Photo by Garrett Mynatt
From outside, the two-story cottage just north of the Colorado State University campus looks much as it did in 1902 – simple gray stone walls, red-trimmed roof and a single tall window on the second floor. Today, sandwiched between two office complexes, the building is easy to miss.
A surveillance camera housed in black glass and a small sign by the doorbell give the only indication of what is inside: Medicinal Gardens of Colorado, 420 S. Howes St.
Like most medical marijuana dispensaries, or MMDs, a visitor must ring the bell before being allowed inside. On an afternoon in late March, three staff members mill around a small waiting room – wearing professional nametags, they are the cannabis equivalent of Target or Best Buy employees. The marijuana is sold in a separate room, displayed in glass jars with labels describing the strain and dosage.
Tim Gordon is well-versed in the history of the cottage. He lists a number of different uses since the turn of the century – a school, a train depot, a farmer’s carriage house. Gordon, a 36-year-old Army veteran with black shoulder-length dreadlocks, is the co-owner of Medicinal Gardens. Since opening in June 2009, he and business partner Travis Cutbirth have become the go-to pot experts for patients and city officials alike.
“Travis and I know the medicine, we know the laws,” says Gordon, sitting in a small classroom on the second floor where he teaches courses such as how to cook with cannabis. “We’re good growers and good caregivers. I think I have one of the larger patient bases in Larimer County because of that.”
Gordon estimates 70 percent of his clients are around 40 years old, and a subdued atmosphere is one way Medicinal Gardens appeals to this majority. Shying away from stoner-culture imagery – a few blocks south off Elizabeth Street, the MMJ Dispensary uses a cannabis leaf for a symbol – was a conscious choice.
“Medical marijuana has never been scary when it’s medicine,” Gordon says. “I want people to feel comfortable to bring their children inside, sit in the lobby and get their medicine.”
Medicinal Gardens doesn’t just show the evolution of a Fort Collins landmark – it is at the forefront of an issue that has exploded across Colorado in the past year. Today, the Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry estimates there are nearly 63,000 registered patients in the state, up from just 5,000 in March 2009.
Gordon and Cutbirth are navigating a burgeoning industry that, despite their greatest efforts, is in danger of being stripped to the bone by September 2010.
“They’re making rules in the fear of marijuana,” Gordon says, referring to the mish-mash of legislation that has swamped state and local government. “They know it’s legal, but they fear it. Does medical reefer exist? Hell yeah, it exists.”
The Green Rush
MMDs are a budding sight in Fort Collins, but medical marijuana has been legal for nearly a decade in Colorado. In November 2000, voters passed Amendment 20, making it a treatment option for patients suffering from cancer, glaucoma, AIDS and other forms of chronic or severe pain. It also identified a key player in the new legal cannabis world – the primary caregiver, someone who “has significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient.”
On the surface, it was a major victory for pot advocates and a blessing for patients. But Larimer County District Attorney Larry Abrahamson claims a lack of foresight led many to take advantage of the laws, blindsiding government officials.
Of the 14 states with legal marijuana, Colorado is the only one to make access a part of its constitution. Because state amendments are much more difficult to change than statutes, Abrahamson calls this a mistake.
Photo by Garrett Mynatt
“There’s very little that is clear and unambiguous about the issue,” Fort Collins Police Services Cpt. Jerry Schiager says. Others agree the amendment is riddled with drawbacks. It places a heavy burden on city governments to make zoning restrictions and makes no mention of MMDs or cultivators.
“Marijuana is still a pretty low priority drug,” Schiager says. “We have methamphetamine, coke, some of those other things that are a bigger public concern. We didn’t follow [medical marijuana] until it fell into our laps.”
Schiager points to 2009 as the beginning of the current pot industry boom. In August, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment loosely defined the duties of a caregiver – “significant responsibility” could be interpreted as simply providing marijuana through a storefront – and lifted a previous restriction that said they could only claim five patients.
While patients are not required to designate a caregiver, Gordon says many don’t have the means or know-how to grow in their homes. Local entrepreneurs filled this need, sometimes acting as caregivers for 150 patients or more, Abrahamson says.
“The combination of those things really opened the door for the profit making-retail model,” Schiager says. “The restrictions that were in place had kept it really underground and small.”
Suddenly, the rush was on.
