LOVELAND COUNCIL OKS MEDICAL MARIJUANA BALLOT LANGUAGE

LOVELAND - While the Loveland City Council voted Tuesday on official
ballot language to put the issue of medical marijuana dispensaries in
voters' hands, shop owners were busy drafting suggested regulations
and making their way to shops around town to help tame some of the
more outrageous slogans and signs on dispensaries.

During Tuesday's meeting, the council unanimously approved official
language to place the issue on the Nov. 2 ballot.

After some discussion, the ballot question was finally worded so that
a "yes" vote means the voter wishes to allow the city to permit and
license the dispensaries.

A "no" vote means voters want to ban the licensing of dispensaries
within the city.

The Loveland Association for Wellness, or LAW, a recently developed
group headed by members of the medical marijuana business community,
met with two City Council members last week and decided to start
developing rules for shops that could take effect sooner than Nov. 2,
when Lovelanders will decide if they want the shops in town at all.

Councilwoman Cathleen McEwen said Tuesday that LAW group members she
met were very willing to work with the council to create laws that
would eliminate some of the less-favorable advertisements and
decorations on some shops in town.

"They have a desire to stay in business, and I think that they
realize that in order to do that, they have to treat it like a bona
fide business," McEwen said.

Large images of marijuana leaves and references to getting high or
stoned need to go, she said.

During a July 20 City Council meeting, many medical marijuana shop
owners and proponents nodded their heads when council members
mentioned creating some regulations for the businesses that would
take effect quickly.

"What we're trying to do is address some of these needs in the
immediate," McEwen said Tuesday morning.

Eric Aragon, who is helping organize the movement, said regulation
proponents made their way around the city Tuesday, asking businesses
with offensive or over-the-top signage to take it down.

LAW planned to meet this week to create a resolution that it will
later present to the City Council.

Some of the LAW members McEwen and council member Joan Shaffer met
with last week said they already had begun working to create and
implement some regulations on shops.

Whatever ideas the group comes up with will most likely be made
stricter after council looks over them, McEwen said.

"They're doing well without us having to get heavy-handed," McEwen
said. "There seems to be some middle ground that we've reached."

McEwen said she thinks the current agreement and balance between the
shops and the city will eliminate any concerns the public might have
about the shops and their operations.

At her meeting with LAW members, McEwen brought a copy of Fort
Collins' medical marijuana charter to help LAW draft some guidelines
and have an idea of what kind of specificity would be needed in an
agreement between the businesses and the city.