Court Of Appeals Says No Medical Marijuana Use While On Probation

Medical marijuana users in Colorado that also happen to be in the process of completing their probationary sentence are having a bad day. The Colorado Court of Appeals has sided with an Arapahoe County District Attorney who argued that a registered medical marijuana user who is also on probation cannot use marijuana because the use is a violation of federal law, according to 7News.

The ruling overturns a decision by District Judge Carlos Samour that allowed Leonard Charles Watkins, a man who was sentenced to six years probation after being convicted for sexual assault on a child in 2005, to smoke pot for pain relief of unrelated injuries, 9News reports. Arapahoe County DA Carol Chambers did not agree with Judge Samour's decision, stating to 9News in an email:

Does anyone think it's a good idea to allow a convicted sex offender to get high? People on probation have admitted to violating the law. There are different public safety concerns and different laws that apply to them than apply to the rest of the community.

Apparently the appeals court agreed with DA Chambers and ruled accordingly. According to The Denver Post, the appeals court concluded this: possession and use of marijuana is outlawed federally and a person on probation is prohibited from committing another offense, including federal offenses, so the state's Medical Use of Marijuana Amendment does not allow a court to exempt a person on probation from complying with federal law.

Read the court's ruling below:

State of Colorado v. Leonard Charles Watkins

Comments

[mississippster]

03:10 AM on 03/06/2012

He can still get high on pain pills from the doctor? Get MJ of the Schedule 1 list ASAP!!

[Beamin1]

10:05 AM on 02/13/2012

So he can buy booze and get drunk, which never makes anyone do anything they wouldn't normally do; but he can't have his pain meds that make him unable to speak clearly, stand up straight or think because of the inebriating affect is so intoxicating after only a few small 1.5oz doses, makes perfect sense, right?

[RENAMED Concerned Parent]

09:49 PM on 02/09/2012

I'd rather this guy be at home sleeping off a bong than on the streets looking for trouble.
Just sayin'.

[JohnThomas]

04:02 PM on 02/08/2012

This is just one more example of how medical marijuana patients will NEVER be free until we end the whole, fraudlent, counter-productive marijuana prohibition.

Thank goodness polls show public support for doing so has now passed 50 percent, nationwide. It's over 60 percent in the Western states. California (and perhaps a few other states) will likely re-legalize marijuana at the polls in November. Most of the other states, and the feds, will follow soon after.

This justice, and smart economic move, is WAY past due!

[Pheelgreen]

01:42 PM on 02/08/2012

I wish more people were outrage about the DA letting a child molester to be on probation instead of prison. If the DA would spend the time to put harmful criminals in the prisons instead of drug users we would have a safer place to live.

[Christina Fox]

12:03 PM on 02/08/2012

Please tell me Carol "The Hammer" Chambers isn't trying to make a correlation between the medicinal use of marijuana and pedophilia?

[MMAPA]

03:17 AM on 02/08/2012

What we really need to be asking is why the District Attorney is discriminating against a patient's choice in their medicine. This is not an issue of getting "High" as DA Chambers states, but a debate which should be focused on the benefits of using cannabis versus highly addictive and damaging pharmaceuticals to manage this patient's pain. Why should this patient be forced to use more than is needed to manage his pain. Simply because the person of interest is a sex offender? Not acceptable!

The Medical Marijuana Assistance Program of America works to make alternative treatment accessible and affordable for disabled veterans, hospice patients, and the indigent. For assistance, visit us at www.MMAPA.us or call 855-MMAPA-4U

[MsGypsy]

12:50 AM on 02/08/2012

So medical marijuana is only safe to use if you're not a criminal. Make sense? Nope. Ridiculous to consider pot medically appropriate in the first place; not a shocker to see nothing but trouble from it's usage.

[rayzrface714]

09:43 AM on 02/08/2012

Please try to broaden and enlighten your knowledge of this world in which we live in? The pontificating on a subject about which the speaker has NO personal experience or usage of is considered a disqualifying factor!

[yasunari]

11:19 AM on 02/08/2012

In case you don't know, it's probably one of the first medication used by humans. It's use is proven since the Chinese neolithic period (about 8000 BC).
It's medical use has been continuous since then, before it brutally stopped in 1937.

