Audio By Carbonatix
Kathleen Chippi is among the area’s most active medical marijuana activists; see a video of her below going after both current Denver mayoral candidate Chris Romer and Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. Her latest mission: to raise funds for a lawsuit to stop official implementation of HB 1284, Colorado’s main MMJ regulatory measure. She’s already spent thousands on the quest, and criticizes attorneys who promised to sue last May but haven’t.
Chippi, the former owner of the dispensary known as One Brown Mouse Parlor/Cannabis Healing Arts, has already made one high-profile attempt to stop HB 1284. As documented on her website, CannabisLawsuits.com, attorney Andrew Reid filed a petition with the Colorado Supreme Court on January 5 challenging the measure on a constitutional basis. (Read the petition below.) Five days later, the court refused to hear the case — meaning it needed to be re-filed at the district court level.
This ruling slowed down the process in a big way, but Chippi was eager to move forward anyway. However, she didn’t have enough money to do so then, and still doesn’t. How much does she need?
“The quote from the attorneys is $25,000 to $50,000,” she notes. “Right now, most of the cost goes to prepping our expert testimony. The arguments are already written, but the attorney has to spend hours with each person testifying to make sure we know what we’re saying when we get on the stand. It’s labor in the process of going to court.”
For months, Chippi has tried to raise this amount with little luck so far. And after funding the unsuccessful Supreme Court bid with $25,000 of her own money, she’s tapped out — although she believes she’s owed a considerable chunk of change. Shortly after the passage of HB 1284, she says she gave an attorney she declines to name a $5,000 retainer toward a future lawsuit — and not only has such a suit never materialized, but the attorney has yet to return the money.
She’s equally frustrated with other lawyers who promised action last year but haven’t delivered, in her view. Chippi points to a May 17, 2010 press release — read it below — entitled “Attorneys Announce Plan to Sue if House Bill 1284 is Approved.” Prominent figures name-checked in it include Brian Vicente, Rob Corry, Jessica Corry, Bob Hoban, Lauren Davis and Sean McAllister.
The entire process has left her feeling “traumatized,” she admits. “I had a hundred of my patients who wanted to be plaintiffs last year, and now I’ve got more. People randomly come up to me, and I say, ‘Sure, you can be a plaintiff.’ But we can’t get started unless I raise the money.”
The clock is ticking. Full implementation of HB 1284 takes place on July 1, “and if we don’t file before then, we can’t get an injunction,” she says. “We want an injunction, because that means everyone who was in business under the constitutional amendment gets to remain in business until the courts decide if HB 1284 is constitutional. But after July 1, patient privacy will be gone. Yes, you’ll be on video, and all your medical records will be accessible to the Colorado Department of Revenue’s information division and any law enforcement agency — and that includes the feds.
“The sale point on donating for a medical marijuana center is this: The feds are going to bust you. It’s just a matter of when. And if we get an injunction, we’re operating under the constitution, just like we did before 1284. The feds didn’t bother us for nine-and-a-half-years before then, and I attribute them being more interested in Colorado to the general assembly creating 1284.”
The odds against Chippi are long, she knows. But she’s convinced her goal is not only just but reasonable.
“People call me a radical because I want to sue,” she concedes. “But it’s not radical to want to abide by the constitution — and that’s all I’m asking for.”
Page down to see the video of Chippi with Romer and Suthers, the May 17, 2010 press release and the unsuccessful Supreme Court petition.
Video: Kathleen Chippi takes on Chris Romer and John Suthers.
