Apothecary Dumped MMJ Registry Forms?

It was the last thing Harold Morton expected to find while taking some recyclables out to the alley behind his home. When he walked past a Dumpster, he saw it in a cardboard box: a thick blue binder.

"I picked the book up and I opened it and right away. I noticed the top of each page; medical marijuana registry forms. The next thing I noticed is there is all these people's personal information on each one of those sheets," Morton said.

The forms were inside plastic sleeves and contained social security numbers and dates of birth, along with patient names, addresses and telephone numbers. The binder contained the personal and medical information of dozens of patients.

The forms were on letterhead identified as Apothecary of Colorado, a dispensary in Denver.

Adam Stapen, an attorney for Apothecary of Colorado, says their patient records are "kept under lock and key to protect privacy of patients."

He says the current owners purchased the dispensary on July 1 and it is possible the patient records are from before that.

While the Colorado Department of Revenue is charged with overseeing medical marijuana dispensaries, they have no statutory authority regarding the handling of patient records. The state legislature would need to pass a statute creating such authority.

"This is really upsetting that patient personal information, their medical records, could be so carelessly discarded and left for others to find. Not only does it raise the specter of identity theft, but is also compromises people's personal medical information," Pat Steadman, a Colorado state senator representing Denver, said. "This is something the legislature probably will be debating come next month."

Morton was going to deliver the binder to the Denver Police. He says his concern is for the patients with information in the binder.

"I thought people should know all this information was loose, lying in an alley in Denver," Morton said. "I've had problems in the past with identity theft myself and that was my first thought, that all of these people's identities could or already have been stolen."

Did Apothecary of Colorado knowingly trash these documents?

MMJ Recommendation For A Pregnant Women Has Doctor Fighting For His License

A Colorado physician suspected of recommending medical marijuana to a 28-weeks pregnant woman without conducting a thorough physical examination is fighting to keep his license.

A panel of the Colorado Medical Board last month ordered an emergency suspension of the license of Dr. Manuel De Jesus Aquino of Denver, pending a full investigation and finding, officials said.

Sheila H. Meer, the doctor's attorney, said she filed an answer Wednesday to the complaint made by the attorney general's office against her client.

"We will vigorously defend it," Meer said of Aquino's license, without commenting on the specific allegations made by the state. She said a hearing is scheduled for early March.

Reached by telephone Wednesday evening, Aquino declined to comment on specifics of the case.

A spokesman with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies said the civil case is about the standard of care, rather than the issue of medical marijuana.

"Being able to practice medicine is a very serious thing," said Chris Lines. "This doctor is way out of line in terms of caring for his patients."

A proper doctor-patient relationship involves more than a brief check-up, he added.

According to the complaint, the female patient was seen by Aquino in January at the Back to the Garden Health and Wellness Center in Denver.

The 20-year-old woman knew she was pregnant and sought a medical marijuana recommendation, the complaint said, adding that "pregnancy is a contraindication for the use of medical marijuana."

Aquino did not ask the patient if she was pregnant, she did not tell him, and Aquino failed to perform a thorough physical examination, according to the complaint. He did ask for and was given the reason -- unspecified in the complaint -- why the patient sought medical marijuana.

The patient was not asked to fill out a prior medical history form or come for follow-up visits, and spoke with Aquino for about three minutes, the complaint alleges. "Respondent did not provide Patient A with counseling regarding the risks of medical marijuana use during pregnancy," the state alleges.

Aquino signed a form indicating the woman might benefit from medical use of marijuana, the complaint states.

The woman gave birth on April 8 and had a positive urine drug screen for marijuana, according to the allegations. "Patient A's infant was drug exposed and had some initial feeding difficulties," the complaint says.

The complaint doesn't indicate whether the mother was accused of wrongdoing.

Back to the Garden Health and Wellness Center had no comment Wednesday.

Aquino could face various forms of discipline, according to the complaint. His alleged failure to do a full inquiry of the patient's medical history "fails to meet the generally accepted standard of medical practice," Assistant Attorney General Philip Davis contends.

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Colorado Works On Setting THC Driving Limit

A new proposal could set the driving
THC threshold at 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood.

Colorado could soon establish tough new measures to crack down on those who toke and drive.

Under a proposal expected to be introduced at the Capitol early next year, the state would create a threshold for the amount of THC — the psychoactive component of marijuana — drivers could have in their blood. Anyone who is stopped and tests above that limit would be considered to be driving while stoned.

Drivers suspected of being impaired by marijuana or other drugs already have to submit to a blood test or face a suspension of their licenses. But the proposed law would set a standard at which the law would presume a driver impaired by marijuana.

"It will bring some clarity to the issue of whether you are or are not impaired under the influence of marijuana," said state Rep. Claire Levy, a Boulder Democrat who is likely to be one of the proposal's sponsors in the legislature. ". . . There isn't a bright line right now."

State law already bans driving while under the influence of drugs, but law enforcement officials say the law is vague on how they should establish a suspect is high. That — plus the concern that the state's medical-marijuana explosion could lead to more impaired driving — led members of a subgroup of the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice to examine the issue, said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson, a commission member.

"It became clear to us that marijuana is an area that had not been given due consideration," he said.

Gauging impairment

The proposal, which the full commission endorsed last month, sets the THC threshold at 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood. Robinson said research shows that level is indicative of impairment. Anyone over the threshold would be presumed to be impaired, in the same way any driver with a blood-alcohol content over 0.08 percent is considered to be too drunk to drive.

Sean McAllister, a lawyer who serves on the commission's drug policy subgroup, said the research doesn't take into account the tolerance level of frequent users. He said he worries that the proposal could unfairly affect medical-marijuana patients, who may be able to have higher THC levels without impairment.

But, he said, he agrees something needs to be done, and he said he advises patients to wait at least four hours after using marijuana before driving.

"No responsible advocate of legalization believes that people should be driving high," McAllister said.

David Kaplan, the state's former top public defender, said he shares concerns over the 5-nanogram level and whether "there was a strong enough correlation on what impact it has on your driving behavior."

Still, Kaplan, who is the vice chairman of the commission, said he supports the process by which the commission came to its proposal.

Other states set limits

If the proposal is adopted, Colorado would not be the first state to set a maximum THC limit for drivers. A number of states have zero-tolerance policies for drivers with THC in their blood. A handful of states, including Pennsylvania, have a 5-nanogram limit for marijuana or its metabolites, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.

Marijuana advocates and law enforcement officials often clash over how big of a problem stoned driving is.

A report last month from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration found that at least one in five drivers who were killed in car crashes in 2009 subsequently tested positive for drugs. THC or some other form of marijuana showed up in 1,085 of the 21,798 drivers killed. In Colorado, THC or some other form of marijuana showed up in 26 of the 312 drivers killed that year.

The commission's proposal will likely be turned into a draft bill and introduced in the legislature during the early part of next year's session, which starts in January. Because it has the backing of the commission, its sponsors are optimistic it will receive a warm reception.

State Rep. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which would likely be first to vote on the proposal, agreed.

"I think there's a lot of support for that idea," he said.