colorado springs gazette: OUR VIEW: They cant stop the buying & selling of pot (vote)

OUR VIEW: They can't stop the buying and selling of pot (vote - Opinion - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

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State senators are debating a medical marijuana regulation bill that would ostensibly empower city and county governments to violate the constitutional rights of citizens by prohibiting the cultivation and sale of marijuana. They have no such authority.

If the bill should become law, legislators and lawyers will speak mumbo jumbo to explain how a city council has some mysterious new right to ban cultivation and sales. No matter what they say, the state constitution clearly has more authority. It directly protects the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana. Amendment 20 says (emphasis added by Gazette): â??â??Medical useâ?? means the acquisition, possession, production, use, or transportation of marijuana...â?

The right to acquisition, possession and use requires the right to buy, sell and grow. Itâ??s just that simple. A local government cannot prohibit the sale or cultivation of marijuana without violating the right to possess, use and acquire it. Legislatures cannot pass laws that violate individual rights protected by constitutional law.

"There are all sorts of constitional problems with this bill," said Jessica Peck Corry, a Denver attorney who frequently argues the benefits of marijuana legalization on Fox News.

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Arapahoe County District Court Judge Christopher Cross ruled in December that Coloradans have a constitutional right to buy marijuana, when he ruled against Centennial's moratorium on dispensaries by granting an injunction against the city to CannaMart medical marijuana dispensary. The plaintiff was represented by Corry's husband, the formidable civil rights attorney Robert Corry.
"These are people who have a right to medical marijuana, the right to the caregiver of their choice. That has been taken away from them," Cross said, putting the kibosh on Centennial's blatant attempt to break state law.

Legislators can vote and talk all they want in Denver this week. When theyâ??re done, individuals will retain the legal right to buy, sell and grow medical marijuana throughout Colorado. The Legislature, like elected city and county politicians, cannot undo our constitutional rights.

â?? Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor, for the editorial board