Pubdate: Thu, 23 Jun 2011
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Stephanie Simon

COLORADO OUT OF JOINT OVER POT SHOPS

Cities Crack Down on Proliferation, Say Medical Marijuana Not So
Medical

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.--Kevin Fisher, a bartender in this laid-back
ski town, thought he had hit upon the next gold rush.

He and a buddy sank all their savings into opening a medical-marijuana
dispensary in the summer of 2009. As the cash rolled in, they kept
investing: By the owners' tally, they pumped $1.5 million into a
business that now has 36 employees, a greenhouse full of cannabis and
a busy pot pharmacy selling a dozen strains of weed.

The voters of Steamboat Springs could order Mr. Fisher to give it all
up.

In a furious backlash against the booming medical-marijuana industry,
scores of cities and counties across Colorado have banned new pot
shops and cannabis greenhouses or moved to oust established
businesses. The Steamboat Springs city council just put a measure on
the November ballot that would shut down existing operations and ban
new ones. Commissioners in surrounding Routt County on Tuesday banned
new businesses affiliated with medical marijuana and will ask voters
this fall whether to shut an existing dispensary.

"That's un-American," Mr. Fisher said.

Elected officials and voters say the bans reflect widespread anger at,
and disillusionment with, the industry, as well as concerns about an
increase in impaired driving. Similar local protests have sprung up in
some of the other 15 states that permit medical marijuana, including
Montana, Michigan and California.

But the backlash appears to be particularly intense in Colorado, where
the industry has grown more rapidly than in any state except California.

That is partly because state officials signaled early on that they
would accept the industry and work with patients, growers and sellers
to develop regulations. That spurred a remarkable boom in pot-related
businesses. About 1,200 pot farms, 800 dispensaries and 300 businesses
that infuse candy, cookies, pizza and other edibles with marijuana
have applied for state licenses.

Routt County, which includes Steamboat Springs, had just 12
medical-marijuana patients in January 2009. There are now 1,143
patients, or 6% of the adult population, state health records show.
Routt County Commissioner Doug Monger said many constituents had told
him they supported the right of truly ill patients to use cannabis and
voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2000.

"But now, reality checks in, and it's like, 'Is that really what we
thought we were voting for?' " Mr. Monger said. "It's very divisive."

On a recent afternoon, patients coming into dispensaries for strains
such as "Chem Dawg" (marketed as a "very spacey, classic strain that
goes straight to your head") or "Ice Cream" (described as producing a
"wide-awake, functional high") said they needed the drug for ailments
such as tension headaches, back pain and an arthritic hip.

Those claims infuriate critics who say the medical-marijuana industry
is a smokescreen for recreational drug use. They point with disgust to
pot-shop advertisements that entice customers--and, they fear, appeal
to teens--with cannabis strains labeled "Kotton Kandy" and special
deals such as free joints on Wednesdays.

"If you want to have a debate about legalization, fine, let's do it,"
said Kelly Victory, a physician and health-care consultant in Routt
County. She said she would probably favor true legalization but in the
meantime is pushing to oust existing pot shops because they're "making
a mockery of the legal system."

Local law-enforcement authorities are also pushing for a ban, warning
that increased marijuana use endangers public safety. Steamboat
Springs police arrested 17 drivers suspected of being high on cannabis
last year, up from 9 in 2009.

The state as a whole is on pace for more than 1,600 positive cannabis
tests this year from drivers pulled over for showing signs of
impairment. That's the same as last year but double the 2009 numbers.

Medical-marijuana advocates say a jump in positive tests doesn't mean
the roads are more dangerous and that police may simply be pulling
over more drivers. While they acknowledge some abuses, they contend
that the vast majority of patients have legitimate ailments.

"These people are very sick and broken," said Dan Pullen, who owns a
physician-referral service that has recommended marijuana to hundreds
of patients in Steamboat Springs and other cities.

Colorado has permitted patients with certain debilitating conditions,
including chronic pain, to use marijuana since 2000, but the industry
changed dramatically in late 2009, when the state began to permit
commercial pot shops instead of requiring patients or their caregivers
to grow their own marijuana. A few months later, the U.S. Justice
Department ordered its prosecutors to respect state medical-marijuana
laws, freeing many state-authorized growers, sellers and buyers from
the threat of criminal charges.

Ease of access has met--and spurred--demand. Two and a half years
ago, before the dispensaries, Colorado had just 5,000 medical
marijuana patients. Today there are nearly 125,000.

But the public backlash may soon begin to crimp access, patient
advocates say. At least 34 of Colorado's 64 counties have enacted
bans, as have cities large and small, urban, suburban and rural.

Some of the jurisdictions that still permit pot shops have imposed
tight restrictions, on top of the nearly 200 pages of regulations
imposed by the state. In Denver, the city council this year enacted
licensing laws requiring medical-marijuana dispensaries to be at least
1,000 feet from schools, day-care centers and other marijuana
dispensaries.

More than a dozen pot entrepreneurs have sued the city to block those
rules from being applied to them or to win compensation for being
forced to shut down. They have lost every time. Judges elsewhere have
upheld other cities' rights to oust existing cannabis greenhouses and
dispensaries without paying them compensation.

Legal challenges by growers and sellers are still pending in several
jurisdictions. But Denver attorney Warren Edson, who represents many
clients in the medical-marijuana industry, isn't optimistic.

"If you think about it," Mr. Edson said, "how weird would it be for a
district judge to say that a city has to pay you $40,000 for taking
away your right to sell weed?" 
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.