BROOMFIELD BANS MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUSINESSES

BROOMFIELD -- Medical marijuana businesses will be banned in
Broomfield effective Aug. 8, following the City Council's 8-2 vote to
ban dispensaries and cultivation facilities.

The decision came Tuesday night after 37 Broomfield residents
testified in a lengthy public hearing. Supporters of the ban
outnumbered opponents by a margin of 3-to-1.

The vote is intended to be the city's final word on an issue that
arose in September 2009, when the city received its first application
from a medical marijuana dispensary that sought a business license.

Colorado voters gave residents the right to use marijuana to treat
debilitating medical conditions in 2000, when Amendment 20 was added
to the state constitution.

Council members who supported the ban on medical marijuana
dispensaries said their vote was not on the merits of medical
marijuana or the social impact of the drug. Nor was it an attempt to
keep Broomfield residents from exercising a right protected by the
state constitution.

"Anyone who interprets this vote as rendering opinions in that regard
would be misguided," Councilman Todd Schumacher said. "Nothing about
the ban will prevent someone from legally obtaining medical marijuana."

Council members backing the ban noted that patients and caregivers
could grow their own small amounts of marijuana or obtain it from
dispensaries in neighboring cities.

Councilmen Sam Taylor and Bob Gaiser voted against the ban.

Taylor said cities such as Denver and Boulder might have let the
number of dispensaries get out of control, but Broomfield could come
up with smarter policies.

"I have firm belief in our regulatory system that we could do better
than that," Taylor said. "I'm not in favor of having a ban, I'm in
favor of having control."

While council members narrowed their focus to dispensaries, many
residents who provided testimony spoke to broader issues.

Some of the ban's supporters said they fear dispensaries will make it
easier for children to obtain and use marijuana.

"I don't want Dr. Reefer next to Safeway when I'm going shopping with
my kids," Dan Bradfield said.

Don Larsen argued the dispensary system was something voters could
not have anticipated a decade ago. Advocates of marijuana
legalization were using the amendment to further their own ends, he said.

"We've seen massive exploitation of that sense of compassion, which
brought us to where we are today," Larsen said. "I simply don't
believe that we're that sick as a state."

Opponents of the ban focused on the needs of patients.

Banning dispensaries just puts obstacles in the way of seriously ill
patients, said Laura Pionke. She said she had firsthand knowledge
because her best friend was a medical marijuana user before
succumbing to an AIDS-related illness.

"We're not discussing legalization, we're discussing access to
medication their doctors recommended," Pionke said.

The vote at least clarified the law, Chuck Teeples said. Teeples
operates North Metro Caregivers out of his home in the Front Range
Mobile Community.

Resolution was needed because nobody knows "what's safe or what's
not," Teeples said.