Yesterday, lawmakers in Colorado unveiled a bill that could severely restrict the progress of medical marijuana in that state. Among other changes, the bill would place an 18-month moratorium on any new dispensaries, force existing establishments to reopen as nonprofit “medical marijuana centers,” and impose severe limitations on who can grow marijuana or work in a dispensary.

In response, medical marijuana advocates, led by the group Sensible Colorado, filed a statewide ballot initiative that would amend the state’s constitution and direct the state legislature to establish regulations for dispensaries and production centers.  It would, in fact, give Colorado citizens the right to operate and work in such establishments. MPP provided assistance in drafting the initiative.

The campaign will need to file more than 75,000 signatures by July in order to qualify for the November 2010 ballot.

“State-licensed medical marijuana patients need storefront dispensaries in the same way that other sick Coloradans need pharmacies,” said Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado. “Medical marijuana patients will not go without medicine in Colorado. This initiative will establish sensible regulations for dispensaries and secure the rights of sick Coloradans to have safe access to their constitutionally-protected medicine.”

Keep checking MPP’s blog for further developments

“Can an employer punish someone for doing something that is constitutionally protected?”

That’s the question raised by a pair of articles in Colorado today that lay out the precarious work situation many medical marijuana patients find themselves in.

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