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USE CARE IN MEDICAL POT SHOP DECISION

Anyone who believes that the medical marijuana industry is not being used as a source for recreational users is lying to himself.

That does not mean that all dispensaries operators are guilty or that there are not patients who use medical marijuana out of a real need for pain or nausea relief.

This leaves communities that have allowed medical marijuana shops, communities such as Longmont, in a quandary.  Banning all shops changes the rules for taxpaying businesses that have been legally operating in the city and likely sends the shops' customers, legitimate or not, to an underground market.  Allowing existing shops to remain open and shutting out new shops dictates the winners in this market and does not remove the distaste of a large number of residents for a city-sanctioned industry that sells a federally banned substance.  Allowing dispensaries to proliferate increases the potential for abuse of this system by recreational users.

The Longmont City Council favors option No.  1, banning all medical marijuana dispensaries and associated grow operations.  While that would be met with approval from a large number of Longmont residents, the council would be wise to think through the consequences before it acts.

Several concerns came out of the council's meeting last week, during which they voted 6-1 in favor of an outright ban.  Among them, a concern that closing the existing shops might push the "industry" into private homes, where the city's control would be limited to responding to neighbor complaints, and where safety, environmental and geographic regulations would be nonexistent.  Further, enforcement could become a nightmare, especially without clear direction to police about what the council expects.

No one envies the council the decisions it has in front of it.  It must deal with the consequences of an amendment voted into the state constitution that left the messes to be cleaned up by lawmakers.  But it should do so deliberately and soberly, no pun intended.