'I Don't See Why We Should Put an Extra Tax on Marijuana If It's Medical'

An anti-tax sentiment that has gripped much of the country in recent months resonated in the chambers of Rebekah Hall on Tuesday, when the Telluride Town Council rejected the idea of putting a new excise tax measure before voters.

Up for consideration was an ordinance that would have placed a measure on the November ballot that asked voters whether to approve a 5-percent excise tax on the sale of medical marijuana, medical marijuana paraphernalia and medical-marijuana infused products.

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It seems Carbondale may be trying to shake off its hippie image after recently passing an ordinance clamping down on medical marijuana centers.

This ordinance, which, among other things, prohibits new dispensaries from operating within 1,000 feet of schools, is just too restrictive.

And three board members were absent in the 3-1 vote. Three votes could overturn passage of the ordinance.

How did the board come up with 1,000 feet? Is there a documented problem that must be solved?

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Group Petitions to Ban FoCo MMJ Dispenaries

There are 21 medical marijuana dispensaries in Fort Collins, but if a local activist group succeeds in its endeavor, that count could drop to zero.

At the beginning of this summer, the Concerned Fort Collins Citizens (CFCC) assembled a petition which, if approved, will force all retail medical marijuana businesses in Fort Collins to shut down. The group garnered more than 7,000 signatures in support of the ban -- only 4,214 are needed for a proposal -- and last week the signatures were deemed legitimate by the city, according to Fort Collins City Clerk Wanda Krajicek.

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Marijuana is a hot topic in Colorado. It's the subject of a parade of news reports: the Colorado Department of Public Health is holding hearings on medical marijuana rules; municipalities are enacting moratoriums against new dispensaries; and a measure to legalize pot may be on the 2012 ballot. Like it or not, the future of our kids depends on our engagement in the debate.

Voters approved a referendum in 2000 to amend the state Constitution regarding medical marijuana. Doctors were granted the right to recommend marijuana use to alleviate pain from "debilitating medical conditions." Such conditions include cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, severe pain and nausea.

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A group advocating for Fort Collins medical marijuana centers won't file a legal challenge to a petition drive seeking to ban the dispensaries, choosing instead to focus on taking its message to voters.

"We feel that voters can and will make the right decision if given the facts," said Terri Gomez, campaign director for Citi-zens for Safer Neighborhoods, a grassroots committee formed to oppose the ban. "We want to focus attention on the legitimacy of the regulated medical marijuana model and protect our city's commerce and economic opportunity. The issue before us is about fairness, control and access for patients who are doctor-approved to purchase medical marijuana."

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Medical Marijuana Centers Don't Fall to Boom-Bust Cycle or State Regs

The first medical marijuana dispensary opened in Cortez in October 2009, and five more followed in quick succession last summer. A year later, one dispensary has closed (Southwest Colorado Caregivers), but other shop owners report business is steady.

"I can't complain thus far," said Kirsten Krzysztofiak, who along with husband Dave, owns Herbal Alternative, the first dispensary that opened in Cortez.

Other dispensary owners also acknowledge that medical marijuana sales are constant, even with all the strict regulations imposed by the state of Colorado.

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Voters likely to decide on dispensary ban in November

The battle over whether medical marijuana businesses should be allowed in Fort Collins is a step closer to going to city voters.

The city clerk's office said Friday a petition drive supporting an ordinance that would ban medical marijuana businesses had collected enough signatures to move the proposal forward.

The office verified the validity of 4,571 signatures on the petitions, which were turned in Tuesday, before it quit counting, said Chief Deputy City Clerk Rita Harris.

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A moratorium on changes of ownership for grandfathered operations and location transfers for optional premises cultivation of medical marijuana was imposed Tuesday in unincorporated Chaffee County.

Chaffee County Commissioners took the action during their regular meeting in Buena Vista.

Commissioners earlier intended to establish criteria for transfers and set fees for medical marijuana land use applications during the meeting.

Tracie Hulbert, a lawyer in Fairplay and attorney for Jeff McClane of Salida, spoke about potential of newly establish criteria "retroactively" impacting her client.

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By a margin of two to one, Delta voters agreed that the ordinance prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits should be upheld.

The ordinance was adopted by Delta City Council on Feb. 1.

In protest of that action, a petition was circulated demanding that the question be submitted to a vote of electors in the City of Delta.

The July 12 election was conducted by mail by the county clerk. The county clerk's office reports that 1,781 of the city's 4,914 eligible voters, or 36.24 percent, cast ballots. A total of 1,215 were for the ordinance; 564 were against.

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When Colorado voters approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in 2000, little did most of them know that the issue would a decade later ensnare the state in a tangled web of entrepreneurs, a huge number of prescriptions for medical marijuana and competing federal and state laws.

Mixed in with the conundrum stew are the public's perception of the positive/negative aspects of marijuana as a health benefit contrasted with marijuana as a harmful substance for teens and young adults.

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Once again, government servants have told Americans that marijuana ranks right up there with heroin. The Drug Enforcement Agency ruled last Friday that marijuana has "no accepted medical use" and will continue as a schedule 1 drug - the most forbidden category.

