Wednesday, August 15, 2007

COLORADO: Defense: Decision could boost medical pot case


COLORADO: Defense: Decision could boost medical pot case


BY SARA REED
SaraReed@coloradoan.com



Defense attorneys for a Loveland couple facing marijuana cultivation and possession charges said a recent Denver district court ruling could strengthen their case.

Chief Denver District Judge Larry Naves early last month suspended a rule that limits to five the number of medical marijuana patients for whom a caregiver can provide the drug. Naves said the rule was improperly written and jeopardized the lives of patients.

Chris Crumbliss, 31, and Tiffany Crumbliss, 36, were arrested May 31 after deputies found more than 200 live marijuana plants and 20 pounds of dried marijuana in a home they own at 3501 Raccoon Drive, west of Horsetooth Reservoir.

The couple was arrested at their home in the 4300 block of Shoreline Drive, where deputies also found 5 pounds of marijuana.

The couple, also medical marijuana patients, were acting as caregivers and providing medical marijuana to upward of 30 patients, said Sean T. McAllister, who is representing Chris Crumbliss.

"It'll make the Crumbliss' case much stronger," said Rob Corry, who is representing Tiffany Crumbliss. "We've always argued that the policy has no legal validity and now we know it has no legal validity."

Defense attorneys are calling the Crumbliss case a "test case" under the new policy.

"This case is about whether the medical marijuana law is really going to work or just be symbolic," McAllister said.

The limits may be gone but the question remains whether the couple were acting as caregivers under the law, said District Attorney Larry Abrahamson.

"What we'll look at is whether they were legitimate caregivers," he said. "How was it (the marijuana) being used and is that reasonable and legitimate."

According to the law, a caregiver is someone "who has significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient," a benchmark met by growing medical marijuana, McAllister said.

"That, in and of itself, is having a significant responsibility for a patient's well-being," he said.

Colorado voters passed the medical marijuana amendment in 2000. The Colorado Department of Health and Environment administers the program and set the limit on caregivers.

As a result of the injunction, there is no limit on how many medical marijuana patients one caregiver may provide for, said Mark Salley, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The health department has not yet decided whether it's going to take the issue to trial or go through a process to establish a new limit, Salley said.


http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070815/NEWS01/708150321

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