EVANS COUNCIL EXTENDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA MORATORIUM

EVANS -- The Evans City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend
the city's medical marijuana moratorium for an additional six months,
keeping the Greeley-Evans area mostly free of medical marijuana
dispensaries.

Tiny neighbor Garden City continues to operate dispensaries, as does
Windsor to the northwest.

The issue was approved as part of the consent agenda -- a meeting
management tool that allows several measures to be passed at once --
after no discussion from the council, though council members have
discussed the measure at previous meetings. Though the podium was
opened for public comment, nobody offered to speak. Had it not passed,
the current moratorium would have expired July 19.

The moratorium shuts down any opportunity for a business to operate,
sell, distribute or cultivate marijuana. The original moratorium was
approved Jan. 19.

State lawmakers passed two bills in June to attempt to rein in the
growing number of dispensaries and growers in Colorado.