TOWN TO TINKER WITH MARIJUANA REGS

And activists say, 'legalize it'

The Town of Telluride will continue to refine its medical marijuana
policies as the State of Colorado drags its feet in forging
overarching rules.

Last week, the Telluride Town Council gave direction to the town
attorney to continue crafting local rules that will provide a
blueprint for governing the industry, which has proven problematic
across that state as it surged in popularity.

As it stands now, the town's medical marijuana ordinance draft spans
some 41 pages and, once passed, will take several key positions,
regulating the age of dispensary workers and further regulating signage.

"I'm ready to go and we're ready to go. They don't want to wait
another year," said Town Attorney Kevin Geiger.

The town is seeking stricter regulations on signage in hopes of
avoiding confusion. In the past, some dispensary signs had simply
stated "ice cream," or "soda."

The new rules will require that businesses denote that marijuana is in
their products. "This will make it clear," Geiger said.

Council backed away from other measures, such as a regulation of the
distance between a dispensary and a park, believing it could put some
medical marijuana centers out of business. They did stick with keeping
dispensaries at least 500 feet away from schools.

Thom Carnevale, meanwhile, feared that the local government was making
a habit of overreaching.

"Meeting after meeting, all we do is try to regulate more and more and
more," he said. "It's very troubling for me aE& We just continue to
want to regulate and anticipate problems that don't exist, and it's
very troubling."

Council member David Oyster didn't see it that way. "I think we should
take a leadership position in this," he said. "We're a home-rule
municipality because we don't want the state to tell us what to do all
the time."

Telluride also brought its age rules in line with the state: one must
be 21 or older to work at a dispensary. In the past, it was 18.

The new rules will also restrict venting of fumes into public spaces,
such as main street.

The rules will come back for another reading at the next town council
meeting.

Adam Raleigh, owner of the Telluride Bud Company, attended the meeting
and told council that it was hard for dispensaries to set themselves
apart on signs. "If I just have 'infused products,' well, every
dispensary has infused products," he said. "I should have the right to
advertise responsibly to my clients."

Telluride's effort to regulate the industry is one of many, and comes
amid marijuana advocates' big wins in this year's session of the
Colorado Legislature. Advocates are now turning their sights to a
bigger effort -- full legalization on the 2012 ballot.

Pot legalization backers hope to start gathering signatures as soon as
this summer to put the question to voters. Given Colorado's low
signature threshold for ballot initiatives, which currently stands at
about 86,000 people, they say they expect an easy path to the polls.

Colorado voters defeated a legalization measure in 2006, as did
California voters last year. But activists here are regrouping for
another push.

"We're going to have a great legalization debate in 2012," predicted
Laura Kriho of the Cannabis Therapy Institute, a powerful grass-roots
organizer that alerts marijuana advocates to lobby public officials on
measures related to pot.

Lawmakers heard from activists several times during the 2011 session
that ended last week, and they achieved some surprising victories.

Advocates defeated a proposal to set a driving-high impairment
standard that was backed by law enforcement. They quickly squashed a
proposal to ban edible marijuana, and dispensaries chipped away at
some residency rules and other requirements through a revision of
marijuana regulation that had been adopted the year before.

With lobbyists working Capitol halls and a network of marijuana
patients packing committee hearings, Colorado's pot community won over
lawmakers on many measures intended to crack down on the nascent industry.

"With each passing legislative session, we're seeing marijuana and the
marijuana distribution system further entrenched and accepted in the
state," said Brian Vicente, head of Sensible Colorado.