THIS MUST STOP

On the ballot this fall is a county measure placed by the county
commissioners called 1A. It is a measure to keep medical marijuana
dispensaries from being allowed in unincorporated El Paso County.
There is a similar measure on the ballot in Fountain called 2G. Pot
shops have sprung up all over the place. Whenever you see a green
cross on a sign and/or a building in El Paso County that is code for
pot. This must stop. If you look at the Independent newspaper, at
least 10 pages are ads for pot shops. If you read the ads closely, you
will see some of them have doctors on site to write
prescriptions.

How did we get here? First, we must look at Amendment 20 that was
passed by the voters of the State in 2000. It allowed people with
so-called severe pain and cancer patients to use pot for medicinal
purposes. This was always a ruse. The pro marijuana crowd knew they
couldn't legalize pot on a straight up or down vote. So they used the
sick and the dying as political cover to open a beachhead in their
quest to legalize pot.

The idea was first and foremost, they were under a doctor's care and a
caregiver would provide the pot to the sick person. Ideally, this
would have been one-on-one care. Yet, the law said no more than five
patients per caregiver.

I am certain there were some abuses like there is abuse with all
legalized drugs. Yet, for the most part, everything was fine until
2008. What happened in 2008? President Barack Obama was elected and
told the American people he would not enforce the federal drug laws
concerning pot. Thus, pot shops were created. Pot shops opened up with
no regulation and no oversight.

Senator Romer investigated the situation and found that six doctors
wrote about 85 percent of all the prescriptions for pot throughout the
state. This was not the way the people envisioned this would work when
they voted for this in 2000. Yet, I believe this is exactly what the
pro pot people expected. They want pot legalized.

The state Legislature passed a bill concerning pot shops and gave
local government the power to ban pot shops in their local area. A yes
vote on 1A and 2G will send a clear message to pot growers and
producers: not in our town, not in our county.

I have witnessed personally the pot shop on the corner of 14th Street
and Colorado; 99.9 percent of the people who went in there were young
and otherwise healthy. They were using this as a back door to smoke
pot recreationally. Please vote to stop this. Vote yes on 1A and 2G
(Fountain city).

Fr. Bill Carmody

Diocese of Colorado Springs