Romer and New Colorado Medical Marijuana Bill

New  bill to regulate Colorado Medical Marijuana and the doctor-patient relationship introduced by Chris Romer.

Chris Romer's bill has wording that includes the 'doctor-patient' relationship, payment, record keeping and new rules for issuance and renewal of Colorado state Medical Marijuana Patient ID cards. There are also increased physician requirements including seperate documentation for Medical Marijuana patients and a ' no payment or remuneration' policy. The new bill also adds Medical Marijuana to the list of existing statutes involving medical records.

Here is a quick summary included in the bill:

Under the bill, the department of public health and environment
(department) will promulgate new rules related to standards for issuing
registry identification cards, documentation for physicians who prescribe
medical marijuana, and sanctions for physicians who violate the bill.
A physician who certifies that a patient can use medical marijuana
shall certify certain information to the department and maintain a separate
record-keeping system for his or her medical marijuana patients. A
physician who certifies that a patient can use medical marijuana shall not
receive remuneration from or offer it to a primary caregiver, distributor,
or any other provider of medical marijuana.
The bill creates a medical marijuana review board (board) that will
consider requests by nonveteran patients under 21 years of age who want
to be registered medical marijuana patients. For a patient who is under
21 years of age to become a registered medical marijuana patient, a
majority of the board must determine that the patient has a debilitating
medical condition and could benefit from the use of medical marijuana.
The bill adds the medical marijuana program to the list of statutes
that involve medical records.

You can read the complete Senate Bill 109 for yourself as it currently stands. This bill may be edited in the coming days and weeks.

The Colorado Medical Marijuana community including patient rights groups and dispensaries have already called the bill a restriction of patients rights to access medical marijuana. Many dispensaries already have doctors on-site or visiting often to assist in approving new patients. This practice will be banned under the new Colorado Medical Marijuana regulation bill introduced by Chris Romer and Nancy Spence.

You can read more about the new bill here.