NOREEN: Is the state ending its conspiracy against medicinal marijuana?

For the first time in more than a decade, it appears Colorado state government will end its long-running bipartisan conspiracy against medicinal marijuana.

Monday’s vote by the Colorado Board of Health signaled a surrender of sorts, as the state decided to leave things as they are. No doubt, police and prosecutors lament the fact that the board did not go along with a proposal to sharply limit how Colorado’s medicinal marijuana program would operate.

Law enforcement officials have a rich history of trying to curtail individual liberties — sobriety checkpoints and complaints about Miranda advisements are good examples. While we must support their mission, our balancing act must always make sure police agencies are not allowed to lay too heavy a hand on our civil liberties.

Unlike the other states that have approved medicinal pot laws, Colorado elevated its version by placing it in the state constitution. In a landslide, Colorado voters agreed to create a new constitutional right in 2000 and ever since then a coalition of police, lawmakers (Democrats and Republicans) and the state health department conspired to limit that right as much as possible.

Every other constitutional amendment approved by state voters was soon followed by enabling legislation and often, accompanying regulations approved by the legislature and state agencies.

For almost nine years the legislature did almost nothing with regard to medicinal pot and the health department tried to adopt regulations that were beyond its authority to create.

At Monday’s hearing Breckenridge attorney Sean McAllister cited “the legacy of opposition by the state,” which did its best to limit a program instead of doing what it should have been doing: implementing the will of the electorate.

This has been a disgrace. The medicinal pot amendment is a great civics lesson, a reminder that we have to continually fight for civil liberties or they’ll be eroded a bit at a time.

About 350 supporters of medicinal marijuana, many of them patients, signed up to oppose regulations that would have emasculated the program. There was no grassroots support for the overly stringent regulations, which were backed only by law enforcement and state bureaucrats. The proposed rule changes would have put medicinal pot stores out of business by limiting them to five customers each.

Michael Lee, owner of Cannabis Therapeutics, a medicinal pot store on Fillmore Street, led a strong contingent from El Paso County. He chided health board members, saying “None of you have ever come to visit, none of you have ever come to see.”

A parade of Iraq War veterans, HIV patients and many others overwhelmed the dozen law enforcement witnesses.

Justice was done, freedom maintained — for now.

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