PITKIN COUNTY TO RETHINK INACTION ON MEDICAL POT

Pitkin County commissioners will rethink their previous shelving of
proposed regulations allowing and governing medical marijuana
operations, after learning that simply doing nothing is tantamount to
making existing operations illegal.

Commissioners plan to take up the issue Jan. 17.

Rachel Richards, chairwoman of the county commission, said county
staff last spring advanced fairly far in developing codes allowing
for such operations. But she said commissioners took no action on
adopting them after the county attorney indicated the county could
face possible liability for permitting something that's illegal under
federal law.

She said the concerns ranged from county personnel being prosecuted
for aiding and abetting a criminal activity if the Drug Enforcement
Administration busted a grow operation, to a grower suing the county
for entrapment if the federal government shut it down after it had
obtained a county permit.

Although the county hasn't banned medical marijuana operations, Julie
Postlethwait, spokeswoman for the state's Medical Marijuana
Enforcement Division, said its failure to adopt regulations licensing
them means the division would have to deny applications for them,
"which basically causes them to shut down."

That's because the division is prohibited by state law from approving
such applications where no local license or other approval for
medical marijuana operations has been granted.

Postlethwait said Pitkin County is the first county or city in the
state that the division knows of that had decided to take no position
regarding licensing, but she wouldn't be surprised if more do the same.

She said the division received 21 applications from within Pitkin
County, but it doesn't know how many of those are in the
unincorporated part of the county, and thus under county jurisdiction.

Richards said she doesn't think the county understood the
consequences of doing nothing.

"We're going to take another look at it. ... I think our actions
should be deliberate one way or the other. I don't think it should be
a default type of action," she said.

Postlethwait said operations have until July 1 to receive their state
licenses. She said the division is aware the county plans to rethink
the matter, and it will communicate with the county before taking any
action on applications.

Richards said she can't predict what commissioners might decide, and
she still needs to hear from the public. But she said she's now
feeling confident enough in the state's regulations and the lack of
federal action against counties that have proceeded with permitting
medical marijuana operations that she's inclined to support Pitkin
County doing so as well.