City aims to outlaw pot growers

In a move that would effectively shut down medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, the Colorado Springs City Council advised code enforcement officers Monday to start enforcing the land use regulations that make them illegal.

It remains to be seen, however, if the city has the ability to carry that out with just three code enforcement officers and looming budget cuts that could reduce that to one next year.

According to Deputy City Attorney Wynetta Massey, the city code doesn’t allow businesses that are in violation of the law. Since marijuana growing is against federal law, the dispensaries are technically violating city codes.

The direction from the council followed a briefing by 4th Judicial Attorney Dan May and Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers and comes on the heels of last week’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice that federal agencies will not prosecute people using marijuana in compliance with state laws.

Colorado voters in 2001 approved a law making it legal to grow and possess small amounts of marijuana for medical purposes. It also allows “caregivers” to grow marijuana for other patients. Out of the “caregivers” term, an industry of legally selling marijuana has blossomed throughout the state. In the Colorado Springs area, there are 14 known marijuana dispensaries, 34 growers supplying dispensaries, 12 individual caregivers growing marijuana and nine people growing for personal use, according to the presentation to the council.

May told council members he doesn’t condemn marijuana use for legitimate medical reasons, but the dispensaries and growers popping up around the city have been causing havoc for law enforcement officials. He said they have led to an increase in home invasions of residences where marijuana is being grown — one in which a 3-year-old was pistol-whipped — and caused a fire in another from overloaded electrical circuits from grow lights.

With no zoning laws governing them, dispensaries are popping up in residential areas and near schools — one is less than 80 yards from Palmer High School.

“I couldn’t open a liquor store there and I couldn’t open up a dirty book shop there, but they are dispensing marijuana there,” May said of the dispensary near the downtown high school.

Councilmen Sean Paige, Tom Gallagher and Randy Purvis suggested working with medical marijuana advocates to create regulations for the dispensaries, including zoning, building codes and possibly taxation. Paige said voters passed the law and it was up to the city to learn to adapt and deal with it by creating the regulations to keep the dispensaries safe.

“We need to accept that it’s the will of the people,” he said. “In terms of taxing, it may be the most viable industry we have in Colorado Springs right now.”

In the short term, even those three council members sided with the rest of the council that code officers need to enforce the law as it stands. 

Dick Anderwald, the city’s land use review manager, told the council he doesn’t have enough code enforcement officers to do anything more then respond to complaints, and there have been none, so far.

“Council’s direction was clear that they intend for this to be a priority enforcement issue, so we’ll follow that direction,” he said, adding that his office will pay particular attention to dispensaries near schools, churches and residential areas.

He said if and when complaints are received, enforcement officers would follow normal enforcement policy and give the dispensaries time to close shop.

After the meeting, several medial marijuana advocates questioned whether the city had the authority to shut down the dispensaries and vowed to challenge the code.

“Every patient who buys marijuana from a dispensary is taking a dollar away from street gangs and thugs,” said Bob Wiley of Sensible Colorado, the state’s largest pro-medical marijuana organization. “We should be embracing these businesses.”

The issue of dispensaries has been a nagging sore spot for law enforcement and state health officials, who contend the cottage industry has exploited the vague wording of the constitutional amendment.

In July, both groups appealed unsuccessfully to the Colorado Board of Health to tighten regulations in a way that would have put dispensaries out of business. The Board of Health, which oversees the medical marijuana program, declined to limit “caregivers,” the term for dispensaries under the law, to five patients.

Shortly after the board’s decision, the state health department released new numbers on the status of the medical marijuana registry and the flood of applications from young men.

Applications rose from 3,302 in July 2008 to nearly 9,000 earlier this summer, with nearly half of them coming from April through June. About 1,800 were for men under 30 diagnosed with severe pain.

“This dramatic increase in an age group that is not expected to suffer from a chronic debilitating condition is concerning,” said Colorado Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ned Calonge, in a news release at the time.

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Call the writer at 636-0274.

Gazette reporters Daniel Chacón and Brian Newsome contributed to this report