Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010
Subject: #432 Colorado In The News
COLORADO IN THE NEWS
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #432 – Friday, 12 February 2010
While not yet rivaling the medical cannabis dispensary news from
California there has been a substantial increase in medical marijuana
news from Colorado.
On December 28, 2000 the Constitution of Colorado was amended to
include medical marijuana. That makes Colorado different than other
states where laws were passed by initiative or the state legislature.
Read Section 14 of the Colorado Constitution at http://mapinc.org/url/NU0HpB5k
Please note that for magazines, with very rare exceptions, the cover
date or Pubdate is the date that the magazine is removed from sale.
Now and in the future news clippings specific to Colorado appear at
http://www.mapinc.org/states/co/ , dispensary items at
http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries and United Stated medicinal
cannabis items at http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 . Many of the news
clippings may be worthy targets for your letters to the editor.
Sustaining all the activities of DrugSense in support of the reform
community is difficult in these hard economic times. Please consider
giving what you can. Details are at http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
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Pubdate: Mon, 22 Feb 2010
Source: Newsweek (US)
Copyright: 2010 Newsweek, Inc.
Contact: letters@newsweek.com
Author: Tony Dokoupil, NEWSWEEK
COLORADO’S DOPE DILEMMA
With more medical-marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks outlets,
Denver has emerged as the per capita frontrunner for curative ganja.
As more residents partake of doctor-prescribed pot, however, questions
are emerging about where the line is between an employee’s right to
use medical marijuana and an employer’s right to a drug-free office.
Employers, of course, don’t need to accommodate a worker who shows up
stoned. But can someone who legally tokes on his own time, and whose
performance isn’t hurt, be fired for failing a drug test? “We’re in
uncharted territory,” says Vance Knapp, a Denver employment lawyer who
expects the issue to be tested in the courts soon.
So far, judges in California, Washington, Montana, and Oregon have
sided with employers. But because Colorado’s medical-marijuana laws
are in its constitution, not just statutes, legal experts give the
edge in any test case to employees. That could mean a breakthrough
victory for users, swinging momentum their way and giving pro-patient
lawyers in other states much-needed–if nonbinding–precedent.
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Suggestions for Writing LTEs Are at Our Media Activism
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http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides
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Prepared by: Richard Lake, Senior Editor www.mapinc.org
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