WINDSOR BOARD TWEAKS MEDICAL POT ORDINANCE

WINDSOR -- The Windsor Town Board appears ready to vote on
regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries.

At its Monday work session, the board haggled over a couple of items
that dispensary owners believe limited their ability to stay in
compliance with the state regulations Gov. Bill Ritter signed into
law Monday.

Under state law, dispensary owners must grow 70 percent of their
product. In Windsor, the original ordinance said grow facilities must
be 1,000 feet from certain types of facilities, such as schools and
public parks. But dispensary owners said the way the distance is
measured leaves no place for them to locate.

"If you go property line to property line the way the crow flies, it
knocks out all existing buildings," In Harmony Wellness co-owner
Derek Cumings said. "I don't think that's appropriate because my
patients don't fly."

Board members were divided over dropping the language that used the
direct line measurement. They then debated whether to change the
distance to 500 feet or table the issue for a future work session
when they could obtain maps with the new locations.

But Cumings explained that he must have a plan in place by July 1 or
face criminal prosecution.

"We need to decide if this is an unreasonable burden that we've put
on the industry," Mayor John Vazquez said, and Town Attorney Ian
McCargar agreed.

"We've set them up to fail because the state says they have to set up
to grow pretty quickly," McCargar said.

Vazquez, Robert Bishop-Cotner and Jon Slater supported a 500-foot
limit, which was written into the ordinance. Kristie Melendez and
Mike Carrigan said they would support the wishes of the board but
didn't really like reducing the distance. Representatives Matthew
O'Neill and Don Thompson were absent.

Vazquez, Bishop-Cotner and Slater said they supported 500 feet
because they ordinance only requires dispensaries to be 500 feet from
a residence.

"If we're going to allow dispensaries that have signs and people know
are dispensaries within 500 of a home, it seems a little silly to say
a private grow house that is not open to the public or advertised
needs to be 1,000 feet from a park," Vazquez said.

The board also agreed to put a question before the voters in November
that will ask for an excise tax on medical marijuana purchases. The
amount has not been determined.

"You're labeling this as a recreational poison like alcohol and
tobacco by essentially charging a sin tax," Cumings said. "It is not."

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What's next

The ordinance still needs to go before the planning commission for
approval, and then it must pass on two readings before the town board.
The second vote must have five votes to pass. The town must pass the
ordinance by the end of July or face another emergency extension to
the moratorium.