From: Colorado Citizens for Compassionate Cannabis, sponsors of the
Colorado Compassionate Therapeutic Cannabis Act
http://www.levellers.org/ctca.htm

To: Americans for Medical Rights, sponsors of Medical Use of Marijuana for
Patients with Debilitating Medical Conditions amendment

February 20, 1998

FACTS:
1) The AMR initiative limits patients to possession of 2 ounces of cannabis and the cultivation of 3 plants.

2) Under the now-defunct compassionate Investigative New Drug (IND) program, the eight remaining patients in the program each receive about 8 ounces a month from the federal government to treat their medical condition.  Eight ounces per month is deemed an adequate and "safe" amount by the federal government.

3) It would be botanically impossible to cultivate an adequate supply of cannabis for medicine with only three plants.

4) The AMR initiative does not provide for any distribution system for cannabis, outside of the black market.

Conclusion:
The AMR initiative does not allow patients to possess or cultivate an adequate supply of medicine.  This will force seriously-ill people to go out on the streets more often to procure their medicine on the black market.  This will put patients' lives in danger.

When we asked AMR about this issue in November 1997, Dave Fratello responded that they included the limits to try to appease law enforcement and get them to support the initiative. This is why some call the AMR initiative "the law enforcement model of medicine." We believe that law enforcement will never publicly support a medical marijuana initiative in Colorado and that it is more important to protect the lives of patients than it is to try to appease the concerns of law enforcement.