Subject: Medicine

• Day Three: Burger King on Colfax and Kalamath

  September 20, 2007

• Jack Kevorkian and Colorado's Right to Die Movement

  March 25, 2008

• Smokin' Stats About Colorado DUI Deaths

  April 18, 2008

• Gluten-Free Food Fair

  June 13, 2008

• Least popular button on 14th Street: FluVote

  August 25, 2008

• Breaking: Paramedic at Denver Health forged certification, boss covered up

  November 7, 2008

• It takes balls to be the World Testicle Cooking Champion

  Back when this city was so concerned with being lean and green, I wondered what that health-conscious program would do to the proper preparation of Rocky Mountain oysters, Colorado's unofficial state food (as seen on the Let's Talk Colorado tourism page, which I took to task for its general incoherence in "Balls!"). After all, breading and deep-frying sliced bull's testicles is about the only way to make these items seem palatable to the general public; nobody want

  December 10, 2008

• Planned Parenthood -- for all your holiday gifts

  I can be one hard gal to shop for, and I've been known to exchange, re-gift and return gifts. I can't help it -- which means many of my exhausted family members and friends have simply given up and retreated to the faithful standby of gift cards and certificates. Haters say the cards or certificates are generic and thoughtless, but not me. I say bring 'em on -- that is, until Planned Parenthood got in on the game. That's right: Planned Parenthood gift certificates. The certificates are for s

  December 11, 2008

• Denver Health to City Auditor: You aren't the boss of us!

  Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher presented his office's long-awaited report on the city's emergency medical response system yesterday, saying that the information his team has compiled "speaks for itself." His choice of such a careful phrase to describe the scathing assessment is indicative of the bitter inter-agency politics that have hovered around the audit since it was announced ten months ago. The report concludes that lack of comprehensive oversight of Denver's EMS system has resulted i

  December 19, 2008

• Meet Dr. Marc Philippon, the man on whom Alex Rodriguez's 2009 season rests

  Dr. Marc Philippon. Yesterday, baseball fans read plenty about Dr. Marc Philippon. He's the Vail-based hip expert who recently examined Yankees slugger (and admitted steroid user) Alex Rodriguez, determining that he's not only got a bizarre cyst -- wonder how that popped up? -- but also a torn labrum. If rest doesn't allow A-Rod to play with these maladies, he'll have to undergo surgery that may force him to miss four months of the upcoming season. But what's Philippon's story? Click "Continue

  March 6, 2009

• Denver Health pledges to fix response times by adding paramedics

  Talk about a change in bedside manner. In a presentation to members of City Council Wednesday, hospital administrators from Denver Health publicly acknowledged for the first time that their ambulance response times are not meeting national standards. The admissions, however subtle, came as the task force convened by Katharine Archuletta, an aide to Mayor John Hickenlooper, laid out plans for how the hospital, fire department and Denver's 911 system will work together to meet goals set by the

  April 3, 2009

• A Hospital Without Walls

  Denver’s Court to Community program is showing promise.

  May 29, 2008

• From the week of February 19

  February 19, 2009

• Lending Aid

  AfroBlu mixes things up to raise funds for AIDS in Africa.

  December 11, 2008

• First Blood

  November 20, 2008

• A Denver Health paramedic fakes his license, and his boss keeps it under wraps

  November 13, 2008

• A Walk to Remember

  September 4, 2008

• Out of AFrica

  The World Vision Experience personalizes the horror of AIDS in Africa.

  July 3, 2008

• Letters to the Editor

  June 19, 2008

• Whoops!

  Denver Health finally responds to response-time queries.

  June 12, 2008

• Prom, ganja and the smell test

  Did Sarah Heideman's prom date smell like... this? Hard to ignore a press release with this headline: "Brighton High School Senior Excluded From Prom Because Her Date 'Smelled Like Medical Marijuana.'" According to the release, the incident in question involved Brighton High senior Sarah Heideman, who wasn't allowed to go to prom because her date, Jason Schweinsberg, allegedly had a whiff of weed about him. Both he and Heideman deny having toked prior to the event, although Schweinsberg is a m

  May 6, 2009

• Kenny Be's Worst-Case Scenario: How to avoid the swine flu hypedemic, part2

  Forget the Swine Flu epidemic. The Swine Flu hypedemic is far more contagious...

