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Debate highlights medical marijuana controversy
The two sides of the Colorado Springs medical marijuana dispensary debate had it out on live television Tuesday night as a pair of city councilmen who support the booming businesses took on two politicians who want them banned.
It’s an issue that could wind up before voters under a recently passed state law that allows cities and counties to ban dispensaries with a public vote.
The push to regulate dispensaries has been led by Colorado Springs councilmen Sean Paige and Tom Gallagher, outspoken defenders of Amendment 20. The amendment, approved by voters in 2000, gives Coloradans the right to use medical marijuana to treat debilitating medical conditions.
“This is a personal medical choice that government should stay out of,” Paige told a standing room-only crowd of more than 100 at Penrose Public Library. “We need to be guided by reason, not overreaction.”
The other side was represented by 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May and state Rep. Mark Waller, a former prosecutor.
“Those voters approved the use of medical marijuana when they approved Amendment 20 and we need to ask them what they meant,” said Waller, advocating for a public vote on dispensaries.
The debate, sponsored by The Gazette, KOAA television and the Pikes Peak Library District, highlighted the community struggle with a drug that remains illegal under federal law.
Medical marijuana businesses in Colorado were sparse until 2009, when the federal government decided to not enforce its laws in states where marijuana is medically legal.
Now, the city has more than 200 medical marijuana businesses, and the state health department is getting more than 1,000 patient applications for medical marijuana use daily.
The state reacted to the growth in May by passing a measure that allows local bans, among other things.
Since the new state regulations took hold in July, a Colorado Springs group has pushed to put a ban on the ballot here. Next week, El Paso County commissioners will consider a public vote on a dispensary ban. Dispensary backers say the drug, though, will have a smaller community impact than alcohol, which remains legal statewide.
“It’s not a demon plant,” said Gallagher. “It’s amazing, the misconceptions and myths that have grown up around this issue.”
May said marijuana businesses add to the community’s misery.
“I have had five marijuana murder cases since I have been in office,” said May, who was elected in 2008.
May supports the “caregiver model,” which allows people to grow marijuana in their homes for as many as five patients.
Paige said banning the businesses would accomplish nothing.
“We had 210 bank robberies in the city last year and nobody is advocating closing down banks,” Paige responded.
