MedicalNeed
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PRESCOTT - A MATForce "Lunch and Learn" meeting Thursday about medical marijuana drew a large and eclectic crowd, from police officers to people who want to open medical marijuana dispensaries.
MATForce is a Yavapai County consortium of government agencies and others formed to combat drug abuse. The seats were mostly full at its meeting in the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors meeting room in Prescott, while others joined the meeting via video teleconference in Cottonwood.
One man who videotaped the Prescott meeting and snapped photos of the audience told people he could answer their questions.
"It's not a bad drug," he said.
After presentations by MATForce Co-Chair Doug Bartosh, Cottonwood's city manager and Yavapai County Deputy Attorney Jack Fields, people in the audience asked a wide variety of questions while others made comments.
As in previous local meetings about the law, which voters approved last November, some questions were hard or impossible to answer at this point. The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) is still in the process of drafting rules to oversee implementation of the law.
In response to a question from Fields, half of the Prescott audience said they have read the new law, but none said they understood it.
"This is probably going to keep several teams of lawyers busy for several years," Fields said of the law.
For example, since a caregiver can grow as many as 60 plants for five medical marijuana cardholders who don't live within 25 miles of a dispensary, what happens to the pot if the cardholders don't use it all?
MATForce members hope the state will be able to control or at least inspect these kinds of grow sites, Bartosh said.
MATForce would prefer to see ADHS come up with rules that end up preventing people from growing pot at home. MATForce has recommended setting up a system in which dispensaries are located 25 miles apart, for example. That would add up to just 60 dispensaries throughout the state and five in Yavapai County, Fields said.
"If we let people grow it, that's when it's going to start floating around," he said. In Alaska, people are using marijuana as payment for services such as car repairs, he said.
Fields was able to answer most questions. For example, will medical marijuana cardholders be able to partake of their medicine in public?
"You can't smoke it in public, but you can eat it," Fields said. Dispensaries are likely to offer pot in a variety of edible forms, from brownies to lollipops.
Fields reminded the audience that possession and use of marijuana was a felony in Arizona before the new law came to pass, and it will remain that way for people who don't have medical marijuana cards.
"The people carved out a very narrow exception," he said.
Therefore, MATForce wants ADHS to administer the law narrowly, he said.
ADHS is set to publish its final draft rules Monday, after previously issuing preliminary draft rules.
When the rulemaking is complete in April, ADHS must issue medical marijuana cards to patients within 10 days, but it has 90 days to issue permits to dispensaries, so in the meantime patients will be able to grow pot anywhere, Fields said.
MATForce also supports strong rules on the doctors who will write "certificates" to medical marijuana users. Fields said doctors of medicine, osteopathic medicine, naturopathic medicine and homeopathic medicine will be able to write the certificates.
MATForce would like to see doctors limited to issuing a maximum of 30 medical marijuana certificates at any one time.
Doctors should be required to revoke certificates if someone no longer needs the marijuana for medical purposes, for example if someone was taking it to reduce nausea from chemotherapy and they no longer are getting chemotherapy, Fields said.
To see MATForce recommendations, go online to matforce.org.
News Hawk: MedicalNeed 420 MAGAZINE
Source: dcourier.com
Author: oanna Dodder Nellans
Contact: The Prescott Daily Courier
Copyright: 2011 Western News&Info, Inc.
Website:MATForce 'Lunch and Learn' talk draws eclectic crowd
MATForce is a Yavapai County consortium of government agencies and others formed to combat drug abuse. The seats were mostly full at its meeting in the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors meeting room in Prescott, while others joined the meeting via video teleconference in Cottonwood.
One man who videotaped the Prescott meeting and snapped photos of the audience told people he could answer their questions.
"It's not a bad drug," he said.
After presentations by MATForce Co-Chair Doug Bartosh, Cottonwood's city manager and Yavapai County Deputy Attorney Jack Fields, people in the audience asked a wide variety of questions while others made comments.
As in previous local meetings about the law, which voters approved last November, some questions were hard or impossible to answer at this point. The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) is still in the process of drafting rules to oversee implementation of the law.
In response to a question from Fields, half of the Prescott audience said they have read the new law, but none said they understood it.
"This is probably going to keep several teams of lawyers busy for several years," Fields said of the law.
For example, since a caregiver can grow as many as 60 plants for five medical marijuana cardholders who don't live within 25 miles of a dispensary, what happens to the pot if the cardholders don't use it all?
MATForce members hope the state will be able to control or at least inspect these kinds of grow sites, Bartosh said.
MATForce would prefer to see ADHS come up with rules that end up preventing people from growing pot at home. MATForce has recommended setting up a system in which dispensaries are located 25 miles apart, for example. That would add up to just 60 dispensaries throughout the state and five in Yavapai County, Fields said.
"If we let people grow it, that's when it's going to start floating around," he said. In Alaska, people are using marijuana as payment for services such as car repairs, he said.
Fields was able to answer most questions. For example, will medical marijuana cardholders be able to partake of their medicine in public?
"You can't smoke it in public, but you can eat it," Fields said. Dispensaries are likely to offer pot in a variety of edible forms, from brownies to lollipops.
Fields reminded the audience that possession and use of marijuana was a felony in Arizona before the new law came to pass, and it will remain that way for people who don't have medical marijuana cards.
"The people carved out a very narrow exception," he said.
Therefore, MATForce wants ADHS to administer the law narrowly, he said.
ADHS is set to publish its final draft rules Monday, after previously issuing preliminary draft rules.
When the rulemaking is complete in April, ADHS must issue medical marijuana cards to patients within 10 days, but it has 90 days to issue permits to dispensaries, so in the meantime patients will be able to grow pot anywhere, Fields said.
MATForce also supports strong rules on the doctors who will write "certificates" to medical marijuana users. Fields said doctors of medicine, osteopathic medicine, naturopathic medicine and homeopathic medicine will be able to write the certificates.
MATForce would like to see doctors limited to issuing a maximum of 30 medical marijuana certificates at any one time.
Doctors should be required to revoke certificates if someone no longer needs the marijuana for medical purposes, for example if someone was taking it to reduce nausea from chemotherapy and they no longer are getting chemotherapy, Fields said.
To see MATForce recommendations, go online to matforce.org.
News Hawk: MedicalNeed 420 MAGAZINE
Source: dcourier.com
Author: oanna Dodder Nellans
Contact: The Prescott Daily Courier
Copyright: 2011 Western News&Info, Inc.
Website:MATForce 'Lunch and Learn' talk draws eclectic crowd