  May 7, 2009

• Tour Denver the DaVita way

  The announcement that DaVita, a healthcare giant specializing in kidney dialysis, is moving its corporate headquarters to the Denver area offers a rare bit of good economic news during a period filled with plenty of the opposite sort -- and judging by its website, execs at the firm understand that surviving tough times means finding as many ways as possible to make their services indispensible. For instance, its guest-services section offers tips on "Easy Traveling on Dialysis," complete with

  May 27, 2009

• Boulder pot robbery could add wrinkle to July medical-marijuana hearing

  Our February 4 story, "Medical Marijuana Has Become a Growth Industry in Colorado," described how the state's medical pot laws have fueled a booming dispensary industry -- an industry that was starting to look like the Wild West, with robberies and rip-off accusations thanks to lax regulations and fly-by-night entrepreneurs. Now, as noted in yesterday's blog "Men Wanted for Taking Medical Marijuana Without Prescription," you can add one more high-profile stick-up job to the list of local marij

  June 18, 2009

• Dude, there's my pot! Boulder police set to return stolen weed to dispensary

  New Options Wellness Clinic, a Boulder marijuana dispensary, had a real buzzkill last week when a group of robbers held up the operation and made off with two large tubs of marijuana. Things are looking up this week, however. Not only have the police identified four suspects in connection with the robbery (David Henderson, 40, of Denver; Justin St. John, 29, of Denver; Walter Carter, 21, of Aurora; and Lamar McGee, 22, of Lakewood), but the cops have also apparently obtained the stolen weed --

  June 25, 2009

• The way the Adams County Coroner is running his office could be dead wrong

  July 2, 2009

• Will Monday be judgment day for Colorado's medical marijuana industry?

  It's hard to understate the explosive rise of Colorado's medical marijuana industry. When Westword took an in-depth look at issue in the February 2009 article "Medical marijuana Has Become a Growth Industry in Colorado," just over 5,000 patients had been approved by the state to use marijuana -- which was legalized in the state for medicinal purposes when voters passed Amendment 20 in 2000. And, with roughly two-dozen marijuana dispensaries statewide, experts at the time were saying Colorado's

  July 16, 2009

• Live blog: The Colorado Health Department's medical marijuana hearing

  The Latest Word is at a Colorado Board of Health's hearing, where the board will consider new medical marijuana regulations that some believe will jeopardize the newly booming industry, as Joel Warner reported last week ("Will Monday be judgment day for Colorado's medical marijuana industry?"). We'll update throughout the day with observations, musings, and maybe some tips on where you can get the good stuff. 9:15 a.m.: The hearing is in conference room 250 of the Tivoli Student Union on the Au

  July 20, 2009

• Score one for medical marijuana: Health board rejects restrictions

  After 12-plus hours of testimony, the state health board on Monday rejected a key restriction on medical marijuana dispensaries -- a rule that would have limited them to five patients each. You have to imagine this was the most attention ever heaped on the health board, which played host to hundreds of whooping supporters of the state's booming medical-pot industry. See photos and read a blow-by-blow rundown of the hearing in yesterday's live blog, penned by Melanie Asmar and Jared Jacang Maher

  July 21, 2009

• Colorado's marijuana growing pains continue

  ​In July, at the end of a marathon twelve-plus hour hearing attended by hundreds, the state health board rejected contentious new restrictions on medical marijuana dispensaries, including one that may have limited them to five patients each. But that doesn't mean questions and controversies surrounding the state's booming medical marijuana industry have come to an end. Last week, for example, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released new medical marijuana registry

  August 4, 2009

• The Beauvallon is bitter grounds for Aviano Coffee

  August 13, 2009

• The Cannabis Therapy Institute's open letter to Colorado officials

  The logo of the Cannabis Therapy Institute.​The Cannabis Therapy Institute, an organization "dedicated to helping patients achieve a better quality of life with cannabis," may have an Iowa phone number, but it's been very involved of late with pot issues in Colorado. Its "About Us" page notes, "Recently, our advocates helped secure a victory for Jason Lauve, a Boulder County Medical patient who was being prosecuted for having 'too much' medical cannabis. The jury acquitted him on the groun

  August 25, 2009

• CU to host Cannabis Health Fair

  ​Colorado's confusing medical-marijuana laws have led to plenty of puffing on all sides of the issue, with the Cannabis Therapy Institute taking a leading role in pushing for greater availability of what it sees as a healing weed. Last week, the organization joined forces with other medical-marijuana advocates as part of the Medical Cannabis Policy Group, which sent a letter to officials across the state seeking greater communication and cooperation on the subject. And now, CTI is sponsori

  September 2, 2009

• Could Clendenin case deal a blow to Colorado's pot biz?

