A "green" issue much different than the Boulder City Council is used to discussing brought out more than 100 area residents Tuesday night amid concerns that the city might ban medical-marijuana dispensaries. While the council didn't go that far, it did approve a set of temporary regulations for an industry that was otherwise unregulated.
Just after midnight this morning, the council voted 4-2 to pass an emergency ordinance aimed at keeping medical marijuana dispensaries away from schools, clustering together or operating in neighborhoods. Councilmembers Lisa Morzel and Macon Cowles voted against the regulations, while Councilmembers Crystal Gray, Ken Wilson, Angelique Espinoza and Susan Osborne voted in favor of interim rules.
The ordinance means that through March 31, 2010, any dispensaries that want to open in Boulder may only do so if they are at least 500 feet away from schools or licensed daycare centers, are not within 500 feet of three or more other dispensaries, and are not located in residential areas.
The rules do not apply to the 42 businesses that have already pulled sales-tax licenses with the city, or the 21 or so dispensaries that applied for permits prior to Nov. 6.
The council stopped short of ordering a moratorium on new dispensaries. Most of the leaders agreed that the city needs more time to study how marijuana dispensaries should be regulated in the long-term, and that short-term regulations are appropriate now.
Osborne said the temporary rules give the city "some breathing room" to consider more comprehensive regulations.
Cowles said he would support a "green" ribbon commission to study the issue through the spring.
"I think this is potentially an important industry," he said, adding that he wouldn't mind seeing commercial marijuana growing operations flourish in Boulder.
Cowles even suggested that Boulder could eventually offer a "city marijuana facility" in which growers could bring excess products for redistribution to patients -- a sort of pot clearinghouse.
The vote didn't satisfy many of the 100 or so medical marijuana advocates who attended the late-night meeting, but most said it was a better decision than a wholesale moratorium on the industry.
The public debate began just before 9 p.m., with a flood of impassioned public comment.
Cheryl Crosby, 70, a nurse, came to the meeting from her home in Lafayette. Crosby said she has a prescription for medicinal marijuana to treat the inflammation and pain in her eyes caused by glaucoma.
"Even I, myself, didn't understand how effective it is for pain," she said.
Crosby uses a Boulder dispensary to obtain her medication, and she fears that the city is rushing to regulate the one thing that treats her symptoms effectively without the use of strong pharmaceuticals.
"To say you can only have 42 of a certain kind of business in a city seems strange," she said, referring to a proposal to limit the number of dispensaries allowed to do business within city limits.
Crosby said the city is unfairly targeting users of legal marijuana by not also taking a hard look at other drug providers -- such as pharmacies.
Amendment 20, approved by state voters in 2000, allows patients and caregivers to have marijuana for medical use in Colorado. There are now 42 medical-marijuana dispensaries licensed to do business in Boulder, although the number of storefronts is thought to be smaller. At least 21 other businesses have applied for licenses but are not yet approved.
Kim Cohen, a Boulder nurse practitioner, also said she uses marijuana to treat her glaucoma. Wearing a vintage 1965 button reading "All Power to the People," Cohen said that individuals, not the city, should decide where and how they receive medication or medical treatment.
"We are not 23-year-old frat boys looking to get high," she said.
But Peter Rogers, a Boulder resident and lawyer, is opposed to medical marijuana being sold or grown in the city.
"I would urge council to enact a moratorium now," he said. "I think we've got to be extremely careful -- marijuana is still against the law."
City Attorney Jerry Gordon told the council up front that the state laws regulating medical marijuana are "enormously confusing," but the city is well within its rights to regulate land uses and business zoning.
The Boulder Planning Board last week recommended not imposing a moratorium on dispensaries and instead using some interim regulations to prevent problems until permanent regulations can be adopted. The City Council softened those recommendations with their vote.
Adrian Sopher, chairman of the Boulder Planning Board, told the City Council on Tuesday that the density of dispensaries is especially a concern in the downtown and University Hill areas. Such businesses, he said, should be spaced out "just in the same way we don't want to have bank after bank" lining any given street.
Andrew Shoemaker, a Boulder attorney and member of the Planning Board, told the council that Boulder should do anything to help legalize the drug and bring about "the beginning of the end of prohibition" on marijuana.
Pot, he said, could help pay for city services through taxation.
"It will pay for itself," he said. "Get Boulder ready for the inevitable."
