Two perspectives intersect at the mirrored-glass front windows of the former Ambrosia building at 112 Colorado Ave.
City leaders perched outside the site of the city's first proposed legal marijuana dispensary see just their own reflections and a curious, unfamiliar challenge. They want more time to consider it.
On the outside, it's mysterious.
Inside the tastefully improved building, organizers gaze out at a city they see as underserved by the dispensary's absence. In frustration, they abide by the city's request to delay dispensing marijuana from the building for 90 days while City Council considers official action to formalize the moratorium as a city ordinance.
Council will hear the proposed ordinance on first reading Monday and will accept public comment and act on it in one or two weeks, according to City Attorney Tom Jagger. The dispensary will hold its own public meeting on the subject Wednesday at 6 p.m. at 112 Colorado Ave. In addition to the city's proposed moratorium on sanctioning dispensaries, specifics of state and federal medicinal marijuana laws, how to register legally as a patient and how to become an approved caregiver will be discussed. Call 545-0100 for more information.
Although the dispensary has not been named, it is an offshoot of MediMar Ministries, owned by Tom Sexton. MediMar has completed prep work to open the dispensary, spent thousands of dollars on office equipment and made physical improvements to the building it's leasing for the next year.
Sexton said he isn't satisfied with the city-imposed delay of his dispensary's opening, and his lawyer, Jim Oliver, intends to challenge it through the city's zoning appeals process. That challenge is likely to be heard by the city within two weeks.
To the dispensary's organizers, the mirrored windows of their establishment are a means of protecting patients' privacy, not to keep secret what goes on there. They insist that openness is a priority for their operation, and proved that by being up-front with city officials about their plans to open a dispensary.
Sexton has watched in district court while investigators emphasized that he did not take that approach during the summer of 2007, when Pueblo County sheriff's deputies raided his Beulah farm and seized more than 100 marijuana plants.
Sexton faces a felony charge of marijuana cultivation in that case, which is set for trial in February. His lawyer in the criminal action, Karl Tameler, has argued to the court that Sexton was approved by the state as a caregiver to a sufficient number of patients to justify his possession of the plants that were seized and destroyed by deputies.
During court testimony in that case, prosecutors have highlighted that Sexton did not notify local law enforcement of his operation, although no such requirement is outlined in the voter-approved amendment to the Colorado constitution that legalized medical marijuana.
So this time around, Sexton was direct about his intentions. During a building inspection by the Pueblo Fire Department and in dealings with the Pueblo Regional Building Department, he made known his intended use of the building.
However, in paperwork that earned the business a city sales tax license, the building's intended use is identified as a “wellness center” offering “herbal remedies.”
Oliver said those statements are true and weren't intended to minimize Sexton's plans for the site. Besides, Oliver said, the location is already zoned for those uses, in addition to retail sales and residential use.
It's on those grounds that Oliver expects to plead Sexton's case to the city planning board in hopes of opening within the next 90 days.
Jagger countered that no specific zoning designation exists for medicinal marijuana dispensaries, so he's not convinced that a zoning appeal applies to the controversy.
For its up-front approach dealing with the city, Jagger praised MediMar.
“It shows that this group has credibility,” he said.
The dispensary's business manager, Sierra Neblina, said establishing a reputation of honest, principled, law-abiding practices is imperative to the success of the dispensary.
“We want to be a credible part of the conversation,” Neblina said. “We realize self-regulation and responsibility are an important piece of working cooperatively with the city.”
Part of Sexton's frustration stems from how he learned of the moratorium. After requesting a meeting with Chief of Police Jim Billings to assure his dispensary is compliant with city rules, Sexton received a letter from the city requesting that he refrain from opening his dispensary for 90 days.
While mired in its promise to honor the city's proposed moratorium, the proposed dispensary site will serve as a clearinghouse for shepherding prospective patients through the process of being licensed to possess marijuana legally. A fee will be associated with those services.
Sexton said he believes the city's proposed moratorium is contrary to the Colorado constitution and was politically motivated because members of City Council don't want such a hot question on their laps while voters deliberate during the next two weeks whether to create a mayoral position - a question primarily opposed by the sitting council that could represent a community mandate for or against the present board.