  ​As noted in this week's cover story, "Pot of Gold," while Colorado's Amendment 20, which legalized marijuana in 2000, does not cover the subject of marijuana dispensaries, a flood of such operations are opening statewide under the auspices of a complicated legal framework that's evolved within the vague constraints of the amendment. While dispensary owners and their legal representation argue their ventures are protected by these legal structures, so far state officials have been wary to

  September 14, 2009

• Will it be Hoppy Days for Oktoberfest?

  September 17, 2009

• What's scarier: swine flu or the vaccine to prevent it?

  The virus.​Plenty of parents are terrified to vaccinate their children these days, fearing side effects that are worse than what the vaccine was intended to prevent in the first place. Such concerns are magnified in the case of H1N1, aka the swine flu. After all, as noted in Joel Warner's blog this past April, the feds tried to vaccinate the entire U.S. population in advance of a swine-flu outbreak circa 1976 -- but an epidemic never materialized, and 25 people died from likely vaccine com

  October 6, 2009

• Village Tavern toasts Breast Cancer Awareness Month with Hope-tini

  ​ During October, Village Tavern ,at 1 West Flatiron Crossing Drive in Broomfield, is marking the 25th anniversary of Breast Cancer Awareness Month by serving up special Hope-tini cocktails to raise money for breast cancer research. "People are definitely interested," says John Davis, Village Tavern bar manager. "It's that time of year where there is a lot of awareness about cancer." The restaurant is donating $2 from the sale of each Hope-tini, made with vodka, Tuaca Italian liqueur,

  October 5, 2009

• Wake-Up Call: Mile High City going to pot

  ​Yesterday, Westword's quest for a medical-marijuana critic made the New York Times, after already being featured in the Wall Street Journal, MSN and CNBC. My e-mail box overflowed and my phone rang off the hook. It's funny how the national media has jumped all over this. "Is this the most attention you've ever gotten?," asked one reporter -- words that warm the heart of any editor who's hoping for attention for a big investigative scoop, but instead gets the call for what a national outf

  October 6, 2009

• Cannabis Therapy Institute offers framework for dispensary regulations

  ​Last night, city councils at localities throughout the state, including Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville and Thornton, discussed the issue of medical-marijuana dispensaries at city council meetings. In Durango, for instance, officials approved preliminary tweaks in regulations, setting hours of operation and forbidding such businesses to locate in residential neighborhoods. Against this backdrop, the Cannabis Therapy Institute, one of the state's most vigorous medical-marijuana advocacy g

  October 7, 2009

• Healthcare pro says "no" to swine-flu vaccine

  The virus at work.​In a Tuesday blog, the Colorado Department of Health's Margaret Huffman reassured the public that the H1N1/swine-flu vaccine was safe and said concerns about it weren't dominating calls received on the state's CoHELP info line. If so, that flies in the face of a new Associated Press poll in which more than a third of those questioned called the odds of them giving the okay for their kids to be vaccinated at school "unlikely." Their reasons? Worries about side effects, as

  October 8, 2009

• Swine flu doesn't make for good times

  Put this on.​Having to utter the words "emergency room" is almost never good. And when the sentence also involves your kid, it's even worse. Such was the case for me recently when I took my seven-year-old kid to the ER at Rose Medical Center after the fever he'd had for two days spiked to 103 degrees -- even after giving him Tylenol. The scene there was straight out of a CNN story on swine flu. Kids slumped over in chairs wearing surgical masks. Their parents, brows furrowed, also in mas

  October 12, 2009

• Betcha Jim Spencer loved making this call to the Post

  "And here's another mistake you guys made..."​Back in 2007, the Denver Post's Jim Spencer was downsized right out of his plum metro-columnist's gig -- and months after landing a job as the communication director for the University of Colorado Denver's School of Medicine, he was still publicly lamenting the way he was jettisoned from his beloved career. So imagine his satisfaction when he was able to force the Post to publish a correction about a Wednesday graphic identifying UCD's med scho

