CITY COULD AUTHORIZE POT DISPENSARIES

Councilwoman Judy Weaver Wants Ballot Question to Decide Medical Pot Issue.

Never mind.

It turns out that City Council received some bad information Monday
when city staff briefed council on the pending state law for
licensing medical marijuana dispensaries.

Contrary to what council was told, the legislation, which has been
passed by the Legislature, would give the city authority to
immediately license and regulate those businesses, even though state
licenses will not be available until July 2011.

The confusion is forgivable as state lawmakers were changing the
medical marijuana measure with amendments until the final hours of
the session, which ended May 12.

Gov. Bill Ritter has not yet signed the bill, his spokesman, Evan
Dryer, said Tuesday.

In a memo Tuesday morning from Assistant City Attorney Kurt
Stiegelmeier, council was told the city may license and regulate
dispensaries immediately if it chooses, even though state licenses
will not be available for a year.

Whether council is ready to do that is being debated.

Councilwoman Judy Weaver wants city voters to make that decision when
they vote Aug. 10, in the same citywide, mail ballot election that
will determine whether Black Hills Energy is awarded a 20-year
franchise to provide electricity to the city.

Weaver made that suggestion at Monday's council work session but ran
into obvious reluctance from a majority of council members who
essentially argued that state voters settled the question in 2000 by
approving the use of medical marijuana for a list of painful conditions.

On Tuesday, Weaver repeated her call for a citywide vote on allowing
dispensaries in the city. She'd researched the 2000 election and
confirmed that a majority of Pueblo County voters rejected legalizing
the medical marijuana amendment in 2000. In that election, 28,811
voters opposed Amendment 20 while 24,366 voters approved it.

"To me, that just bolsters the argument that we ought to ask Pueblo
voters whether they want dispensaries in the city," Weaver said. "If
a majority did not want to legalize medical marijuana in 2000, I
wonder how many want to license marijuana dispensaries today?"

Weaver added that putting that question on the Aug. 10 ballot
wouldn't cost city voters any money because Black Hills is paying the
expense of that city election.

During the work session discussion, Council President Larry Atencio
and Councilmen Ray Aguilera, Steve Nawrocki and Leroy Garcia did not
seem very interested in rehashing the legalization of medical
marijuana nine years ago. Their comments essentially said it was time
for the city to move ahead on regulating dispensaries and answering
other questions, such as how many would be allowed in the city.

"It's been almost 10 years since voters approved this," Garcia told
Weaver when she argued the city should take its time in establishing
a licensing process.

Told that the city could move ahead with licensing dispensaries,
Atencio said he favored doing that.

"I don't think we need to have an election to settle this," Atencio
said Tuesday. "It was settled at the state level and I think we can
license and regulate these businesses here in the city."

City staff gave council two rough drafts of licensing and zoning
regulations for dispensaries Monday. The zoning plan recommended
keeping dispensaries in the business and industrial zones. The map
itself showed a few splotches and blobs of those zones around the
city with one heavy swipe down the U.S. 50 corridor in north Pueblo.

Weaver didn't like the map either, given the long streak of business
zoning in her north Pueblo district.

The draft regulations suggested creating a medical marijuana
licensing board to oversee the process of investigating applicants
and awarding licenses. Stiegelmeier said the city's Liquor and Beer
Licensing Board could take on the job as a temporary assignment until
the marijuana board is selected by council.

Stiegelmeier said applicants would have to pass an extensive
background check as well as follow a long list of restrictions on
operating dispensaries.

Councilman Chris Kaufman asked whether council could require members
of the marijuana board to also pass that same background check.