Pubdate: Wed, 20 Apr 2016
Source: Colorado Springs Independent (CO)
Column: CannaBiz
Copyright: 2016 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact:  http://www.csindy.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Author: Nat Stein

COUNCILOR DON KNIGHT'S ANTI-POT CRUSADE

Councilor Don Knight says military perceptions influence his strategy.

City Councilor Don Knight says a phone call in September really put 
cannabis clubs on his radar. His constituent was complaining about My 
Club 420, which had moved into the Rockrimmon shopping center.

"I found out through research there was no avenue at all for 
neighbors to have a voice on whether a club should go in their 
neighborhood or not," Knight told the Independent. "So I wanted to do 
something about that."

Knight discovered virtually all cannabis clubs operate on a business 
model that includes some level of sale, exchange, reimbursement, or trade.

"To me it was a total disrespect for rules and regulations," he says. 
"So that's what led me to go from looking at this through zoning to a 
full ban."

What Knight refers to as sales is a common practice at clubs 
throughout the city. You can walk in, sign up as a member, make a 
donation and/or sign over your right to grow six plants to the club, 
and get cannabis back in return. Whether or not that kind of exchange 
constitutes a sale or remuneration is a matter of controversy likely 
to be resolved only in court.

Council, of course, voted in 2013 for Colorado Springs to opt out of 
retail sales. Knight's district didn't go for legalization so neither 
did he. In weighing that and future votes on cannabis-related issues, 
Knight says the city's military presence is a significant consideration.

"Before I came on Council, I spent 10 years in the [Department of 
Defense], walking the halls of the Pentagon," he says. "I know that 
civic leaders from Texas, Alabama, all over the country are 
protecting the bases in their cities," Knight says. "In Colorado now, 
because we've got marijuana, that counts against us."

That line of thinking took hold last year before Pentagon officials 
visited the Springs on a nationwide tour to decide how to pull off a 
$100 billion mandatory budget cut over the next five years. (To put 
that in perspective, the DOD requested $585.3 billion for fiscal year 
2016.) The Regional Business Alliance hosted a "Keep Carson Strong" 
rally so local military brass, civic leaders and other supporters, 
including Gov. John Hickenlooper, could make the case for supporting 
Fort Carson.

When all was said and done, Fort Carson fared well compared to other 
Army installations - losing 365 soldiers by 2017.

So how are active military members, bound by federal law, affected by 
Colorado's legal marijuana? An Army report obtained by the Gazette 
earlier this year shows the number of positive drug tests for 
marijuana last year at Fort Carson dipped to 422 from 725 the year 
prior to legalization.

As for whether Colorado's legalized marijuana could affect how and 
where installations are reduced or closed, DOD spokesman Air Force 
Maj. Ben Sakrisson laid down a bright line.

"Whatever's legal in a city or state doesn't matter. We have missions 
in numerous other countries that have different laws and we still 
station troops there," he told the Independent. "Military members are 
held to federal law."

Knight says even though higher-ups won't say it flat out, he can read 
between the lines.

"We can't erase [cannabis] entirely, but we'll do everything we can 
to mitigate that weakness," he says.

Of course, he recognizes it may not be up to him.

"If folks want retail sales here, they can go out and get the 
signatures," he says. "That's an avenue always open to them."

A coalition of cannabis clubs is currently doing just that. A legion 
of volunteers, many of them vets, have been circulating three 
petitions that, should they garner 14,649 valid signatures each by 
April 21, would force a referendum on the cannabis-club issue.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom