Pubdate: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 Source: Fort Collins Coloradoan (CO) Copyright: 2011 The Fort Collins Coloradoan Contact: http://www.coloradoan.com/customerservice/contactus.html Website: http://www.coloradoan.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1580 Authors: D. Michael and Nancy R. Smith Note: D. Michael and Nancy R. Smith, Ph.D.s, are psychotherapists living in Fort Collins. COMMERCIAL MARIJUANA DEALERS HAVE CREATED A PERFECT STORM Without resorting to hyperbole or what the other side calls "reefer madness," we believe two factors have come together at this time to create what we think is the perfect storm, to enable the worst possible scenario for us and our future in Fort Collins: commercial marijuana dealerships and those who've made a mockery of the medical marijuana card. The 20 commercial pot shops in Fort Collins and the geometric proliferation of those obtaining cards who have no legitimate need for them has led to a massive increase in the numbers of those using marijuana without fear of the legal, physical or psychological consequences. These bode ill for our future together. We are not referring to the relatively small number of those who actually need marijuana to palliate the symptoms of end-stage or chronic illness. These folks were well cared for by existing caretakers allowed by Amendment 20. Regardless of the pro-MMD lobby's claims, they will be well cared for when the commercial dealerships are gone because their actual number is relatively small. Patients in true need are not the issue. The issue that hasn't been well discussed is the huge "new base" of recreational and potentially addicted users that has been essentially created or at least facilitated by the easy access and perceived reduction in risk to health, especially among adolescents. The fact is virtually anyone 18 or older can get a card to obtain marijuana from a pot doctor. Other writers have noted the dramatic increase in marijuana incidents in local schools since the pot dealers came to town. Absolutely no coincidence here. And Sheriff Justin Smith and others have documented cardholders purchasing their "regulated limit" from multiple pot shops. This creates an overabundance of pot, some of which is being sold to kids and to markets across the country. So here's what we mean by the "perfect storm." It is an undeniable fact that increased substance use and abuse leads to increased crime. When people are drunk, stoned or high (impaired by substances), they take more risks, do more outrageous things, get into more fights (verbal and physical), have more accidents and commit more crime. Witness the chaos, property destruction, injuries and arrests that resulted from the riot at Rams Pointe near Colorado State University the first week of school. Most all were drunk. It's a safe bet that many were stoned, as well. Regardless of pot dealers and their advocates' claims of how "regulated" and "safe" their shops and internal transactions are, simply their presence and "doing business" in the community leads to more people using pot, which leads to more crime, which is not in the best interest of our life together. As Jerri Howe noted in her recent Soapbox (referencing the Office of National Drug Control Policy), a 3 million person increase in the number of those regularly using drugs (primarily marijuana) since 2007 is attributable to the increasing number of states permitting the use of medical marijuana. More substance use and abuse always equals more crime. For us, this means that allowing commercial pot dealerships to continue will most certainly continue contributing to the exponential increase in crime in the city. A perfect storm has been created that can be substantially abated by your voting for Citizens' Initiative 300, to ban the pot dealerships in Fort Collins. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.