Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 Source: Norwood Post, The (CO) Copyright: 2013 Telluride Daily Planet Contact: http://telluridenews.com/norwood_post/front/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5266 Author: Patrick Alan Coleman MARIJUANA JOINTS SPARK FEAR, LOATHING AT TOWN FORUM Attendees cite spousal abuse and violent crime in pleas for board to opt out of retail pot sales Accompanied by bursts of applause, the crowd of over 40 Norwood and Wright's Mesa citizens at Wednesday's Amendment 64 forum plead with the Norwood Town Board of Trustees to opt out of licensing retail cannabis stores, testing facilities and grow operations. Only one attendee admitted to being among the 150 Norwood voters who approved Amendment 64 locally in the November elections, outvoting opponents by 60 votes. Largely, forum attendees expressed fears of increased domestic abuse, violent crime, imperiled child welfare and a bad reputation for the town should retail adult-use cannabis facilities of any type be allowed within Norwood. "This is not the answer to economic growth," said Rich Nuttall. "And it's certainly not the message our elected officials should be sending to our youth." Nuttall spoke of the moral obligations of the government and pointed out what he characterized as the "oxymoron" of allowing adults to use the drug while educating children that it is wrong. "We don't want to become a source of drugs for Telluride," Nuttall said, before questioning why people would oppose what he called "traditional" West End businesses like hunting and mining, yet be proponents of ingesting drugs. Nuttall was one of several residents who characterized any tax benefit related to the sale of adult-use cannabis as "dirty money." New Norwood resident John Dotson wondered if funds from marijuana sales earmarked for school construction would be worth possible troubles, asking, "If the federal government is saying this is illegal, what are you going to do with this money? Put it in the bank? If we do, are we laundering drug money?" "We've already got a huge drug problem here," commented Joseph Taylor. "I think this will only make things worse." The worsening of what some some perceived as a local drug problem was raised more than once during the forum, with some pointing to a September 2011 assault and robbery of two medical marijuana growers outside of Norwood, which initiated a lockdown at Norwood Public School. "Is this what we really want our kids to see on a daily basis?" asked Redvale resident Cheryl Eades. "We don't need the dangers that it's going to bring." "Who's going to protect our babies from stuff like that if we open up pot shops?" Janine Spor queried the board. "We open up one in our little town, we're asking for the crime rate to go up and endangerment to our children." Many speakers warned that the presence of retail pot facilities would put a black mark on Norwood's reputation as a family-friendly town and asked that board members send a message to the county that marijuana was not welcome on Wright's Mesa. Others warned that children would almost certainly gain easy access to the drug if it were made available in town. For some, the concerns were less specifically linked with the sale of adult-use marijuana and more with cannabis use in general. Teacher and Wright's Mesa resident Ann Wright characterized marijuana as "very evil." "I don't see anything endearing about pot. I know very few successful people that smoke pot," Wright said. Carrying a hammer as an object lesson, Davis Watson noted that the tool could be used to strengthen a home by being used to help family members, or tear it down by bludgeoning your wife. "We're not talking about hammers, we're talking about marijuana," Watson said. "There's nothing about marijuana that strengthens the family. When anybody takes something that alters your mind, you never know what might happen with it. You may start beating your wife or your children." After arguing the money for regulation would likely outstrip the money gained from sales, Joe Bowman put his opposition to marijuana as a drug more succinctly, saying simply "We all know the statistics say pot is not good for us. It doesn't matter who you are." Shortly after the forum, the board was addressed briefly by San Miguel County Sheriffs Department Deputy Dan Covault who is in charge of enforcing marijuana regulations in the county. Covault spoke primarily about the regulations recently put in place by the Colo. legislature. "What the folks here tonight are missing is the larger picture," Covault explained. "Wether or not there's a retail center here is truly irrelevant because under adult-use marijuana, every one of us in here can grow six plants of our own, in our home, per adult." Covault suggested that marijuana was already being grown in Norwood by private individuals and there was little recourse for the town to stop it. Covault did say, however, the town could create provisions like Boulder County's nuisance smoke ordinance which makes it a citable offense for any kind of outdoor smoke, marijuana or tobacco, to drift from one person's private property to another. The board has until October to make a final decision regarding the licensing of retail adult-use cannabis facilities. They agreed to a work session with deputy Covault in the interim. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom