Medical Marijuana

The passage of Colorado Amendment 20 authorizing the medical use of marijuana for persons suffering from debilitating medical conditions has turned the when’s and how’s of legal marijuana growing, selling, purchasing and using into one of the most actively changing criminal law topics in the state. Since the passage of Amendment 20, various legislative bodies have passed numerous—and sometimes confusing—laws that modify and shrink patients’ rights to use medical marijuana. At the same time, many law enforcement authorities have continued to vigorously investigate and prosecute cases that they consider to be in the “gray areas” of the medical marijuana laws. Regardless of these facts,

The attorneys at Laszlo & Associates work hard to keep abreast of changes to the laws surrounding medical marijuana, and to use those laws to advise and assist medical marijuana patients and medical marijuana caregivers. Additionally, our criminal defense attorneys never lose sight of the fact that the constitutional rights to privacy and freedom from overreaching by law enforcement apply with equal power to medical marijuana caregivers and patients as to any other Colorado citizen. We will scrutinize not only the available immunities and defenses to which medical marijuana patients and caregivers are entitled under Colorado Amendment 20, but also the handling of searches and seizures by law enforcement that might have led to the discovery of medical marijuana.

In the recent past, the attorneys of Laszlo & Associates have used Colorado Amendment 20 and the rights of medical marijuana patients and caregivers in the following significant cases:

2007- The attorneys of Laszlo & Associates successfully challenged a requirement that a medical marijuana patient submit to urinalysis for marijuana use as a condition of probation or a condition of bond.

June 2010- Laszlo & Associates worked to protect the rights of a medical marijuana patient who had obtained a doctor recommendation for the use of medical marijuana but not submitted documentation to the medical marijuana registry retained by the Colorado Department of Health.

September 2010- Our attorneys won the dismissal of a client whose home was illegally searched by the police, which led to the discovery of a medical marijuana grow. Although the client also had a defense to the criminal charge that he was legally allowed to grow marijuana for medical use, the Firm was able to save the client significant exposure by winning the case on constitutional grounds prior to jury trial.