NO SIMPLE PRESCRIPTION FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The complex question of medical marijuana dispensaries - or "centers,"
as they're now legally called - was highlighted Monday before the Mesa
County commissioners.

The commissioners voted 2-1 to keep a ballot spot open for a possible
measure to ask voters whether to ban medical marijuana centers in
unincorporated areas of the county.

The debate pitted medical marijuana users and center owners against
law enforcement officials and some business owners. But it also
highlighted differences among the three Republican county
commissioners, with arguably the most conservative of the three siding
with marijuana users.

Janet Rowland is unquestionably a social conservative. She's made that
clear on issues such as abortion and school curricula. But she is also
a constitutional conservative -- a strict constructionist.. To her
credit, she put the state Constitution first when it came to a
possible ban marijuana centers. It's intellectually consistent with
her support for the TABOR Amendment.

"It doesn't matter if we like it. It's a constitutional right,"
Rowland said in voting against the possible ballot measure. "It
shouldn't be at the whim of the majority."

She has a point. Even though the constitutional amendment approved by
Colorado voters in 2000 didn't contemplate the medical marijuana
centers that have developed over the past 15 months, there's little
question that banning the centers would significantly limit the
ability of medical marijuana users to exercise their constitutional
right.

The Daily Sentinel supported the laws passed by the Colorado
Legislature this year that establish some regulations for the
marijuana centers. The laws also authorized local governments such as
Mesa County to put measures on the ballot to potentially band medical
marijuana centers. But there is already talk of legal challenges to
that provision in several communities and statewide. The state Supreme
Court may well agree with Rowland that banning the centers would
violate the constitutional right that Coloradans granted 10 years ago.

Mesa County and the city of Grand Junction should wait to see what
happens with those challenges rather than rush to put similar ballot
questions to voters this November.