(Westword) The number of medical marijuana applications the state received last Tuesday? A whopping 1,650 — an all-time record, says state registrar Ron Hyman, who oversees the applications. That’s a mind-blowing figure, especially considering that the total application number had barely crested 5,000 at the start of 2009.
And that day was far from a fluke. “We’re completely buried,” says Hyman. It’s impossible to know just how many marijuana applications in total the state’s been receiving lately; Hyman’s office, way overburdened, just wrapped up processing the applications from September and posted statistical information from that month online: a total of 19,691 patient applications had been received by the end of that month, with 3,000 coming in September alone.
Since then, the numbers have only gotten bigger. To handle it all, Hyman’s requesting the legislature find funds to expand his staff beyond its three permanent and three temporary employees, borrowing money from vital statistics to cover costs; he’s also looking around his workplace for “some storage rooms we can borrow from other programs to store some of the mail in.”
Why is anybody surprised by this? You give people who have been considered criminals as chance to be considered law-abiding citizens and you don’t expect a rush of applications? This shows once again that people who use marijuana desperately want to be considered equals and are law-abiding to a fault when given the chance to do so.
It is estimated that one-in-five worldwide suffer from chronic pain, which marijuana has been shown to help alleviate. Coloradans now have the constitutionally-protected choice of non-toxic low-side-effect cannabis along with all the over-the-counter aspirin and NSAIDs to help control their pain, and we’re shocked that 1,650 in one day would seek out that relief? There are a potential one million chronic pain sufferers in Colorado!
If Colorado’s government is so overwhelmed by applications for medical marijuana cards, perhaps they ought to think about how many applications they aren’t handling for aspirin and NSAIDs or for other medicines recommended or prescribed by their doctor. It doesn’t seem like they are overwhelmed by the pain patients who are taking Oxycontin or Vicodin.
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Simple, much less costly solution? Legalize!