MARIJUANA QUESTION LIKELY FOR AURORA'S NOV. BALLOT

AURORA | Voters will likely be asked in November whether Aurora will
open its doors to medical marijuana dispensaries for the first time
since the constitutional amendment was passed in 2000.

Most of the Aurora City Council members agreed Friday at their spring
workshop that the item should be placed on the November ballot and
the city's moratorium on dispensaries should be extended to July 2011.

The Colorado Legislature passed a bill this year that allows cities
to ban dispensaries at their own discretion. Under the bill, a city
can only extend a moratorium until July 2011.

That means that even if voters in Aurora in November approve
dispensaries, the city may not see its first one open until the
moratorium is lifted.

The majority of voters in Aurora voted for Amendment 20, which
legalized medical marijuana, according to data introduced at the
workshop, suggesting the majority of voters would approve of medical
marijuana dispensaries in Aurora as well.

"My preference would be to ban it in Aurora. But given the fact that
people voted in favor (of Amendment 20), we can talk all day about
whether anything has changed," said Councilman Bob Broom. "I'd say
let's go to the voters to see if they want to ban it or not."

City Attorney Charlie Richardson said the ballot item should be
introduced this November to avoid unnecessary costs of paying for a
special election.

He said any action that the city takes on medical marijuana would
likely be wrought with legal issues because of the current
controversy surrounding medical marijuana, and advocates will not
want to wait until mid-2011 to have dispensaries in the city.

"Under any of these scenarios, some would say there may be the
possibility of litigation or there will be the possibility of
litigation," Richardson said.

Before the November ballot item is introduced, the city should
already have some regulations in place regarding dispensaries, said
Councilman Ryan Frazier said.

"We shouldn't wait until the vote is cast to start working on rules
and regulations," Frazier said. "We should have something that we
could have ready to give to the public to digest and give us feedback
on."

Mayor Ed Tauer said the dispensaries should be in industrial areas
only.