Friday, August 26, 2011
Medical Marijuana Marijuana, lies and videotape: State apparently holds unpublicized meetings
Posted by Bryce Crawford on Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 2:49 PM
It's hard to tell exactly what compels a person to lie to your face, and then walk away in the middle of being asked a question, but that's exactly what a woman with the Colorado Department of Public Safety did to marijuana activists in Denver on Wednesday, according to a video posted on YouTube by Robert Chase of the Colorado Coalition for Patients and Caregivers.
The whole problem started with allegations from the Cannabis Therapy Institute that the Marijuana Per Se workgroup — a state committee made up of advocates, law enforcement and lawyers created to make a recommendation on the legal limit of marijuana in a driver's blood — had conducted six meetings basically in secret, in apparent violation of Colorado's Sunshine Law. (As first reported by Westword.)
"Marijuana criminal defense attorney Sean McAllister (Breckenridge, CO) is the co-chair of the Marijuana Per Se Workgroup," Laura Kriho, of CTI, writes in a release. "He has refused to investigate past violations of the Open Meetings Laws by his committee. He has told activists that if they want the group to comply with the Open Meetings Laws, they need to hire a lawyer and take the group to court."
The group consists of: Arapahoe County sheriff Grayson Robinson, Christine Flavia with the Division of Behavorial Health, Heather Garwood with the Colorado Judicial Department, Rod Walker with the Colorado Springs Police Department, addiction specialist Laura Spicer, McAllister, 5th Judicial District district attorney Mark Hurlbert and Mike Elliott, the previous leader of the push to not ban medical marijuana in El Paso County.
All of this prompted Chase, Kriho and Kathleen Chippi of the Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project to arrive at the group's next planned meeting and protest, on camera, the group's lack of openness. (They found out about the meeting after e-mailing with McAllister.) Then they found out the meeting had been cancelled; why it had been cancelled, though, seemed up for debate.
Starting at 3:15 in the video:
Kriho: Why was the meeting cancelled?
First woman: I don't know. They didn't tell me.
Chase: Well, it's because it was an illegal meeting, as we well know, but ...
Second woman walks up.
Second woman: So, they're all attending a funeral. And that's why the meeting was cancelled. (Pointing at the camera.) Is that running? ... No one is here. I'm trying to tell you that. It's for a funeral.
Later.
Chase: Unless this funeral was just concluded this morning, it seems a little absurd. Because I was in communication with ...
Second woman walks off.
Later, Kim English, research director for the Division of Criminal Justice says to Chase (7:30) that "the meeting was cancelled because we wanted to make sure that people would be informed of the next meeting," confirming to the group that previous individual's funeral reasoning "was misinformation."
"It's more than that," Chase replied. "It's a lie."
Look for more in next week's Independent.
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
So, is anyone going to sue the group for 6 secret meetings--6 violations of the Open Meetings Act? And, btw, are the minutes posted anywhere online?
like
dislike
Posted by
Citizen Pain
on August 26, 2011 at 7:35 PM
Posted by
scorpionkiss
on August 27, 2011 at 8:37 AM
In April(check out that month's cover), we predicted that people would be pulled over and taken in for a THC DUI test, and people said it would never happen. Well it happened in Wyoming last week. The guy fought the cops, but they held him down and took his blood! Where do you think Colorado is heading? These secret meetings with the lobbyists of MMIG and a DUI attorneys are not a good sign.
When they pull you over and see that you have a red card, guess who is going to ride with them for a blood test. People this is REAL and this is NOW. CONTACT MMIG, SEAN MCALLISTER, AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. Tell them how you feel!
Posted by
MileHiMMJPatient
on August 27, 2011 at 4:03 PM
We in Montana are fighting much the same battle. Voters initiated the MMJ act in 2004 with 62% of voter appoval. Since then our elected officials have initiated their own agenda to dismantle our laws they were in fact to uphold, as being civil servants, a fact they have long forgotten. I am outraged as many others are of their behavior, and election time will get rid of these self centered polititions. The will of the people should always prevail over any polititions views. Please vote.
Posted by
Randy Dahl
on August 28, 2011 at 1:29 PM
