ERIE CONSIDERS SNUFFING OUT MEDICAL-POT DISPENSARIES

Trustees Take Up Prohibition Ordinance Tuesday Night

Erie could soon join Superior, Broomfield and Jamestown in quashing
medical marijuana dispensaries and banning pot-growing operations in town.

Tuesday night, the Board of Trustees will vote on a first reading of
an ordinance that would ban dispensaries, commercial cultivation and
facilities that manufacture medical marijuana-infused products. The
ordinance would have to be approved on a second reading next month
before being enacted.

Trustee Colin Towner said there are still private caregivers in Erie
and plenty of dispensaries in nearby towns where residents can get
medical pot if they want it.

"People have access to this medication through other channels -- why
do you have to have a storefront?" he asked. "It's just not time for
Erie right now."

Towner said he worries about the additional security concerns that
dispensaries would generate.

"It's a lot of policing and regulatory effort that we're not willing
to take on," he said.

Erie has no medical marijuana dispensaries, and there are no
applications before the town to open one, according to town spokesman
Fred Diehl. The town put in place a moratorium that lasts until July
1 prohibiting any new businesses of that type from setting up shop.

The proposed ban grew out of a board retreat held earlier this month,
when the trustees discussed how to deal with the state's new medical pot laws.

In 2000, Colorado voters approved the use of medical marijuana for
the treatment of certain ailments. The General Assembly passed
legislation earlier this year that allows municipalities in Colorado
to outlaw retail dispensaries -- either through a vote of the elected
leaders or a vote of the residents -- or to pass their own strict set
of zoning and operational regulations for the businesses.

Superior's Board of Trustees decided this past summer to prohibit
dispensaries, while voters in Jamestown and Broomfield approved bans on Nov. 2.

The advantage to a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, said Erie
Mayor Joe Wilson, is that it buys the town some time to observe how
other municipalities handle the incendiary issue without getting
mired in litigation and court battles.

"It's a safe haven -- while the rest of the medical marijuana world
works out its problems," the mayor said. "It lets us stand on the
sidelines so that we can see it unfold at no expense to us."

He also said there is a feeling on the board that marijuana is a
gateway drug -- potentially leading to the use of harder drugs -- and
that the town doesn't want to be seen as encouraging that.

Wilson said the trustees recognized that Erie would be giving up
certain sales tax revenues by disallowing dispensaries, but he said
it wasn't easy to tell if that money would be wiped out by the costs
of providing security and drafting regulations for dispensaries.

If Erie approves a ban, the closest medical marijuana dispensary for
most residents would be Lafayette's 420 HighWays in Old Town. Owner
Veronica Carpio said one-quarter of her business already comes from
Erie and that she stands to gain from a prohibition in the neighboring town.

"From a business standpoint, it's great -- it's less competition for
me," she said.

But Carpio also wondered why a town would turn down the opportunity
to bring in much-needed revenue. She said she pays a minimum of $700
a month to Lafayette in sales taxes.

"We're in a broke economy -- people aren't building, people are still
losing their homes," she said. "It would be nice for the town of Erie
to get some income from dispensaries and grow operations."