The DEA is a law enforcement bureaucracy. The medical opinions of law enforcement bureaucrats should be of little interest. We do not ask cops to make laws; we pay cops to enforce the laws established by constitutions or enacted by the people or the decisions of their representatives.

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City Continues Work to Form Ad-Hoc Advisory Committee

The Cortez City Council interviewed four more candidates for an ad-hoc medical marijuana advisory committee at a workshop meeting Tuesday.

Patricia Grant told the council she is always interested in participation in government and hopes to be on the committee to get some answers on the regulation of medical marijuana, which is legal in Colorado.

"The camel is getting its nose under the tent," Grant said. "The best way to control it is don't have it."

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As a person who has dealt with chronic pain for more than five years, I found the decision to deny Nathan Benner the right to use medical marijuana for his shoulder pain disturbing.

While I understand that Mr. Benner has a history of drug abuse, he's also in pain. Since when does being in trouble with the law constitute a denial of the treatment of pain?

In addition, Judge Gail Nichols is a judge, not a doctor. What gives a judge authority decide how old someone must be to suffer from pain? Since when does a judge decide just how much pain a person is in, how much pain they can handle, and how to best treat it? As for stating that Benner can take up yoga as a way to deal with pain, what are the judge's qualifications in recommending yoga for a shoulder injury? This recommendation may not be what Mr. Benner needs, and suggesting that yoga is a cure for pain further harms and stigmatizes those who suffer from pain by saying that if a person in pain would just do this or that (drink more water, do yoga, take herbs and oils, gets massage, use mind over matter, ad nauseam), the pain will go away. Yoga is only one tool used in the fight against chronic pain, but it is not a panacea.

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There have been numerous articles and editorial comments relating the petition drive that is currently under way to ban medical marijuana centers in Fort Collins.

It concerns me greatly that the information being presented to the Fort Collins community is void of truth, and in many cases, filled with inaccurate assumptions about correlations between licensed medical marijuana centers, violent crime and illegal drug use among our city's youths.

None of the comments are citing facts to back up their claims. And the petition that is being circulated will do nothing to improve our community's safety, enforce controls or regulations or eliminate the sale of medical marijuana.

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ASPEN -- A Woody Creek writer could have to show he was acting in the capacity as a media member if he wants to avoid testifying before a grand jury later this month.

Members of the Drug Enforcement Administration issued Michael Cleverly a court subpoena Tuesday at his home. He is due to appear in front of a federal grand jury on July 25 as part of a witness-tampering investigation, launched after an Aspen Times article reported on an email that had been circulating with the photo of an alleged confidential source who provided integral information to the DEA's probe into a drug ring believed to have spanned between Los Angeles and Aspen.

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Regarding Travis Kelly's July 1 column, the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2009, there were 858,405 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis.

The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use. The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Decriminalization is a long overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as organized crime controls distribution, marijuana consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition.

Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.

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ASPEN -- A judge on Monday rejected a 23-year-old man's plea to use marijuana for medicinal purposes while he serves probation for a drug-related conviction in Aspen.

Nathan Benner's attorney, Joseph Saint-Veltri of Denver, had argued that he should be able to take marijuana to help him cope with his ongoing shoulder pain.

Saint-Veltri pointed to Colorado's Amendment 20, passed by voters in 2000, which allows the use of medicinal marijuana. He said marijuana is a healthier, less addictive choice for Benner to deal with his shoulder pain than opiates, which a physician has also recommended for treatment.

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At its peak, 28 medical marijuana dispensaries dotted Mesa County's landscape, staffed by about 200 workers who helped pull in tens of thousands of dollars in sales taxes each month for Grand Junction's city coffers.

What a difference three months has made.

After April 5, when city voters decided to ban the commercial sale of medical marijuana, storefronts went dark, and some of the most vocal proponents for medical cannabis appear to be silent. Grand Junction's ban came on the heels of a ban by county voters several months earlier. Hence, dispensaries in the county's borders, save one in Palisade, disappeared off the map.

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State-licensed centers provide safe access and protect our community

To regulate, or not to regulate. That is the question.

The issue before us is not a referendum on medical marijuana use. That right is enshrined in our state's Constitution.

Rather, the issue is where legal medical marijuana purchases should take place. Do we insist that such transactions happen in state-licensed, highly regulated, secured and taxed Medical Marijuana Centers (MMCs)? Or do we turn our back on the toughest regulations in the nation and push the sales into our neighborhoods where they are not licensed, regulated, secured or taxed?

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Retailers' presence has altered Fort Collins' character; let the voters decide

The voters of Fort Collins deserve a chance to decide for themselves whether they want commercial, for-profit marijuana distributors in their town.

In 2000, Colorado voters amended the state Constitution to decriminalize possession of limited amounts of marijuana for individuals with a debilitating medical condition, and for those patients' primary caregivers. What Amendment 20 did not do was authorize the retail sale of marijuana. The text of the amendment specifically excluded distribution from its protections. The "Blue Book," mailed by the state Legislature to registered voters before the election, assured that "under state criminal law, it will still be illegal to sell marijuana."

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