RE-1 TO WEIGH IN ON MEDICAL POT?

GLENWOOD SPRINGS -- An anti-medical marijuana crusading local school
board member is leading an effort for the Roaring Fork Re-1 school
board to take a position as it relates to local regulation of the
issue.

"I believe there's a silent population out there who are concerned but
who are not talking about it publicly," Re-1 board director Myles
Rovig said at Wednesday's board work session. "Part of the purpose in
writing this is to get somebody's attention. I would like to see the
community come together to take care of this."

Rovig has been a regular face at recent Glenwood Spring City Council
meetings where a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries was
discussed, and ultimately approved on a 4-3 vote earlier this month.

As the city and other local jurisdictions, including Garfield County
and the town of Carbondale, consider possible zoning and other
regulatory measures to control the proliferation of dispensaries,
Rovig said it's important for the school district to lend a voice.

"We should be doing everything we can do to deal with this situation
as it relates to our students, and helping kids make good decisions,"
he said.

Legalization of medical marijuana possession in Colorado for patients
with qualifying medical conditions, and the new dispensary industry
that's taken off in the last year to meet the demand, has served to
legitimize marijuana use, Rovig said.

"The purveyors are using our complacence and inattention to the
issues, and are taking advantage of a door that was opened to them,"
he said.

The result, he said, is easier access to marijuana by those who don't
have a doctor's authorization, including minors.

He cites a jump in marijuana-related student expulsions from Re-1
schools in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Basalt from under five two
years ago to 20 this past year.

Myles penned a draft position statement for the Re-1 board to
consider, which has been a topic of discussion at recent school board
meetings.

It states that the school district "has concluded that the
availability and use by students of the federally illegal drug
marijuana is detrimental to the health and welfare of students."

It goes on, in part, to encourage local governments to: persistently
and aggressively regulate the trafficking of unlawful marijuana and
medical marijuana to achieve a level of control which will
significantly decrease or eliminate the access of the drug to students."

That could include the outright banishment of dispensaries and related
facilities, according to Rovig's proposal.

It would also include a suggestion for parents to: "Inform your
children about the deleterious affects of marijuana and other mood
modifying substances in order that our students can make good decisions."

The school board has been generally supportive of taking a stand on
the issue in some manner, but how far that statement should go has
been subject to some debate.

"I'm concerned about the language saying 'aggressively regulate,'"
school board member Debbie Bruell said at the Wednesday meeting. "It's
not our role to tell local governments how to regulate business.

"A better place to go is to just discuss how it's impacting kids,"
said Bruell, who has been part of a medical marijuana advisory
committee appointed by the Carbondale Town Council. "Even some of the
kids who agree with the idea of medical marijuana have acknowledged
that it has increased access for kids."

Still, she said she doesn't see cause for panic.

"Some of these phrases trigger images that are different from
reality," Bruell said. "We don't want people to be scared to send
their kindergarten students to our schools because they think there's
drug dealers everywhere."

The school board will continue to discuss the position statement over
the course of the summer, and expect to have something firm by the
time the new school year starts.

In addition to the position statement, the school board also recently
revised its formal policies related to drug possession and use by
students and staff to include medical marijuana in the language.