It's the law that makes absolutely no sense...

[cedy]

11:23 PM on 02/07/2012

I'm not pro Marijuana and don't believe pot heads should smoke it while on probation, or well ever.

Not to say that I'm not for the relief from pain, and hunger stimulation pot causes for truly sick people, and frankly an occasional bowl ain't too bad, like once or twice year.

However, the reasons for this decision are marked with ignorance. Pot doesn't make one a deviant criminal, or a molestor or anything even remotely like that. Politicians should smoke an occasional bowl and stop sticking their foot in their mouths.

[AlfredE69]

10:05 PM on 02/07/2012

What else, no drinking beer? Is the court of appeals a doctor? If so, will it check my cholesterol count and advice me?

[J0E1]

12:01 AM on 02/08/2012

Actually I know someone who was hit with a petty misdemeanor crime which was completely unrelated to drugs, alcohol, or violence and was told that they were forbidden from drinking alcohol, smoking MMJ, or possessing their registered firearm in their own home during their probation... It's judges on power trips who come up with this nonsense.

[jay1975]

09:40 AM on 02/08/2012

While on probation, you are still subject to serve out the rest of your sentence. Smoking MJ is a federal violation and those on probation, if caught, would have to go back to prison to finish their initial sentence.

[AlfredE69]

09:01 PM on 02/08/2012

There's always a tea-tolleling do-gooder buzz killer around.

[Nicon]

08:27 PM on 02/07/2012

Fantastic!

What other medical decisions are we expected to leave up to law enforcement?

[AlfredE69]

10:05 PM on 02/07/2012

A pepe enlargement?

[Nicon]

10:16 PM on 02/07/2012

Pepes of the world might not like being mistaken for peepees

[rayzrface714]

09:40 AM on 02/08/2012

Each and every situation should be treated as if it was a Mathematical Equation waiting for the right use of factors and formulations to solve the Equation?

[rayzrface714]

08:07 PM on 02/07/2012

Slow ,but picking up steam from a virtual unreality? That translates to the pure and untouched beginning of this article!

[RMForbes]

07:28 PM on 02/07/2012

It is difficult defending a child abuser but this is a very bad idea. MMJ is far more than a way to relax and feel good. MMJ has real medical benefits without dangerous side effects, chance of addiction or possibility of overdose. This very well could be a death sentence for some people in the near future.

[fumes]

08:00 PM on 02/07/2012

and this child-abuser is OUT ON PAROLE..

while the eville Canadian Marc Emery rots away IN PRISON..

for selling SEEDS!!!

(can you tell i'm livid?)

[RMForbes]

08:03 PM on 02/07/2012

As well you should we all should be.

[rayzrface714]

08:14 PM on 02/07/2012

Their are due to the laws of probability and the uncontrolled gene pool we have here in these United States such difficulties and injustice that is as happenstance as an occasional rainfall! And you know what predicting the weather can be like? YES,the outstanding and outrageous cases of Dinosaur like thinking are rampant! Times will improve,I am sure of this! Thank you.

[rayzrface714]

07:01 PM on 02/07/2012

How come I am not pending? I tried to post when their was 2 zeroes present on the top of the comments section? Anyone on duty?Come back and find that my bookmarked post is gone(lesson learned) and someone else has their post in before mine! OK! Just curious,that's all!

[rayzrface714]

06:55 PM on 02/07/2012

I bookmarked this because the little wheel kept turning and nothing was happening for ten minutes and now my post is gone? Man? Bad legislation! Having spent almost a third of my 56 years on probation or parole cause of foolish youthful Drug and alcohol abuse I find this to be ignorantly pandering to the fear of the unknown that the majority of America has! I have been going to almost daily AA for 6 years now and life has changed for sure! But will anyone look beneath the tarnished surface and notice this? NO! Also 3 months in a mental hospital after having a nervous breakdown after coming home from a very messed up ARMY in Germany in 1975! Truckdriver with the 3rd Infantry!Have a good day and thank you.

[mojo5654]

08:19 AM on 02/08/2012

Do you have 65 fans because there are 65 people who watch the crazy peoples?