The state's medicinal marijuana registry reflects 190 legal patients who list their primary addresses in Pueblo County.
“There would probably be 1,100 (licensed patients in the county) if there were a dispensary where they could obtain safe, legal medicine,” Sexton said. “There's nobody serving patients here, at least not out in the open.”
MediMar will continue to dispense to the dozens of patients it serves as registered caregiver by meeting in the shadows. Neblina said that puts MediMar staff at greater risk of robbery and the other pitfalls that accompany the illicit drug trade.
“When we have to distribute under cover of darkness, it has a huge stigma attached to it, like a drug deal,” Neblina said.
Some patients turn to illicit dealers for marijuana because of the inconvenience associated with obtaining it legally, she lamented.
Another obstacle to medicinal marijuana patients in Pueblo County is the absence of doctors here willing to approve patients for legal possession of the drug.
Sexton said patients he serves as caregiver must travel to Denver for referrals to possess marijuana legally because doctors locally are reluctant to provide them.
Some of the same complaints expressed by law enforcement about the vague nature of the state's medical marijuana law have frustrated folks on the care-giving side as well.
“The problem with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment model is it doesn't set guidelines for dispensing,” Sexton said. “You can be a patient. You can be a caregiver. How do you dispense? They don't make that clear.”
Jagger said he has no feel for how council will resolve the question of regulating dispensaries, but cities statewide are grappling with the question.
“City Council will decide what the policy should be,” Jagger said. “The city has to consider the positions of its elected officials” on the issue.
Some municipalities have chosen to treat medicinal marijuana dispensaries as they would liquor licenses, or through special zoning rules, Jagger said.
“I think it's time to deal with it,” he said.
Other Colorado cities, including Colorado Springs and Denver, have been home to medicinal marijuana dispensaries for years.
“The city has had a chance to deal with this issue, but chose to wait until it was at their doorstep,” Oliver said. “It's not a surprise. They knew it was coming. Our request has forced them to finally deal with it.”
News Hawk- Weedpipe 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Author
ATRICK MALONE
Contact: The Pueblo Chieftain Online ::
Copyright: 2009 The Pueblo Chieftain
Website:The Pueblo Chieftain :: Marijuana dispensary opening delayed
City leaders perched outside the site of the city's first proposed legal marijuana dispensary see just their own reflections and a curious, unfamiliar challenge. They want more time to consider it.
On the outside, it's mysterious.
Inside the tastefully improved building, organizers gaze out at a city they see as underserved by the dispensary's absence. In frustration, they abide by the city's request to delay dispensing marijuana from the building for 90 days while City Council considers official action to formalize the moratorium as a city ordinance.
Council will hear the proposed ordinance on first reading Monday and will accept public comment and act on it in one or two weeks, according to City Attorney Tom Jagger. The dispensary will hold its own public meeting on the subject Wednesday at 6 p.m. at 112 Colorado Ave. In addition to the city's proposed moratorium on sanctioning dispensaries, specifics of state and federal medicinal marijuana laws, how to register legally as a patient and how to become an approved caregiver will be discussed. Call 545-0100 for more information.
Although the dispensary has not been named, it is an offshoot of MediMar Ministries, owned by Tom Sexton. MediMar has completed prep work to open the dispensary, spent thousands of dollars on office equipment and made physical improvements to the building it's leasing for the next year.
Sexton said he isn't satisfied with the city-imposed delay of his dispensary's opening, and his lawyer, Jim Oliver, intends to challenge it through the city's zoning appeals process. That challenge is likely to be heard by the city within two weeks.
To the dispensary's organizers, the mirrored windows of their establishment are a means of protecting patients' privacy, not to keep secret what goes on there. They insist that openness is a priority for their operation, and proved that by being up-front with city officials about their plans to open a dispensary.
Sexton has watched in district court while investigators emphasized that he did not take that approach during the summer of 2007, when Pueblo County sheriff's deputies raided his Beulah farm and seized more than 100 marijuana plants.
Sexton faces a felony charge of marijuana cultivation in that case, which is set for trial in February. His lawyer in the criminal action, Karl Tameler, has argued to the court that Sexton was approved by the state as a caregiver to a sufficient number of patients to justify his possession of the plants that were seized and destroyed by deputies.
