ARE WE THERE YET?

City's MMJ Industry Dodges November Ballot Question

A day removed from being the linchpin in the Colorado Springs City
Council's 5-4 decision not to refer a medical marijuana center ban to
the November ballot, Scott Hente is feeling upbeat.

"You know they say a good politician pisses everybody off? I think I'm
probably the best politician in the country," Hente says, laughing,
"because I've pissed everybody off."

In Monday's informal meeting, Hente was one of five Council members to
oppose Councilor Darryl Glenn's proposal to add the ballot question,
killing the possibility that Colorado Springs would vote on MMJ before
the April municipal election. (The El Paso County Board of
Commissioners will take up a similar question in its Aug. 26 meeting,
but a vote there would affect only centers in unincorporated areas.)

The positions were interesting: Vice Mayor Larry Small and Councilor
Jan Martin had previously voted to license centers, but wanted
residents to vote on a possible ban; Hente had previously opposed licensure.

"So I think Darryl would've thought that because of the fact that I
had voted against [dispensaries originally], I'd be a natural ally for
putting them on the ballot," Hente says. "But my larger issue is, I
have always been a big believer in representative government."

Hente says that, though he's opposed to dispensaries, Council's
earlier licensure vote made the decision for him:

"I thought I had an internal principle that I would've violated if I
would've said, 'OK, yeah, we take this to the voters because I didn't
get my way.'"

On the other side, Glenn says ballot referral was never his pet
issue.

"It's one of those things where I fulfilled my obligation, that I felt
I needed to bring this issue forward as representative of my
district," he says, adding: "I think it's going to be a major campaign
issue for the April election."

In agreement is Tanya Garduno, president of the Colorado Springs
Medical Cannabis Council.

"Between now and April, hopefully we can show that we're a viable and
productive part of the community," she says. "If the Let Us Vote folks
want to continue forward with their initiative, then we'll continue
forward combating it with education."

Though Let Us Vote COS failed to garner enough signatures to place the
issue on the November ballot, leader Steve Wind has made clear in
previous conversations with the Indy that he expects greater success
between now and Dec. 15, when he says he'll turn in all material to
the City Clerk's office.

Still, Hente is skeptical.

"They claim, and maybe they're right, they claim that they have this
overwhelming majority of the community that are opposed to
[dispensaries]," he says. "And so my comment is, if you do have this
overwhelming majority, then it should be easy to get the required
number of signatures. But don't ask me to violate my beliefs and do
your work for you."

In the end, referral or not, Glenn says the effort was not a total
loss.

"You know, when it's that close, it's important to air that out
publicly so that people understand where people are," he says. "And I
think that they have a clear indication of where the Council
representatives are, each one, on what their position is, and now I'm
turning it over to the public."