Like the plants they sell, MMDs grew organically, popping up in shopping centers all around Fort Collins. In early 2009, there were three registered commercial MMDs. When the city put a moratorium on sales tax licenses in December, there were 36 – three more than the number of licensed liquor stores in March.
Now, state lawmakers are scrambling to keep up. Their biggest question: How do you regulate a business where, according to Abrahamson, people are able to grow a pound of marijuana for $300 and sell it for $5,000 from storefronts – the legal equivalent of large-scale drug dealing?
“They found out they could make a lot of money really fast,” says Abrahamson, although he didn’t name any specific Fort Collins businesses. “Dispensaries are huge money makers.”
“A Nightmare”
MMD owners in Fort Collins, however, claim they make little to no money. They are nervous that lawmakers are creating legislation based on a few questionable businesses and doctors that are purely profit-driven.
“You’ve got these big business owners who are trying to change the rules and the smaller guys are crying foul,” says Terri Lynn, owner of the marijuana delivery service Natural Alternatives for Health. “The whole while patients are saying, ‘What about me?’”
As former commander of the Northern Colorado Drug Task Force, Schiager sees some unnerving parallels between legal and illegal marijuana. Since MMDs began opening en masse, at least six home-growers have been robbed, some at gunpoint.
And the criminal element extends beyond violence. Because the definition of severe pain is vague, numerous Web sites have appeared, giving tips on what symptoms to claim and which doctors are more likely to “rubber-stamp” a recommendation.
Although the registry is approaching a six-month backlog – the office receives over 1,000 applications a day – in September 2009, there were 800 doctors in Colorado who had recommended marijuana to patients. Because marijuana is a plant, it is not an FDA-approved prescription drug or covered by healthcare providers like Anthem and the CSU Health Network. Doctors who have been stripped of their ability to write prescriptions – a federally regulated license – can still sign a marijuana card.
“To curb recreational use, what they need to do is go upstream to the doctors,” Lynn believes. Because she grows in her home, she uses a different last name to protect herself and her patients’ privacy. “I think it’s a nightmare for real patients. There are a lot of unintended consequences that council members are regulating. It’s very fear-based and focused on recreational use.”
A Growing (Student) Problem
As a college town, Fort Collins is enticing. Roughly half of all current MMDs are within 2 miles of CSU, a fact the city hasn’t overlooked.
“I think having a university here makes for a really tempting market, and maybe a market that is tempted,” says Ginny Sawyer, an administrator with Fort Collins neighborhood services. She mentions that aside from using, students are growing in homes with little to no security. “Probably this next renting cycle, you will see some very spelled-out clauses saying ‘no growing on-site.’”
Kris Ticnor, owner of the property agency My House, has seen this problem first hand. When she went to inspect the home of two long-time tenants, she discovered 100 marijuana plants. The residents, also CSU students, had gone through all the steps to register themselves as a private MMD, but they overlooked Ticnor – neither the city nor the tenants notified her when the tax license was approved.
“Their position was, ‘No one comes to our door, we deliver it,’” Ticnor says, stressing that the two lived next to an elderly man. “My position is all it takes is one person, who is high on something else, and all of a sudden cops are all over and I’ve broken my promise to those neighbors.”
Instead of pressing charges or evicting the tenants, she allowed them to stay if they paid for the mold damage caused by the plants. Although she is not against medical marijuana, she sees the situation as one way it can be abused.
“There are certain community organizations that will grab onto this issue as a student issue, not a pot issue,” Ticnor says. “It will become a bad tagline for students.”
Photo by Garrett Mynatt
Sawyer and Schiager were part of a city committee that wrote a new ordinance to regulate MMDs. They held focus groups with patients, business owners and other community members, a process Ticnor believes was a token gesture and similar to the contested 3-unrelated ordinance.
The resulting law, passed on March 16, mapped out defined areas around the city where MMDs can be located. A major concern for the committee was keeping large-scale grows like the one Ticnor found out of residential areas. After July 14, all cultivators and MMDs operating in homes will be illegal – including Lynn’s.
“People already growing illegally will stay that way,” she says. “There’s no need for an ordinance to control them. You’re going to have folks like me who were legal, who will either have to go out of business or move out of the city in order to sustain the model.”
