FERNAU: I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE DISCUSSING THIS

SHOW LOW - As the city council discussed this week the coming of
legalized medical use marijuana it was not without occasional humor.

At the prospect of having to encourage a marijuana retail store, Mayor
Rick Fernau said "I can't believe we're discussing this." It did seem
to put the socially and politically conservative group of councilors
in an uncomfortable situation.

Councilor Jack Latham made it clear that he had opposed the
legalization but now that it was voted in he suggested that police
chief Jeffrey Smythe could run the store. He said the uniform and the
sidearm might discourage people from trying to get the drugs under
false pretenses.

As for establishing a marijuana store on one of the main streets so
they could be better monitored, Latham agreed, joking, that "if it was
on the Deuce of Clubs we'd be able to drive by and say 'there's the
mayor's car there again.'"

At the meeting Tuesday, Police Chief Jeffrey Smythe left shortly after
his presentation to the council, it was his wife's birthday and he was
supposed to take her to dinner. "You might be late; you might just
have to buy her dessert," said one person from the panel. "Maybe a
brownie," he joked, referring to the common practise of baking
marijuana into brownies.

When discussing the potential for home growers being allowed to
cultivate up to 12 plants at a time, councilor John Leech, Jr. asked
whether there would be any regulation of how big the plants could be.
"Mine are 10 feet tall," he said.

With their concerns about people being allowed to grow their own
marijuana if there is no store within 25 miles of Show Low, Fernau
said, "I'd like to be in the center of the 25 miles. We need to be
sure and get one."