AUTHORITIES MULL MEDICAL MARIJUANA REGULATION ROLE

Editor's Note: This is the second in a week-long series examining the facets
of medical marijuana.

Law enforcement officials in Fremont County remain uncertain what
their roles will be in enforcing newly implemented medical marijuana
regulations or what affect the new laws will have on their jobs.

"I'm sure we're a piece of the puzzle," said Sheriff Jim
Beicker.

The Department of Revenue will administrate the new licensing
regulations created under House Bill 1284.

Beicker said he is comparing the new licensing regulations to those
governing liquor licenses. He said his office relies heavily on the
liquor inspector, and he expects they will do the same in the case of
medical marijuana.

"No reason to reinvent the wheel," Beicker said. "I see it working the
same as enforcing liquor."

Canon City and Florence each have moratoriums in place against medical
marijuana dispensaries, pending further decisions from their city
councils. Fremont County has implemented temporary zoning regulations
to deal with dispensaries.

Three dispensaries are open in the county and one in Canon City, which
opened prior to the moratorium being in place.

"It seems to me an industry has been created with no oversight," said
Canon City Police Chief Duane McNeill.

McNeill said there are two aspects to law enforcement's job when it
comes to the medical marijuana industry. First, officers are going to
have to do compliance checks, determining the amount of product a
center is selling and how many patients it is serving. The other piece
is protecting centers when they become the target of criminal activity.

Rocky Mountain Cannabis, the one dispensary open in Canon City, has
been burglarized once, McNeill said.

The store also was the intended recipient of a box of magazines that
led to a bomb scare on Main Street in March.

"Look at the cost of that: police, fire, lost revenue," McNeill said.
"Who ends up being responsible?"

Florence Police Chief Joe Morris said he felt the moratorium enacted
by the city of Florence was a good move, giving the city council some
room to decide what they wish to do.

"I don't think we've come across a lot of it, if at all," Morris
said.

Morris said he tends to agree with the state chiefs' association that
because there is still a federal law against marijuana, it's hard to
embrace its medical uses.

The agencies also are concerned about enforcing illegal use of
marijuana.

In May, the Canon City Police Department confiscated 17 plants from a
man who claimed to be a caregiver but could not provide the proper
paper work.

Until the status of the grower is determined, McNeill said, the plants
have to be kept alive in the evidence lock-up.

To avoid that situation, the sheriff has told his officers to process
a suspected illegal grow like any other crime scene but to leave the
plants and other equipment in place.

"We do everything but take them," Beicker said. "Right now, that's my
direction to my guys."

District Attorney Thom LeDoux said the decision about how to
investigate marijuana is left up to law enforcement.

"We treat them like any other criminal case," LeDoux said. "If we
believe there's a reasonable likelihood of conviction, we will file."

Law enforcement leaders also are concerned about the effect of
extending communities' sense of normalcy surrounding marijuana.

McNeill said he previously led the organized crime division of the
Austin (Texas) Police Department, and his cases there dealt in some
way with narcotics.

"Having dealt with a lot of drug cartels, this could open up the door
to those cartels," he said. "They're going to migrate to wherever the
market is."

At the same time, the sheriff is concerned about how increased
marijuana use will affect crime in the county. He said he plans to
track crime statistics to determine if there is any increase in
marijuana-related domestic violence or traffic accidents.

"They can't (drive) on Percocet, they can't do it on marijuana, they
can't do it on alcohol," Beicker said.