Ban on Colorado pot dispensaries rejected

[Feijao]

GOP senator wanted to ask voters to only allow actual individuals â?? not shops â?? to provide medical marijuana
5/3/2010

DENVER â?? Colorado lawmakers have rejected a proposal to ask voters to ban medical marijuana dispensaries.

The Senate Judiciary Committee killed the proposal from Republican Sen. Scott Renfroe of Greeley on Monday.

His referendum sought to only allow actual individuals â?? not shops â?? to provide medical marijuana to patients.

Prosecutors and Attorney General John Suthers backed the proposal. They've been urging lawmakers not to regulate dispensaries, arguing that will legitimize an industry they say wasn't sanctioned under the medical marijuana law passed by voters in 2000.

The law does reference dispensing of the drug and backers say dispensaries help patients get the strains of marijuana they need.

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Any thoughts?

[pfunk211]

one down....


how many to go??!!

[COzigzag]

one down....


how many to go??!!

Too many!

It's giving me migraines. :wtf3:

[HighPopalorum]

Suthers needs to lose in November.

His opponent has the better position on MMJ:


Stan Garnett, the Boulder County, Colorado, district attorney, has announced that he will challenge Colorado Attorney General John Suthers for his seat in the upcoming 2010 election. While the Democrat's entry in the race has a lot to do with Suthers' decision to join fellow Republicans in a lawsuit challenging President Barack Obama's health care reform legislation, medical marijuana supporters, one of the more active contingents in state politics lately, are likely to watch closely.

Garnett could be the candidate they've been waiting for. Whereas Suthers is an outspoken critic of medical marijuana dispensaries and how they're run in Colorado, Garnett has said he wants to be the most progressive DA in the state when it comes to how dispensaries are treated.

That's hardly surprising considering that his jurisdiction is one of the most liberal in the West. But given his intention to run as the state's top law enforcement officer, his stance will likely appeal to voters who want to see less interference from government and police toward dispensaries.
This doesn't mean that Garnett can expect a free pass.

As he told the Boulder County Commissioners last year, there are a number of thorny issues in the state law that makes medical marijuana legal that require fixing. He's been clear that any fix isn't likely to come through increased law enforcement pressure if he's in charge.

"I would just like to see (the problems with the current laws) clarified outside of the context of a criminal prosecution, unlike many of my more conservative elected DA colleagues across the state, who are preparing to approach the issue quite aggressively by prosecuting dispensaries and seizing grow operations, actions I will not undertake," he said. "As everyone who has thought about these issues knows, it does no good to put our heads in the sand about how confusing the law is."

[copobo]

Garnett would rock for state AG.