people from almost every state tell us they’re proud we’re standing up as a business, openly, for medical marijuana,” notes Khalatbari.

Since opening on April 21, 2008 (a date that was no accident), Sexy Pizza has developed relationships with quite a few MMJ patients and the organizations that support it.

“We’ve been donating $1 for each SAFER, Sensible Colorado and MMAPA pizza we sell directly to that organization,” says Khalatbari. “So far, we’ve raised over $2,000.”

Being a parent and a patient isn’t easy, and the potential legal pitfalls can be daunting.

“There’s no bright line as to what’s permitted and what isn’t,” says Josh Kappel, outreach director for Sensible Colorado, in regards to laws about child endangerment. “We’re seeing it come up in cases of child custody when couples divorce [as well as] social services investigations.”

While some parents believe that educating their kids about MMJ is the best way to protect their children, Kappel wants parents to know they may be left without protection themselves—legal protection, that is.

“With young children, the absolute safest way is if they don’t know what’s going on,” he says. “Keep them as far away from marijuana as possible. Social services wants to know, ‘Do your kids have access to your medicine? Your grow room? Are they in any way exposed to MMJ?’ You want to be able to answer ‘No.’”

What should you do if social services comes a-knockin‘? According to Kappel, don’t talk to them, let them in without a warrant or submit to a drug test.

“Remember, they’re building a case to take your kids away from you,” he says.

And that case can start with something as harmless as a pizza.

Parenting Time

An appellate case in Colorado addressing the fitness of a parent who medicates with marijuana, to also care for his/her child, is In re Marriage of Parr, 240 P.3d 509 (2010). The Colorado Court of Appeals determined that the sole basis for the trial court restricting the parent’s “parenting time” was the parent’s admitted use of medical marijuana. The Court ruled that the use of medical marijuana alone cannot support a restriction on parenting time without an evidentiary hearing finding that the parent’s use of medical marijuana represented a threat to the physical and emotional health and safety of the child, or otherwise suggested any risk of harm.