TAYLOR WANTS COUNTY VOTE ON MED POT CENTERS

Only hours after City Council voted down a similar idea, Pueblo County
Sheriff Kirk Taylor asked the county commissioners Tuesday morning to
let county voters decide whether to allow medical marijuana centers in
the county.

It may be a case of trying to close the corral after the horses are
already loose because the county's planning department received 17
applications to operate marijuana centers as of July 1. That was the
state's deadline for marijuana centers to demonstrate some kind of
local government approval in order to continue to operate until state
licenses are available next summer.

Six of the county applications came from centers already doing
business.

Taylor told the commissioners Tuesday that law enforcement is still
caught between state law -- which allows medical marijuana -- and
federal law which continues to define it as a restricted and otherwise
illegal drug. He noted that new state laws on medical marijuana allows
local governments to ban the centers in their jurisdictions.

"It's been 10 years since county voters spoke on the subject, so I
would ask you to put it on the ballot," Taylor said, referring to the
1999 state ballot question that legalized medical marijuana. In that
election, however, a majority of Pueblo County voters rejected the
amendment.

Taylor's request didn't get much of a reception from the
commissioners, who pointed out that a narrow majority of City Council
voted down a similar idea at Monday night's meeting.

"I think we agree that the city and county need to talk about this,"
Commission Chairman Jeff Chostner replied to Taylor. "We don't want to
be creating conflicting regulations."

Whatthe commissioners did Tuesday was to hear a land-use proposal from
the planning department that would restrict marijuana centers and the
sale of marijuana products to county land with a B-4 business zone.
People interested in also growing marijuana at a center would be
limited to A-1 and A-2 agricultural zones.

In both cases, such businesses would be allowed "by right" in those
zones, as long as other local and state licenses were obtained.

The commissioners agreed to postpone final action on that zoning
ordinance for two weeks. Several Colorado City residents urged the
commissioners to modify that proposal to establish a 1,000-foot buffer
between any growing operation and nearby residential areas.