COURT RULING COULD GUIDE REGULATION OF MEDICAL POT

True Direction on the Issue Will Likely Come From the State Legislature.

An Arapahoe County district court judge's ruling last week that
Colorado cities cannot simply ban medical marijuana dispensaries will
put new energy into Pueblo City Council's efforts to regulate those businesses.

Councilman Larry Atencio, who is expected to be elected the new
council president on Jan. 11, said he would focus on the dispensary
issue with City Manager Jerry Pacheco next week - even though council
voted last Monday to extend its moratorium on licensing medical
marijuana dispensaries until June 1.

"We need to get started on these regulations right away because it
isn't really a question of whether these businesses can operate
legally. Colorado voters already decided that," Atencio said
Thursday. "And this court ruling seems to say that there needs to be
some local process for allowing these dispensaries to operate."

On Monday night, council deferred to Pacheco in voting to extend the
current moratorium until June 1. The city manager argued that his
staff wouldn't be able to draft, within 30 days, all the necessary
ordinances and zoning regulations that council would likely want in
licensing and regulating dispensaries. While no one on council was
arguing to ban the businesses, there has been some discussion about
giving the state Legislature time to approve outlining how local
governments can or should regulate dispensaries. State lawmakers
start their work less than two weeks from now.

Tom Sexton, the owner of the MediMar Ministries dispensary that has
applied for a business license, asked council not to extend the
current licensing moratorium past Feb. 8, claiming it was an unfair
burden on his legal business and on people with state permits to
purchase marijuana.

Sexton's attorney, Jim Oliver, urged council to postpone any decision
on extending the moratorium until after Arapahoe County District
Judge Christopher Cross issued his ruling on a dispensary case in his
court. In that dispute, the city of Centennial had withdrawn a
business license from a dispensary on the grounds that marijuana
remains illegal under federal drug laws.

Cross struck down that ban in a ruling Wednesday afternoon, saying
cities cannot simply ban dispensaries.

"The city of Centennial cannot use the potential violation of a
federal law to order a business legally operating under our state
constitution to cease and desist its business," Cross said. The judge
didn't say whether cities can regulate dispensaries through zoning or
other measures, but swept aside the notion that medical dispensaries
can be banned because of the federal law against the sale of
marijuana. Enforcing those laws is up to the federal government, the
judge said.

Pueblo County has a four-month moratorium on licensing dispensaries,
although Sheriff Kirk Taylor said his deputies would not be targeting
those currently operating in the county unless other law violations
caused them to be scrutinized.

Commission Chairman Jeff Chostner said he was comfortable waiting on
the Legislature to take action this spring.

"The Arapahoe County court ruling isn't going to settle this matter.
It's just an initial ruling in a case that could well work its way up
to the Colorado Supreme Court," Chostner said. "From the county
perspective, we want to follow the law on this issue. It's just a
matter of finding out what the law is, and hopefully the Legislature
will help determine that."

Council members were more inclined Monday to start the process of
regulating the dispensaries, seeming to agree with Sexton's argument
that extending the Feb. 8 moratorium until June 1 was an informal ban
on his business. But with Pacheco urging council to give city staff
more time to prepare regulations, council finally voted 5-1 to extend
the ban, with only retiring Councilman Randy Thurston voting against
the extension.

When council meets on Jan. 11, there will be three new members -
Steve Nawrocki, Chris Kaufman and Leroy Garcia - and new leadership
as well, with Atencio expected to be elected council president. The
medical marijuana issue will be the first thorny issue faced by the
new council.