Colorado Medical Marijuana Doctor Arrested For Prescribing Marijuana

CBS Local Denver reported the story of Dr. Joseph Montante this week.  He was convicted in a Colorado court of recommending medical marijuana to a patient without first establishing a bona fide doctor-patient relationship.  Dr. Montante was stripped of his medical license and sentenced to thirty days in jail and three years of probation.

In Colorado.  Where marijuana is legal for recreational purposes.  So, why exactly do we need to jail this man and ruin his career?

Law enforcement brought down this nefarious threat to society by sending in an undercover officer to get a recommendation from Montante.  Yes, less than half of all violent crimes and less than a fifth of all property crimes lead to an arrest in America, but we’ve got all the police time and resources we need to conduct undercover stings on pot docs in a legalized pot state.

Now, this rant doesn’t quite go the same way if I’m telling the story in Washington.  Sure, it’s both medical and legal there, too, but there is quite a difference.  Recreational consumers in Washington can possess an ounce of marijuana, but medical consumers can possess a pound and a half.  Recreational consumers in Washington don’t get the home cultivation right that medical consumers in the state get, which amounts to fifteen plants in any stage of growth.  The only similarity between Washington and Colorado in this regard is that medical consumers in both states can shop for cannabis at established retail outlets, while recreational consumers can’t yet.  Higher possession limits, home cultivation, and dispensaries provide great incentive for a recreational consumer to “go medical” in Washington.

In Colorado, however, there isn’t much difference between a recreational and a medical consumer.  A recreational consumer gets one ounce; a medical consumer gets two.  Both are allowed to grow three mature plants and three immature plants.  There are the well-established dispensaries - more than Starbucks! - where medical consumers get to shop and recreational consumers don’t.  It would seem, then, that the purpose of these undercover stings is to make sure recreational consumers stay out on the black market until the pot shops open in 2014.  Weed dealers throughout the Rocky Mountains say “thank you”.

(As an aside, isn’t that “more dispensaries than Starbucks” line getting old?  It’s not even relevant.  They’re comparing all the sales outlets for cannabis versus one sales outlet for coffee.  Shouldn’t we be comparing the number of places you can legally buy a bag of weed to the number of places you can legally buy a cup of joe?)

No, of course there is more to it than making sure a healthy person who can buy illegally, have an ounce and grow plants isn’t faking it so he can buy legally, have two ounces and grow the same number of plants.  I had forgotten the most important factor in this equation: the children........

You can read the full story here

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