WP BANS MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

Winter Park's town council voted 6-0 Tuesday night to prohibit
medical marijuana dispensaries within town limits. Only one person
spoke on the issue, supporting the ban.

"The Town of Winter Park shouldn't be held hostage by what the
federal or state governments want to do," said resident John Beake.

Town manager Drew Nelson said that with the legal status of
Colorado's medical marijuana dispensaries seemingly up in the air,
this is a way for Winter Park to protect itself until it receives
more direction from the state.

"This is the culmination of numerous discussion on the issue," Nelson
said.

Other reasons for enacting the ban included being sensitive to the
more conservative cultural sensibilities of Winter Park's visitors
and protecting the safety of the town's children.

"This legislation is only about the dispenseries, not about the
patients themselves," Nelson stated in a later conversation.

Mayor Pro-Temp Rusty Thompson, who had previously said that a
moratorium should be adequate until the Colorado Legislature provides
better guidance for localities, voted with the majority this time
around, noting that marijuana is still illegal at the federal level.

Nelson further stated that continuing to prolong the moratorium might
draw the "ire" of the judge who could find such repeated action to be
arbitrary and capricious.

Council member Chris Seemann was absent.