For University of Colorado senior Mike West, the most effective remedy for chronic pain is, well, chronic.

Recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered while skateboarding, West said he obtained a medical-marijuana card in April so he could treat his pain.

"I could have gotten a prescription for opiates, but I didn't want to deal with the addictive and depressive side effects that go with them," West said Monday. "My doctor agreed, so we filled out the paperwork and mailed it in.

"Three weeks later, I got my card of approval from the state registry."

Since then, West has become somewhat of an authority on the process of obtaining a medical-marijuana license in Colorado. He'll share that knowledge with CU students Tuesday night, when the campus chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws hosts a meeting to discuss what's required to obtain a medical-marijuana card.

Brian Vicente, an attorney for Sensible Colorado, a nonprofit organization that works on drug policy issues in Colorado, also will speak at the campus session. He and West will discuss what kind of paperwork and medical consultations are necessary to get on the Colorado Department of Health's Medical Marijuana Registry.

"There are well over 4,000 medical-marijuana patients in the state of Colorado, and the last I checked, about 40 percent of them live in the Denver/Boulder area," Vicente said. "Marijuana has provided a valuable benefit for many, many people."

According to West, the process can sometimes be as easy as providing a doctor with a medical history of a persistent condition or symptom. After it is proven that experimentation with other medications and remedies is not as effective, medicinal marijuana can become a prescribed solution.

The NORML meeting also will cover topics such as how to acquire medicinal marijuana from so-called "caregivers" once a license has been received.

"I know of six dispensaries in Denver, Boulder and Larimer (counties)," said Britney King, office manager for EnerChi Healing, a medical-marijuana dispensary in Larimer County. "Every dispensary carries a variety of strains with a kind of menu to explain what they are. Most offer different ways of ingesting -- like edibles and pills.

"And what makes us unique is that we are completely organic."

CU's NORML chapter drew a sizable crowd last month at an informational meeting on campus that saw members distributing what they said were tobacco pipes.

University officials weren't thrilled with the free pipes, but said the group's efforts were protected as "symbolic free speech."

Cmdr. Tom Sloan, of the Boulder County Drug Task Force, said he had no objection to Tuesday night's meeting, but warned that there still are risks involved with being a medical-marijuana cardholder in Colorado.

"The (medicinal marijuana) law is a state law, but the (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) functions under federal law -- and they aren't tied to it," Sloan said.

The county drug squad, however, only is interested in busting medicinal-marijuana users who don't comply with state law, Sloan said.

Yet, he added, DEA agents "can decide to take the grower or processed marijuana and charge them under federal law."