MedicalNeed
New Member
The Cannabis Therapy Institute sounded a warning last week that Colorado will soon provide law enforcement agencies with random access to the state's burgeoning registry of medical marijuana patients.
In a release, the Institute's Laura Kriho said she is concerned that patient registry information will be available to law enforcement personnel on demand.
Department of Revenue, Department of Health, law enforcement officials and the private company working on improvements to the state's medical marijuana database architecture all told the Colorado Independent that in the updated system patient names and personal information will remain confidential.
The constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana says law enforcement will have access to the database only to determine whether someone who claims to be on the registry actually is.
Officials say that is the way it will remain.
"I don't know where they are getting that," said Lance Clem, public information officer for the Colorado Department of Public Safety and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. "That couldn't happen. It just doesn't work that way."
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson, who has been heavily involved in helping the state navigate the new drug laws, says the claims of Kriho are "outrageous and ill infomed."
He says no one in law enforcement will be able to access the database except to find out if someone who has been stopped and who then claims to be a medical marijuana patient actually is one.
Tom Raynes, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys Council told us the same thing.
Julie Postlethwait, public information officer with the Department of Revenue's medical marijuana enforcement division, confirms that all patient information will be protected even after improvements have been made to the database. She said the point of improvements is to give police access to accurate information quickly. "We need to satisfy the statute, which says that police are to have access to the data 24×7," she said.
William Browning, whose company, Rebound Solutions, is doing some of the technical database architecture work for the state, says police agencies and officers will not be able to surf the database at will.
"What they get is binary information, yes or no. That's it," he said. "This is really about protecting patients," he said. "If you are a medical marijuana patient and you are stopped for a traffic matter and you have marijuana in the car, you need to be able to prove right now that you are a patient, otherwise you're going downtown. This database enables you to prove it. That's it," he said.
Here are excerpts from the original press release:
Here is Lance Clem's written response to the release:
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: americanindependent.com
Author: Scot Kersgaard
Contact: Contact | The American Independent
Copyright: 2010 The American Independent News Network
Website: Colorado pot patient registry to stay confidential, officials say | The American Independent
In a release, the Institute's Laura Kriho said she is concerned that patient registry information will be available to law enforcement personnel on demand.
Department of Revenue, Department of Health, law enforcement officials and the private company working on improvements to the state's medical marijuana database architecture all told the Colorado Independent that in the updated system patient names and personal information will remain confidential.
The constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana says law enforcement will have access to the database only to determine whether someone who claims to be on the registry actually is.
Officials say that is the way it will remain.
"I don't know where they are getting that," said Lance Clem, public information officer for the Colorado Department of Public Safety and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. "That couldn't happen. It just doesn't work that way."
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson, who has been heavily involved in helping the state navigate the new drug laws, says the claims of Kriho are "outrageous and ill infomed."
He says no one in law enforcement will be able to access the database except to find out if someone who has been stopped and who then claims to be a medical marijuana patient actually is one.
Tom Raynes, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys Council told us the same thing.
Julie Postlethwait, public information officer with the Department of Revenue's medical marijuana enforcement division, confirms that all patient information will be protected even after improvements have been made to the database. She said the point of improvements is to give police access to accurate information quickly. "We need to satisfy the statute, which says that police are to have access to the data 24×7," she said.
William Browning, whose company, Rebound Solutions, is doing some of the technical database architecture work for the state, says police agencies and officers will not be able to surf the database at will.
"What they get is binary information, yes or no. That's it," he said. "This is really about protecting patients," he said. "If you are a medical marijuana patient and you are stopped for a traffic matter and you have marijuana in the car, you need to be able to prove right now that you are a patient, otherwise you're going downtown. This database enables you to prove it. That's it," he said.
Here are excerpts from the original press release:
Here is Lance Clem's written response to the release:
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: americanindependent.com
Author: Scot Kersgaard
Contact: Contact | The American Independent
Copyright: 2010 The American Independent News Network
Website: Colorado pot patient registry to stay confidential, officials say | The American Independent
