Colorado Senator ~Mold Is A Serious Health Threat When Found In Joints

[Guest guest]

" We need to have standards when it comes to contaminants, particularly

mold, " he continues. " When somebody almost loses a crop either to mold or

spider mites, these things get treated with pesticides or mold gets thrown into

the mix of tinctures and hash oil and all this other stuff. And it puts

people at risk.

" I'm really frustrated with the health department. Their job should be

protecting the public health. But they're so focused on the idea of 21st

Century reefer madness that they've missed a real health problem. You've got

vulnerable, sick people being exposed to pathogens like mold, and instead of

trying to regulate this industry, they've tried to shove it into back alleys

and parking lots -- shove it back underground. They're totally failing to

protect public health in this area. The fact that we haven't already

mandated some kind of association group to do testing of these contaminants is

a

public-health outrage. "

_http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/12/senator_chris_romer_at_the_mar'>http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/12/senator_chris_romer_at_the_mar

..php_

(http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/12/senator_chris_romer_at_the_mar.php\

)

Senator Romer at the marijuana fair: F-bombs mixed with kindness

By in _Follow That Story_

(http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/follow_that_story/) , _Marijuana_

(http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/marijuana/)

Mon., Dec. 14 2009 @ 3:42PM

Senator Romer visited the lion's den on Sunday -- if the lion's

den was full of weed advocates, that is.​Senator Romer, who's_ authored

proposed legislation to regulate medical marijuana in Colorado_

(http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/12/read_the_latest_draft_of_senat.php\

) , is

a contentious figure in debate about the issue. He believes many younger

people with medical marijuana licenses are _exaggerating their illnesses in

order to smoke weed legally_

(http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/11/senator_chris_romers_medical-m.php\

) , and he feels his reform concepts will

lead to the closure of perhaps half the state's dispensaries.

Even so, he belatedly accepted an invitation to attend Sunday's Cannabis

Holiday Health Fair, sponsored by the _Cannabis Therapy Institute_

(http://www.cannabistherapyinstitute.com/) . CTI, which also invited Denver

city

councilman Charlie Brown (he turned up, too), had planned to _set up a camera_

(http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/12/colorado_marijuana_makes_the_c.p

hp) so that attendees could share their opinions with the senator, but

Romer's appearance gave folks the chance to share their views with him

directly -- and man, did they.

" No one threw bong water at me, but it came pretty close, " he says. " I

wasn't physically threatened, but I did have some people yelling at me and

throwing F-bombs. "

Others actually gave his ideas a chance, and he returned the favor. For

instance, he came away with a fresh sense of alarm about " contaminants and

pesticides in edibles and tinctures. I think we need to immediately address

the situation.

" We need to have standards when it comes to contaminants, particularly

mold, " he continues. " When somebody almost loses a crop either to mold or

spider mites, these things get treated with pesticides or mold gets thrown into

the mix of tinctures and hash oil and all this other stuff. And it puts

people at risk.

" I'm really frustrated with the health department. Their job should be

protecting the public health. But they're so focused on the idea of 21st

Century reefer madness that they've missed a real health problem. You've got

vulnerable, sick people being exposed to pathogens like mold, and instead of

trying to regulate this industry, they've tried to shove it into back alleys

and parking lots -- shove it back underground. They're totally failing to

protect public health in this area. The fact that we haven't already

mandated some kind of association group to do testing of these contaminants is

a

public-health outrage. "

This particular stance likely endeared Romer to a percentage of the fair

attendees, and so, too, did his argument that the state should protect

licensed growers who play by all of Colorado's rules from potential federal

prosecution down the line -- the focus of _a Denver Post article_

(http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_13991046) published earlier today.

" I think they were honestly stunned that I understood the tension that's

been created by thirty years of the war on drugs, " Romer says of those at the

fair. " At least five people in that room had felony convictions for trying

to serve patients, so I know the issue of a setting up a database for

growers, and requiring transparency and cooperation with law enforcement, is a

very big ask for them. And if we're going to ask that of them, we have to

provide them with some level of assurance that we'd defend them from some

future drug enforcement administration that has different policies than the

current one. "

When the subject turned to Romer's view that a panel be set up to judge

whether potential medical marijuana patients age 21 or younger really deserve

the state's sanction to smoke pot, things took an uglier turn.

" Some people were truly in the holiday spirit. They were kind to me, truly

gracious, and some people were concerned about my reaction to some of the

other people -- the ones who said some very angry and nasty things to me. "

No need for concern: " I have pretty thick skin, " Romer notes. But he thinks

cooler heads should prevail -- especially because he feels flexibility is

key if meaningful medical marijuana legislation is to pass.

" A year ago, this community was 95 percent underground. And now that

they're above ground, I asked them, 'Are you willing to give back everything

you've gained in the last year in order to fight for recreational marijuana

users under the age of 21?' "

In his view, " 90 percent of the people there understood what I was saying.

They don't want to lose all the gains the medical marijuana community has

made. But for 10 percent of them, nothing short of legalization will satisfy

them. In no way, shape or form will they ever compromise. And if that

group -- the Ganja Gourmet, Dr. Reefer, F-bomb group -- became the face of this

movement, we're dead on arrival.

" They say, 'You're being irrational. Look at liquor. Look at binge

drinking.' But that's not the way politics works. I've talked to PTAs and

Mothers

Against Drunk Driving, and if they believe the medical marijuana community

is going to put their middle schoolers at risk of having access to pot on

the playground, that's it. The whole debate is over. "

Romer acknowledges that some people under 21 have legitimate health issues

that might make medical marijuana a reasonable treatment option. An

example: a fifteen-year old on the registry whose story " was enormously tragic

and

heartbreaking, " he says. " But there's nothing in my bill that would

prevent them, or that would prevent young veterans, from getting access to

medical marijuana. They'd just have to take an extra step. "

He adds that he's open to other notions. " I've put the question in the

community's court. If they can come up with a better solution than my

medical-review panel, that's fine. I'm looking forward to their ideas.

" I understand that I don't have this perfect, " Romer concedes, after

pointing out that his most recent draft of legislation has already undergone

major changes. " But that's why I listen so hard every time I go out -- and they

need to do some listening, too. I'll defend everybody's right for free

speech, but I just need to warn that some of that speech is doing tremendous

harm to people in the medical marijuana community who want to see progress.

Which is why we need to have some adult conversations about this issue. "

Tags: _Cannabis Therapy Institute_

(http://www.westword.com/search/index?collection=blogs & keywords=Cannabis Therapy

Institute & ss=http://blogs.westword.com/latestword) , _Romer_

(http://www.westword.com/search/index?collection=blogs & keywords=Chris

Romer & ss=http://blogs.westword.com/latestword) ,

_medical marijuana_

(http://www.westword.com/search/index?collection=blogs & keywords=medical

marijuana & ss=http://blogs.westword.com/latestword) , _

_

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& ss=http://blogs.westword.com/latestword)