Pubdate: Sun, 16 Jun 2013
Source: Longmont Weekly (CO)
Contact:  2013 Media News group
Website: http://www.longmontweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5443
Author: Scott Rochat

LONGMONT CITY COUNCIL VOTES 4-2 TO BAN POT BUSINESSES

LONGMONT - Pot shops were shot down Tuesday by the Longmont City 
Council, which voted 4-2 to ban recreational marijuana businesses.

"As it stands, you can grow, smoke and possess marijuana, medical or 
recreational, in the city of Longmont," Councilman Brian Bagley said 
in voting for the ban. "To me, the issue is, do we want to see stores 
in Longmont providing this?"

Councilwoman Bonnie Finley was absent. Mayor Dennis Coombs and 
Councilman Alex Sammoury opposed the measure.

"If 58 percent of our people want marijuana to be regulated like 
alcohol, it's not my job to go against the will of the people," Coombs said.

Last November, about 58 percent of Longmont voters supported 
Amendment 64, a fact that opponents of the ban were quick to remind 
the council of. The amendment legalizes marijuana in Colorado - 
though it remains illegal under federal law - and allows retailers to 
sell the drug under regulation, similar to alcohol.

"Bans are, in my experience, lazy policymaking," said Teri Robnett of 
Denver, founder of the Cannabis Patient Action Network. She argued 
that although many were afraid of a federal crackdown, no dispensary 
had yet been shut down by the feds. Some have moved, after being 
warned that they were too close to schools.

She was one of six people at the meeting to ask for the council to 
postpone its vote until the Colorado Department of Revenue adopts its 
emergency rules, currently set for July 1.

"It would be more prudent for the city to wait until it has all the 
information," said Shawn Hauser of Sensible Colorado. "A ban now is 
jumping the gun a little bit. The city doesn't have to act right now."

Councilwoman Sarah Levison pointed out that Amendment 64 also allowed 
communities to opt out of retail marijuana entirely. She also said 
bans weren't necessarily lazy, noting the amount of work related to 
Longmont's ban on hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" adopted by 
voters last November.

Right now, she said, there was still too much uncertainty about what 
would happen at the state level.

"I could be in favor of not having a ban, or of overturning a ban, at 
a point where we had some surety in the regulatory environment," she said.

Bagley said there wasn't a lack of availability, especially since a 
medical dispensary was located just outside the city limits.

"First and foremost I don't want to say to my kids that smoking 
marijuana is OK," he said. "I'm not saying I know any more than 
anyone who stood at the podium. But I do have a responsibility to 
vote my conscience."

The council also voted 6-0 to ban marijuana clubs.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom