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FBI Raids Marijuana Clinic, Takes Patient Info

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Aug 17, 2009 7:31 pm US/Mountain

FBI Raids Marijuana Clinic, Takes Patient Info

DENVER (CBS4) ― A raid on a medical marijuana doctor referral service and dispensary may have long-term consequences. The raids were part of an investigation into a credit card fraud ring, but CBS4 has learned medical marijuana patient information was taken in the raids. That information is supposed to remain confidential under state law.

When the FBI raided Canna Med it brought to the surface a business that has been quietly growing in the Denver area. There are some 9,000 people now listed on the state medical marijuana registry. An advertisement offers $90 recommendations to get a state medical marijuana card. Another ad promises a doctor on site and still another offers a license in 35 days guaranteed.

"A doctor's referral service provides a very important role," said medical marijuana attorney Robert J. Correy, Jr. "It puts the patient in touch with the doctor to recommend medical marijuana. That's important because a lot of doctors are afraid to do so."

Some clinics provide doctors and the availability of marijuana at the same location with advisory notices posted on the door.

Teri Robnett at the Peace in Medicine Center says there probably are some people who go there to use medical marijuana as an excuse to smoke pot.

"You know I imagine that's true for some but I would say the vast majority that we see, that's not the case," Robnett said.

The THC Foundation Medical Clinic is located in Wheat Ridge. For $200 at the door a doctor reviews records, gives a brief examination and, if qualified, a recommendation for a state registry card; but it does not dispense marijuana.

"I had been warning everybody more or less all along that it's a precarious situation," Scot Carr with the THC Foundation Medical Clinic said.

Carr says dispensaries in the same building as doctor referral services can be an invitation to legal trouble.

The seizure of medical marijuana patient information from a doctor referral clinic once again highlights the differences between state and federal law on the controversial issue.

Medical marijuana was visible in a dispensary next door to the doctor referral clinic. Federal investigators took it, but say that was not the focus of the investigation.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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