Pubdate: Tue, 12 Mar 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Jeremy P. Meyer
Page: 7A

COMMITTEE LISTENS, PREPARES FOR ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS

City Council Hears From the Public As It Ponders Pot Retail Shops,
Smoking Clubs and Taxation.

A doctor, lawyer and members of the public spoke in favor and in
opposition of Denver taking on the challenge of regulating the sale of
recreational marijuana in a City Council committee meeting Monday.

The council is gathering information as itwaits for the legislature to
rule on how Amendment 64 will be implemented.

But in a city with more medical marijuana dispensaries than liquor
stores and where two thirds of voters in November approved the
amendment to allow retail sales of marijuana,the council is being careful.

Councilman Charlie Brown, who heads the Amendment 64 committee, said
he will ask in May for a council vote on whether the city should opt
out on allowing retail shops.

He doesn't think the council supports an opt-out, but two key
questions will remain.

"Are we going to allow marijuana smoking clubs or 'brownie clubs' and
what is excessive in terms of taxes?" he asked.

Amendment 64 allows the state to tax "wholesale sales of marijuana"
and will give $40 million a year for school construction. Local
jurisdictions can add additional taxes, but high rates could drive the
business back underground, said Assistant City Attorney David Broadwell.

The council started their meeting by hearing from seven members of the
public both for and against retail shops.

"The demand for this product will always exist, and the black market,
as history shows, will continue to fill in the gaps," said Elan
Nelson, who works in the medical marijuana industry.

Suvi Miller, a mother and mental health professional, fears the costs
of recreational marijuana may overwhelm the tax revenue.

"Did the voters want Denver to become the center of the pot industry?"
she asked.

Dr. Christian Thurstone, an associate professor of psychiatry at the
University of Colorado Denver, gave a presentation that showed
damaging social affects of marijuana.

Since 2009, when the state began allowing medical marijuana
dispensaries, drug-related suspensions in Colorado's schools have
increased 41 percent to 5,279 in the 2011-12 school year. Thurstone
believes the majority of those incidents involved marijuana.

Between 2009 and 2012, blood tests of people accused of driving while
drunk in Colorado showed a 156-percent increase in
tetrahydrocannabinol, an intoxicant in marijuana.

On the plus side, Thurstone said, marijuana-related arrests in Denver
have been cut in half since 2009.

Attorney Christian Sederberg, who helped write Amendment 64, said the
social ills connected to marijuana are occurring because of the drug's
prohibition.

"Prohibition has failed," he said. "It will continue to happen if we
decide these stores won't be allowed."
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