Not guilty pleas for three men in Boulder medical-pot robbery case

Trials for the co-defendants scheduled to begin in February
John Aguilar, Camera Staff Writer

Separate trials were scheduled Friday for three co-defendants in the case of a Boulder medical marijuana dispensary that was robbed in June.

David Henderson, 40; Justin St. John, 29; and Lamare McGee, 22 pleaded not guilty to charges of robbery and kidnapping.

A fourth defendant in the June 16 robbery of New Options Wellness Center -- 21-year-old Walter Carter -- isn't scheduled to be arraigned in the case until Sept. 25.

The quartet is accused of sending St. John into the medical marijuana facility at 2885 E. Aurora Ave. to make a phony pot purchase and case out the place.

Minutes later, McGee and Carter entered New Options, restrained the female employee working there, and stole 26 pint jars with marijuana, 72 sample packs of the drug, canisters of hashish, cannibis pills, pipes, security system components and $1,128 in cash, according to police.

Henderson is accused by prosecutors of masterminding the entire plan and driving the getaway vehicle.

The men were stopped by police driving eastbound on U.S. 36 shortly after the incident and arrested. St. John's trial, scheduled for Feb. 16, is up first.

It will be followed a week later by Henderson's trial. McGee is set to go on trial March 1.

The Boulder County District Attorney's Office has not yet filed a motion to consolidate the cases into one trial.St. John and McGee are free on bond, while Henderson and Carter remain behind bars.

Cannabis Therapy Institute holds health fair at CU

(reprinted from the "Daily Camera" - Boulder, CO - September 12, 2009)

Patients, doctors provide education on medical marijuana
By Scott Franz

The Cannabis Therapy Institute hosted a health fair at the University of Colorado on Saturday to educate the public about marijuana as a medicine and the process involved in becoming a part of Colorado's medical marijuana registry.

"We're not just a bunch of hippy stoners anymore," said medical marijuana patient advocate and Nederland resident Timothy Tipton, who talked to attendees about cannabis as an alternative medicine. "We're baby boomers with a chance to step up and show the public that holistic and healthy alternatives are available."

In his speech, Tipton also commended what he called a "phenomenal turnout and the great medical marijuana community that continues to evolve in the Rocky Mountain state."

More than 100 people filled the Eaton Humanities lecture hall to hear first-hand from other doctors, marijuana law experts and cannabis therapists. Upstairs, more students and visitors from across Colorado talked to representatives from cannabis dispensaries and other related businesses.

"We assembled the best experts from Colorado on the issue," said Laura Kriho, Cannabis Therapy Institute's outreach director. "One of the reasons we're doing this is to educate everyone on how to protect medical marijuana patients."

The Cannabis Therapy Institute is an advocacy group that recently worked with medical marijuana patient Jason Lauve, a Louisville resident acquitted last month on charges of possessing too much medical marijuana. After the acquittal, the institute worked to put together Saturday's fair to promote cannabis education, research and advocacy.

Speaking from a podium adorned with fake marijuana leaf necklaces in the humanities building lecture hall, cannabis therapist Erin Marcove told fair attendees about the positive health effects of marijuana.

Marcove is a medical marijuana patient herself, using marijuana to treat pain that resulted from damage to her nervous system during a surgery when she was 13 years old.

"We're still finding out ways cannabis can be used as a medicine that we never thought we could," Marcove said after sharing results of a study that suggests cannabis can slow down the effects of Alzheimer's disease. "... It's eased my pain as well."

Justin Longley of Boulder attended the fair to listen to the lectures and learn more about what experts are telling potential medical marijuana patients. Longley uses marijuana to treat pain degenerative disc disease.

"Marijuana helps me take as few narcotics as possible," said Longley.

He also expressed concern that too many people are being put on the medical marijuana registry and that some may not need it.

"It makes everybody look bad when doctors are lenient in getting people in the registry, and that hurts the people who really need it," said Longley.

According to Jade E. Dillon, a doctor who has been recommending selected patients to the registry for two years, there are three diagnosis that can qualify her patients for medical marijuana. She will only approve medical marijuana for those with active cancer, glaucoma and HIV/AIDS.

"I have to abide by the registry," said Dillon, a speaker at the event. "There is no other check box or medical condition that can be recognized."

Rasmussen Poll: Majority Of Americans Say Marijuana Is Safer Than Booze

(reprinted from NORML News of the Week 9/3/09)

Ashbury Park, NJ: Slightly more than half of American adults believe that alcohol is "more dangerous" than marijuana, according to a national telephone poll of 1,000 likely voters by the polling firm Rasmussen Reports.

Fifty-one percent of respondents, including a majority of women, rated the use of marijuana to be less dangerous than alcohol. Only 19 percent of those polled said that cannabis is the more dangerous of the two substances.

Twenty-five percent of respondents said that both substances are equally dangerous.

Commenting on the poll results NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano, co-author of the book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink, said: "By almost any objectively measurable standard, cannabis is safer than booze – both to the individual consumer and to society as a whole. However, given our government's longstanding demonization of the cannabis plant and its users it is remarkable that anyone – much less over half of America – recognizes this fact. Ideally, these survey results will spark a long-overdue dialogue in this country asking why our laws target and prosecute those who choose to possess and consume the less dangerous of these two popular substances."

A previous survey conducted by Zogby in 2002 reported that most Americans believe that cannabis is less dangerous than either alcohol or tobacco.For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.