  October 15, 2009

• Felony weed charges dropped against "pregnant caregiver" Sherri Versfelt

  Sherri Versfelt shows off her baby bump.​Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett says he's "committed to having the most progressive approach to medical marijuana of any DA's office in the state." And yesterday, he took another step toward establishing that reputation by dismissing charges against Nederland's Sherri Versfelt, who was scheduled to go to trial next week on felony drug charges. In a release about this development, the Cannabis Therapy Institute, one of numerous medical-mariju

  October 16, 2009

• Wake-Up Call: Talk about the Mile High (and Higher) City!

  ​Even Balloon Boy couldn't knock our hunt for a medical-marijuana reviewer out of the national news. Yesterday, NPR's Sunday show ran a piece about our quest, resulting in still more applications coming in from across the country. But sorry, folks: We're looking for a Colorado resident, someone who can identify not just particular strains, but deal with the state-specific peculiarities of what's rapidly becoming Colorado's s greenest business. The medical marijuana industry is already boo

  October 19, 2009

• Colorado Attorney General John Suthers rips new Obama administration medical-marijuana regulations

  "Stop using medical marijuana! In the name of my interpretation of the law!"​Colorado Attorney General John Suthers wants to put the medical-marijuana genie back in the bottle -- so it's hardly surprising that he's not thrilled by the Obama administration's efforts to put enforcement of rules pertaining to dispensaries in the hands of states. Shortly after the new guidelines were released, Suthers issued a statement declaring that the document "relies on the faulty assumption that Colorado

  October 19, 2009

• SAFER's Mason Tvert on medical marijuana, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and a weed poll on the rise

  Mason Tvert gets ready for Halloween. Busted!​It's already been a big week in marijuana. Yesterday, the Obama administration issued new, less strident rules about medical-marijuana, prompting Colorado Attorney General and anti-pot crusader John Suthers to demand tighter regulations on dispensaries. Meanwhile, 44 percent of respondents to a new Gallup poll advocated legalization of marijuana across the board. Granted, 54 percent still opposed it -- but the legalize-it numbers are up 8 perce

  October 20, 2009

• Was the Dan Tang Drug Trafficking Organization in cahoots with Colorado dispensaries?

  The grow houses had a lot of pot -- but was it going to dispensaries?​In February 2008, as detailed in the recent Westword stories "Up in Smoke" and "Tales of the Dragon," DEA agents and north metro narcotics detectives uncovered an indoor marijuana ring the likes of which Colorado had never seen. As part of "Operation Fortune Cookie," investigators hauled more than 24,000 high-grade marijuana plants and millions of dollars out of cookie-cutter suburban ranch homes in the largest and possi

  October 20, 2009

• Medical-marijuana advocates fight Mexican drug cartel reports with the Always Buy Colorado Cannabis pledge

  Coming to a medical-marijuana dispensary near you?​Opponents of medical-marijuana laws like Colorado Attorney General John Suthers are increasingly playing the crime card -- implying that the proliferation of dispensaries in Colorado is fueling illegal and increasingly dangerous behavior (without, of course, providing specific examples of the phenomenon). Today's Denver Post adds a chorus to this tune via an article suggesting that demand for ganja has grown so fast that suppliers are havi

  October 21, 2009

• Wake-Up Call: My life has gone to pot

  ​It's been three weeks since we first posted news of our search for a medical-marijuana reviewer. Within five minutes of that posting, we had our first application for this extremely part-time job. Within ten minutes, our first media inquiry. And the applications and media calls keep coming. This morning -- while on hold with CBS, which called me just after 4 a.m., then postponed the interview because another segment ran long (breaking news? A Balloon Boy update?) -- I fished another fif

  October 22, 2009

• The new pot biz: Marijuana institutes

  Calling Professor Pot!​The explosive growth of Colorado's marijuana dispensary scene is sooo September 2009. The next big thing, it turns out, is marijuana institutes -- organizations designed to help folks makes heads or tails of the heady medical marijuana scene. The development is a no-brainer. The state's medical marijuana law is so vague -- it doesn't mention dispensaries at all -- that every dispensary in town keeps a lawyer on retainer to help them stay on the up-and-up.

  October 28, 2009