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MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS HERE TO STAY, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

The City allowed medical marijuana centers to open and operate, then turned around and banned them.

Centers used the rights afforded them by our system, and now the City wants to vote them out.  Sounds backwards!

The issue we're facing as voters is as confusing as the City's decision-making process.  For most people, they believe that banning centers means banning medical marijuana; this is untrue.

Medical marijuana is here to stay because over 10 years ago we voted to allow it.  Even with new laws, local municipalities cannot ban medical marijuana or patients from obtaining it.  What the City can control is the way patients can access medical marijuana.  The only safe option for accessing medical marijuana in our community is through regulation and tax.  Only centers are regulated and pay sales tax.  Centers have hundreds of pages of rules and regulations to follow, and six enforcement officers to monitor the eight centers that are operating in GJ.

Whether you believe in medical marijuana or not isn't the issue; it's which option is better for our community.  If it is as dangerous as everyone is saying, why would we have it in neighborhoods being grown all over town without any monitoring or regulations? As a mother and community member, I'm opting for the heavily regulated and taxed centers and voting against the ordinance.

Cathy Kytola

Grand Junction