During court testimony in that case, prosecutors have highlighted that Sexton did not notify local law enforcement of his operation, although no such requirement is outlined in the voter-approved amendment to the Colorado constitution that legalized medical marijuana.
So this time around, Sexton was direct about his intentions. During a building inspection by the Pueblo Fire Department and in dealings with the Pueblo Regional Building Department, he made known his intended use of the building.
However, in paperwork that earned the business a city sales tax license, the building's intended use is identified as a “wellness center” offering “herbal remedies.”
Oliver said those statements are true and weren't intended to minimize Sexton's plans for the site. Besides, Oliver said, the location is already zoned for those uses, in addition to retail sales and residential use.
It's on those grounds that Oliver expects to plead Sexton's case to the city planning board in hopes of opening within the next 90 days.
Jagger countered that no specific zoning designation exists for medicinal marijuana dispensaries, so he's not convinced that a zoning appeal applies to the controversy.
For its up-front approach dealing with the city, Jagger praised MediMar.
“It shows that this group has credibility,” he said.
The dispensary's business manager, Sierra Neblina, said establishing a reputation of honest, principled, law-abiding practices is imperative to the success of the dispensary.
“We want to be a credible part of the conversation,” Neblina said. “We realize self-regulation and responsibility are an important piece of working cooperatively with the city.”
Part of Sexton's frustration stems from how he learned of the moratorium. After requesting a meeting with Chief of Police Jim Billings to assure his dispensary is compliant with city rules, Sexton received a letter from the city requesting that he refrain from opening his dispensary for 90 days.
While mired in its promise to honor the city's proposed moratorium, the proposed dispensary site will serve as a clearinghouse for shepherding prospective patients through the process of being licensed to possess marijuana legally. A fee will be associated with those services.
Sexton said he believes the city's proposed moratorium is contrary to the Colorado constitution and was politically motivated because members of City Council don't want such a hot question on their laps while voters deliberate during the next two weeks whether to create a mayoral position - a question primarily opposed by the sitting council that could represent a community mandate for or against the present board.
The state's medicinal marijuana registry reflects 190 legal patients who list their primary addresses in Pueblo County.
“There would probably be 1,100 (licensed patients in the county) if there were a dispensary where they could obtain safe, legal medicine,” Sexton said. “There's nobody serving patients here, at least not out in the open.”
MediMar will continue to dispense to the dozens of patients it serves as registered caregiver by meeting in the shadows. Neblina said that puts MediMar staff at greater risk of robbery and the other pitfalls that accompany the illicit drug trade.
“When we have to distribute under cover of darkness, it has a huge stigma attached to it, like a drug deal,” Neblina said.
Some patients turn to illicit dealers for marijuana because of the inconvenience associated with obtaining it legally, she lamented.
Another obstacle to medicinal marijuana patients in Pueblo County is the absence of doctors here willing to approve patients for legal possession of the drug.
Sexton said patients he serves as caregiver must travel to Denver for referrals to possess marijuana legally because doctors locally are reluctant to provide them.
Some of the same complaints expressed by law enforcement about the vague nature of the state's medical marijuana law have frustrated folks on the care-giving side as well.
“The problem with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment model is it doesn't set guidelines for dispensing,” Sexton said. “You can be a patient. You can be a caregiver. How do you dispense? They don't make that clear.”
Jagger said he has no feel for how council will resolve the question of regulating dispensaries, but cities statewide are grappling with the question.
“City Council will decide what the policy should be,” Jagger said. “The city has to consider the positions of its elected officials” on the issue.
Some municipalities have chosen to treat medicinal marijuana dispensaries as they would liquor licenses, or through special zoning rules, Jagger said.
“I think it's time to deal with it,” he said.
Other Colorado cities, including Colorado Springs and Denver, have been home to medicinal marijuana dispensaries for years.
“The city has had a chance to deal with this issue, but chose to wait until it was at their doorstep,” Oliver said. “It's not a surprise. They knew it was coming. Our request has forced them to finally deal with it.”
News Hawk- Weedpipe 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Author
ATRICK MALONE Contact: The Pueblo Chieftain Online ::
Copyright: 2009 The Pueblo Chieftain
Website:The Pueblo Chieftain :: Marijuana dispensary opening delayed
