Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Much-needed clarification was recently added to Colorado law to protect medical cannabis patient rights. The Colorado Legislature passed a bill on March 27 that allows for those with a valid registry identification card to continue consuming medical cannabis while awaiting trial. Those out on bond would no longer need to worry about having access to their medicine taken away by order of a judge. Senate Bill 17-178 prohibits a court from requiring that a medical cannabis patient must abstain from consuming cannabis as a condition of bond.

The Senate Bill 17-178 is a clean-up bill that expands upon Colorado’s probation bill. Under the measure, no judge would have the authority to overturn a doctor’s recommendation for a patient on bond. The bill only protects valid medical cannabis patients and it does not affect any other type of defendant. A fiscal analysis of the bill that was prepared for lawmakers indicates that the bond measure won’t cost any amount of money to implement and will present no fiscal impact.

The bill passed in the Senate on March 7 and passed in the House on March 27. SB-17-178 only affects medical cannabis patients who are awaiting trial. The bill’s prime sponsors are Sen. Vicki Marble of Colorado’s 23rd district and Rep. Jovan Melton of the 41st district, both of whom are strong supporters of medical cannabis. “I sponsored the bill because I believe that medical cannabis should be treated like any other kind of prescription medicine,” Rep. Melton told CULTURE. “Cannabis is medicine, and medicine is medicine—whether it is a prescription from a pharmacy or whether it is a prescription you get for a dispensary. House Bill 15-1267 says that people who are on probation shouldn’t be denied their medicine. What 17-178 does is it says that if you are on bond, you also shouldn’t be denied your medicine.” Melton also added that it’s odd to see that a patient on bond having their medicine taken away, but immediately given back once they’re on probation.

“Cannabis is medicine, and medicine is medicine—whether it is a prescription from a pharmacy or whether it is a prescription you get for a dispensary.”

Activists in Colorado have been following the bills closely. Jason Warf is Legislative and Media Director of the Southern Colorado Cannabis Council and actively lobbies for bills that benefit businesses in the cannabis industry. In 2015, HB-15-1267, was enacted to allow medical cannabis for patients who are on probation or parole. “We’ve actively worked on Senate Bill 17-178 and the other probation bill over the last two years,” Warf told CULTURE.

The Southern Colorado Cannabis Council supports Senate Bill 17-178 because it would allow medical cannabis cardholders to rightfully have access to their medicine. “We’re an industry organization, but we’re very much focused on social justice issues,” Warf explained. “Aside from representing the industry—which encompasses everyone from patients to caregivers to ancillary businesses, you name it—we’re always looking for ways to better the business model for our owners and we’re involved with social issues as well. We’ve been actively working on the probation issue for a couple years in a row. This was really the cart before the horse, where we should have worked on the bond bill first, and it was sort of clean-up legislation.”

In the bill’s third reading in the House of Representatives, it passed with a vote of 57 to six. “It only received [few] no-votes in the House, so it passed by quite a margin. It also passed the Senate unanimously,” Warf said.

Warf believes that all medical cannabis patients deserve to have access to their medicine, even if they are awaiting trial. “Cannabis is the only medicine that we restrict during criminal proceedings or even after a conviction, for that matter,” Warf quipped. “It’s essentially [about] treating cannabis like any other medicine.”

The bill made its way to the desk of Gov. John Hickenlooper for signature, who is expected to sign it. The governor has the choice of signing the bill into law, vetoing the bill or simply allowing the bill to become law without his approval. The bill will take effect on August 9 as long as the General Assembly adjourns on the scheduled date of May 10. No referendum petitions against the bill have been filed.