GROWING PAINS

Medical Pot Users, Producers Urge Council To License
Centers

About 50 supporters of MediMar Ministries and other area medical
marijuana centers came to an informal meeting Wednesday night with
several members of City Council, who said they wanted public comment
on whether to let city voters decide whether to allow marijuana
centers in Pueblo.

What they got were cheers for wanting to hear from the medical
marijuana community, but also protests over the city's decision on
June 30 to issue a cease-and-desist order to MediMar, the only center
that was openly operating in the city, despite a city moratorium on
allowing or licensing such businesses.

Some of the loudest applause came when speakers said the city should
repeal that cease-and-desist order. The problem is July 1 was a state
deadline for marijuana centers currently in operation to demonstrate
they had local government approval; otherwise they would be forced to
shut down until a state license is available next year. Although
MediMar had a business license, city officials have repeatedly argued
that was granted before officials knew it was a marijuana center.

Monday night, council is going to consider an ordinance from
Councilwoman Judy Weaver that would let city voters decide on Nov. 2
whether to allow marijuana centers in the city.

Councilman Steve Nawrocki organized Wednesday night's meeting to hear
from interested citizens on that subject and he was joined by
Councilmen Leroy Garcia, Ray Aguilera and Chris Kaufman in listening
to about 90 minutes of comments. Most of the speakers were people who
acknowledged they either used and needed medical marijuana or were
involved in operating a center.

Weaver also attended the meeting, sitting in the audience, but left
early.

The public comments often echoed each other, with speakers insisting
that Colorado voters approved medical marijuana in 2000, and the
city's delay in implementing a licensing process for marijuana centers
was depriving patients of the medicine they need.

"Why do you want to vote on medical marijuana again? Do we get to vote
on whether people can use (the painkiller) Vicodin?" a woman demanded.

Anita Montoya said she had a "drawer full of prescriptions" that
hadn't helped her medically, but marijuana did. "You're taking away my
ability to get medicine," she said.

That clearly isn't the intention of Garcia and Aguilera, who told the
crowd that council doesn't want to deny them access to medical
marijuana. Garcia gave a slide show of local growers where the
marijuana plants were stashed in closets and backrooms, clearly
underground operations that were hazardous to operate.

Garcia's point was that by licensing and regulating centers, the city
would make the process of providing medical marijuana to
state-approved people safer and easier to police.

"I like the idea of the city regulating and licensing centers," he
said. "The taxes, the licenses, would all help to legitimize these
businesses."

Nawrocki also emphasized that even if city voters approved a ban on
marijuana centers, it would not affect the right of medical marijuana
users to grow their own -- as provided by the state constitutional
amendment.

"Some people are confused. They think that banning centers in the city
will ban medical marijuana. It won't," he said.

But numerous speakers urged the city to reopen MediMar. One woman said
she manages a marijuana center in Pueblo County and said her business
has been cleaned out by MediMar patients who can no longer get
marijuana at a city center.

Karl Tameler, attorney for MediMar, said the city had accepted the
$20,000 in sales tax receipts that MediMar had collected during the
first four months of the year -- which Tameler suggested was a form of
local approval that could allow MediMar to be reopened under the new
state law.

"I think you need to reconsider this cease-and-desist order and begin
thinking about MediMar as something that is here to stay," he said.

Not every speaker supported medical marijuana, however. One woman
reminded council that several of the speakers represented marijuana
centers and that profits were "the elephant in the room that no one is
talking about."

Kaufman also brought the conversation to a halt at the end of the
meeting when he thanked everyone for their comments and that he didn't
question their intentions. But then he added that a teen-aged son had
just been invited to a party recently "and that medical marijuana had
been promised" to the partygoers.

Another ordinance on council's agenda Monday night would ask voters
whether to impose a 4.3 percent sales tax on medical marijuana and its
paraphernalia. That idea wasn't popular either Wednesday night.

"If your loved one needed a medicine to deal with a terminal illness,
what would you think about someone wanting to 'tax the heck out of
it?' " a man asked, referring to comments from council members in
support of higher taxes on marijuana.