WYOMING'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA DECISION SPAWNS THREAT OF CITY COUNCIL
RECALL EFFORT

WYOMING - Marijuana advocates want to kick the entire City Council
out of office for enacting a ban on the drug that state law permits
for medicinal use.

The council Monday reaffirmed a November vote, giving the ban a
second and final reading that makes medical marijuana illegal within
city limits.

Mayor Jack Poll, a pharmacist, and his peers said the voter-approved
state law is dangerous because it does not regulate distribution of
marijuana through typical medical channels.

Now Wyoming voters may be asked to choose which they stand behind:
The 2008 statewide marijuana proposal or the elected seven-member council?

A lawyer who has sued the city now also plans a campaign to recall
all seven elected officials: Sam Bolt, Dan Burrill, Kent Vanderwood,
William Ver Hulst, Joanne Voorhees, Richard Pastoor and Poll.

John Ter Beek said he was scheduled to meet today (12-7) with the
American Civil Liberties Union to pursue an injunction on Wyoming's
ban. He also is recruiting volunteers to circulate recall petitions.

"If I have to be recalled because I vote on preserving safety in our
community, then so be it. Move somebody else into my chair," Pastoor
said. "The only way to handle (medical marijuana) is like we handle
any other drug."

In line with statewide results, voters in 27 of 28 Wyoming precincts
supported the marijuana proposal in 2008.

"They went against the will of the voters," Ter Beek said of the
council's actions on Monday.

Lynette Brunink, manager of Grand Rapids Alternative Care, a Grand
Rapids Township clinic that certifies a patient's medical need for
marijuana, said the ban "is just like taking insulin from a diabetic."

Dan Van Dussen, a marijuana patient from Holland, feared the decision
may set precedent for other communities exploring regulation of
medical marijuana.

"They're making a knee-jerk reaction from a pharmacist's point of
view," Van Dussen said. "What they do here, Holland is going to look
at it and say 'Wyoming did this.'"

The medical marijuana law permits licensed caregivers to grow up to
60 plants and distribute the drug to as many as five licensed
patients, who can possess up to 2.5 ounces at a given time.

Ver Hulst said the medical marijuana proposal "sounded good (in
2008), just like apple pie and motherhood." But "I guess I assumed it
would be properly controlled by medical dispensaries," he said.

He and his colleagues said medical marijuana should be dispensed
through pharmacies. There's also concern that enforcing the state law
would burden city police at a time when Wyoming's budget is strapped.

Jazmin Valencia, a recovering alcoholic, agreed with city leaders,
saying odor from a marijuana patient who lives in her Wyoming
apartment building creates unwanted temptation to break her sobriety.

"I feel I should be safe at home and I don't feel that I am,"
Valencia said. "We should push for more regulations. There is a
better way to do it."

Poll said he is "not at all" fearful of being recalled because the
2008 marijuana proposal was passed "without full knowledge of the
ramifications." Voters would not endorse the same proposal today, he said.

"I have a major problem with the way this is being dispensed," Poll
said. "This is not a vote against the people that need this
medication. This is a vote against the way it's being dispensed."