LITTLE WONDER CRAWFORD HAS A MEDICAL MARIJUANA MORATORIUM

Crawford Mayor Jim Crook and trustee Bill Mosey were disappointed in
the medical marijuana discussion at the municipal quarterly meeting
held on June 29 in Crawford. Both expressed displeasure with the
county's and town's legal counsel on the new state law regulating
commercial businesses selling, growing or manufacturing medical
marijuana products.

Dispensaries or medical marijuana centers by state law are to grow 70
percent of what they sell. The mayor said the centers can have an
off-premise growing site to grow the 70 percent. "My first question
is how much is 70 percent?" asked the mayor. State lawmakers "think
that a (medical marijuana) cardholder is going to be attached to (a
single) dispensary, and that dispensary is going to have so many
clientele and the 70 percent isn't going to be that great." Mayor
Crook continued, "They don't have a clue, they're brainless, that you
don't have to go to any one dispensary. You can go to any dispensary
in the state of Colorado if you're a cardholder. I don't care what
the law is, that's the way the present bill reads. That's the way the
present amendment reads. So, if they are doing $190,000 a year
there's no way they can grow 70 percent on premises."

The mayor was incredulous that the 70-page house bill never defines
what a commercial grower is. "Neither can the county attorney and
neither can the sheriff tell you what a commercial grower is. You
need a license? You need a card? What do you do? There's nothing out
there that says anything," Crook said. "Delta County has outlawed any
commercial growers, but if you are a patient and a caregiver you can
grow six plants per cardholder. So, you're allowed to have five
cardholders at present, which is a new law which probably could be
disputed because that was not what the original (amendment) was in
2000. But that's what they have all agreed to. So right now, if you
are growing 30 plants [Sheriff] Fred McKee is going to do absolutely
nothing but want to see you are a legal cardholder."

During the municipal quarterly, Mayor Crook asked the sheriff if he
could plant five plants in the sheriff's back yard? Would he be
legal, if the sheriff gave him permission? The sheriff replied, "Yes
you would." Then the mayor asked if the sheriff could look at his
plants if the sheriff is not a cardholder? The sheriff, according to
Crook, said, "I don't know." Crook's assessment is, "They don't even
know what the laws are. So when it comes to all this stuff, all of it
is premature." The law to have dispensaries grow 70 percent of their
own product by September, in the mayor's opinion, is impossible.

Apparently most of the marijuana coming into Delta County is grown in
the Eagle-Vail area. "It's going to be a big tax base," Crook said.
Right now in Crawford, no one can grow medical marijuana
commercially. Only cardholders can grow the marijuana for their own
private stock or as a caregiver.

Trustee Mike Tiedeman asked the mayor if a cardholder has to sign up
with one medical marijuana center or can a cardholder go to multiple
centers. That was another question the mayor put to county attorney
Brad Kolman at the municipal quarterly. Does a cardholder have to be
locked into one dispensary. The answer was "absolutely not."

The mayor said the state has a database that tracks who has a license
or a card, but not which dispensary is used. The state is about six
months behind in their record keeping.

"Until the state comes up and says this is what we are really doing,
it's really, in my opinion," the mayor said, "that they are wasting a
hell of a lot of energy and a hell of a lot of tax dollars (on what)
they know nothing about and may not be able to stop."

Trustee Susie Steckel wants the state to put "a giant tax" on medical
marijuana businesses "and let it go." She doesn't believe the
businesses can be effectively regulated.

Bill Mosey recommended the trustees read the information from the
Colorado Municipal League (CML). "You get more information from the
[CML] than you do from our county sheriff, our county attorney and
our town attorney."

There is one medical marijuana center within Crawford town limits.
The Crawford Town Council has extended their moratorium on all new
medical marijuana businesses until July 1, 2011.