Schiager realizes this will shut down many already-established businesses, but the regulations are meant to protect communities and define what he calls “crazy, contradictory laws.”
On the other side, business owners and activists are fighting decades of pot prejudice. While the ordinance was being written, Gordon and Cutbirth arranged a tour of several local dispensaries to showcase their business model and prove that marijuana can be a viable medicine.
“Initially, there was a lot of apprehension and fear on all sides,” Gordon says. “Now, it’s like, ‘Wow, there is a legitimate need [for MMDs]. We’ve seen how it works and it’s not that bad.’”
The committee was immediately impressed; Schiager often deferred to Gordon and Cutbirth with questions about the ordinance. Despite this relationship, Medicinal Gardens is one of 30 MMDs that could be forced to move or close their doors. The new zoning and spacing requirements could effectively regulate them out of business, something that frustrates Gordon.
“It’s 2010 – 10 years after laws could’ve been implemented and put into effect,” Gordon says. “They are dragging their feet.”
Colorado’s Pot Predicament
Don is a 29-year-old CSU freshman history major and former Marine who tore his rotator cuff while stationed in Washington D.C. After several years, his shoulder never healed and military doctors kept prescribing painkillers “like candy.” By the summer of 2009, he was taking up to four 800-milligram pills at a time, as often as four times a day. He got his registry card in December after developing stomach ulcers from the dosage.
“I’m not doing it to get wasted and stoned,” Don says. “I eventually decided that relief from the pain was worth it. It is something I can afford to do without being screwed up from all the pills.”
Don chose to remain anonymous because his relief comes at a risk: While possession is still a federal crime, he could lose the Veterans Affairs benefits that pay for his tuition.
Don’s unease shows the fickle relationship between state and federal law. Despite a 2009 presidential directive, there is still concern and confusion about personal rights. Marijuana is considered a Schedule I narcotic, on par with ecstasy and mescaline.
“Federal government – the Obama administration – has said they don’t care about medical marijuana,” says Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado, a Denver-based marijuana advocacy group. “But the [Drug Enforcement Administration] didn’t get the memo. We have a branch of the government that is acting in a rogue manner and harassing patients and providers.”
In March, Sensible Colorado teamed with Americans for Safe Access, a national lobbying organization, to train Fort Collins community members and MMD employees on how to react to DEA raids.
“We thought it was important to educate people on how to deal with DEA intervention in Colorado,” Vicente says. “We wanted to send a message to the federal government saying we don’t want any intervention in state laws.”
Spurred by this federal bullying, lawmakers from both parties have created a laundry list of legal marijuana legislation.
State Rep. Tom Massey, a Republican, has sponsored a recent bill that would address what he calls the “loopholes” in Colorado law that allow for MMDs. Dubbed the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code, it would to create the State Licensing Authority for marijuana to track all MMDs, similar to the patient registry.
Another bill, introduced in the Senate, would redefine the physician/patient relationship, requiring doctors to perform a full physical and keep separate records of all patients they recommend for marijuana. It would also prevent doctors from having any connection with MMDs.
With state legislation still up in the air indefinitely – after a major overhaul in the House, the patient/physician bill failed the Senate on March 26 and was sent back to committee – there is a sense of exasperation in Fort Collins.
When asked if he ever imagined himself on a legal marijuana committee, Schiager chuckles.
“I hope this doesn’t turn into a five-year project,” he sighs. “This was never an issue I was looking for to define my career.”
But MMD owners and city officials, including Sawyer, feel that the people at the heart of the legislation – the patients – may have been lost in the process.
“They were able to find caregivers and it made their lives functional,” Sawyer says, recalling the story of a 60-year-old woman who suffered for years with multiple sclerosis until she discovered marijuana. “That is who I would hate to see put at risk by such strong regulations.”
The activist in Gordon remains hopeful that the city won’t force any current MMDs to move. A decision on whether to grandfather the 30 violating businesses under the ordinance will not be made until September. But he is still afraid bureaucracy could stall or even destroy a good thing.
“My biggest fear – myself as a patient and an activist – is I don’t want my patients deferring to street drugs,” Gordon says. “I will fight tooth and flippin’ nail to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Tags: college students, Colorado, Fort Collins, medical marijuana, medicinal gardens of colorado, ordinance, primary caregiver, Volume 5 issue 3
