Loveland’s City Council adjourned at 1:24 AM June 2, from a public meeting that began 7 hours earlier.
Last on the open agenda was the State of Colorado medical marijuana bill recently passed by the State Legislature regarding the regulation of marijuana dispensaries allowed under Colorado’s Amendment 20 passed by voters approximately 10 years ago. City Attorney John Duval said he expected the Governor to sign the bill while providing a complete outline of its provisions and choices now before the city council. Among the choices allowed in the bill are to prohibit commercial marijuana dispensaries, allow them with limits or ignore the matter completely leaving all regulation to state authorities.
In the audience was Loveland’s representative to Colorado’s State House, Brian Delgrosso, along with Loveland Police Chief Luke Hecker and a dozen representatives from some 17 marijuana dispensaries operating illegally throughout Loveland. Federal law still prohibits the distribution of the controlled substance without a pharmaceutical license.
The council dodged any tough decision in favor of looking into settling the question of whether to continue to allow the dispensaries by public ballot. However, some wanted to wait for Loveland’s pro-pot lobby to place a measure on the ballot through petitions while others preferred having the council place the question on the ballot during the next municipal election.
Earlier in the evening Councilman Klassen went to battle (legislatively speaking) to try and get any money at all for the Loveland based charity Dissabled Resource Service. see article but was unsuccessful.
The final item scheduled for closed session was the city’s recovery of the nearly $1 million the city lost to a business incentive deal to vNET when the company laid-off most of its workers and sold its assets to another entity. The council opted to scheduled a special meeting for June 8, to discuss the vNET scandal rathar than began a closed session meeting at 1:30 am.
Please feel free to post any comments regarding the issues decided and discussed at the June 1, council meeting here on this blog string.
Why can’t they follow the Police Chief’s recommendation and keep marijuana growers out of the city limits?
I was ashamed at the council when I watched on TV. Nobody wanted to say anything at all for or against the medical marijuana clinics. Maybe they don’t know that most of us would respect them taking a standing regardless of whether or not they were on the opposite side of fence from everyone else.
Why are people so naive? If they want to legalize marijuana stop trying to do it through the farce of medical marijuana!
If Loveland stops all the illegal and unlicensed dispensaries state law still allows people using it for medical purposes to grow their own or buy it by mail not to mention the pharmacy where every other controlled substance prescribed by a doctor can be found.
The council extended the moratorium out of pure intimidation by the illegal pot shop operators and all the pot heads who the paper said filled-up the meeting room. They shouldn’t be so afraid.
I want people representing me who are not afraid to tell pot heads that we want to live in a safe and clean town. Is the council now going to stop enforcing prostitution laws? How about people selling stolen goods taken from another state? Are they also going to be granted a moratorium too because the hookers have jobs and what about federal immigration laws? Should we open a jobs center for every illegal alien in Northern Colorado to come here and seek employment?
Nobody believes that 10,000 people in Loveland really need to smoke dope because of a doctor’s prescription. A few doctors in the state have now licensed over 100,000 pot heads because they want to legalize marijuana and are going to do it through the back door of “medical” marijuana. If these losers really cared about those who can truly benefit from pot therapy they wouldn’t be abusing Amendment 20 meant to help really sick people.
Take your disgusting drug habits somewhere else and lets work to keep our town safe and clean. Allowing pushers to rent stores and start dispensing is insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree that medical marijuana is a mess and for many, a way to get around prohibition.
But I disagree with Kingfish, specifically in re.: “… state law still allows people to… buy it by mail not to mention the pharmacy where every other controlled substance prescribed by a doctor can be found.”
This is patently false. Marijuana is still a federally-prohibited substance, and use of mail to transport it would be criminal. State Constitution and statutes can not override that.
As to pharmacy, this is a ridiculous assertion. Name ONE pharmacy anywhere in Colorado that offers it for sale! In fact, if the pharmacies were smart, they’d back the medical marijuana push, and try to get control of the supply channels. Then they’d be a powerful economic force that would be hard to overcome, much like the liquor stores have controlled the full-strength beer market in Colorado. If that doesn’t happen, it is probably only a matter of time federal marijuana laws are changed to reflect public opinion and science, and it is treated more like alcohol, tobacco, etc….i.e. taxed in proportion to harm.
In the meantime, I think city governments shouldn’t get in the middle of the debate, but merely treat these ridiculous “dispensaries” as a matter for zoning / compatibility considerations.
Harry, you depress me. Let me share with you the thoughts from one young man who watched his friends’ casual approach to marijuana destroy their lives – I couldn’t say it better myself – and he wrote this while still in high school!
“Despite the claims of its proponents, which quite unfortunately there are many, the effects are devastating and lifelong. The effect on the user’s thought process, reasoning skills, and even physical development are things which are seen even in “moderate” users almost immediately. I have seen many people destroyed by this, utterly consumed and left only shells of their former selves, or worse, the withered structure of someone else. Defense of a substance which robs men of their ability to reason, separation from the bestial, creates not an argument, but an ankle brace of pathos.
Kingfish, I’m sorry to hear that you’re depressed. Depression is no laughing matter and help is available for that.
I’m not sure what part of my note you disagree with, or what “triggered” your depression, but please reread it, and carefully. I am NOT a proponent of marijuana and a careful reading of my post would not suggest that I am. If you take issue with a specific statement of mine, please make that clear and let’s discuss that.
However, as you’ve broached the subject of whether marijuana is harmful or not, I personally would not rely on the anecdotes and opinion of a high schooler as to its relative harms, any more than I’d rely on one for informed opinion about its merits. And I certainly wouldn’t put that above professional medical and other scientific research as to the herb’s effects on mental and physical development.
My own observations of users over 40 years suggests to me that:
– marijuana’s “long term” effects on people is not uniform or always readily apparent;
– frequency of use probably is a significant factor in relative harms;
– it could be a “gateway” drug for addictive personalities (but then again, so would tobacco, alcohol); but to call it a “gateway drug” is not justified by either research or experience.
– Those who use it most frequently may have other “issues” that both leads them to more intense use and to further harm.
I’ve personally seen far more people (in fact, many times more) turned into “shells of themselves” by regular alcohol consumption than I have by marijuana use. But that doesn’t mean or prove that marijuana is without harmful effects. And I personally eschew it and would advise (if asked) others to avoid it just as I would advise against routine alcohol ingestion.
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