A REASONABLE APPROACH

Colorado voters were clear when they approved medical marijuana in
2000. Alas, the amendment was not.

Although Amendment 20 allows people with defined medical conditions
to obtain medicinal marijuana from caregivers, there's precious
little by way of regulation. Some critics say the amendment didn't
envision caregivers running marijuana dispensaries, which are popping
up all across the state.

Local governments are left to fill the void aE" often stumbling in
the dark, without direction or clarity from the state, and with high
risk of legal action should they misstep.

Medical marijuana, after all, is legal, and the will of the people
made it so. Government cannot do end-runs around the will of the
people by deliberately stopping legal dispensing of medical marijuana.

That's why Montrose County's recent attempt to address the state's
"reefer madness" is welcome and reasonable. Commissioners, backed by
the sheriff, voted last week to implement a six-month moratorium on
medical marijuana centers in unincorporated Montrose County.

The hope is that the Legislature will fix some of the problems that
have cropped up as medical marijuana centers and the state's medical
marijuana registry have grown.