CLEARING THE AIR: LYONS STARTS COMMUNITY DISCUSSION ON MEDICAL
POT

LYONS -- No, a medical marijuana dispensary doesn't have to be
licensed with the DEA.

Yes, you can call the cops if a teenager comes into one without a
parent.

And yes, a community can regulate dispensaries -- but running them
out of town is another story.

That's how Lyons' first community meeting on medical marijuana kicked
off Wednesday night. About 40 people discussed the issue with a panel
at Rogers Hall.

Lyons already has two dispensaries, and three more are pending.
Because of that, Mayor Julie Van Domelen said, it was important to
talk with residents on the subject.

"Part of the education is sorting out what's fact and what's
fiction," she told the audience. "But one fact I want to make clear
right now: the board of trustees has no intention of banning medical
marijuana from Lyons."

Amendment 20 to the Colorado Constitution allows licensed patients to
possess up to two ounces of the drug for medical purposes. For many,
that's provided through a caregiver -- including dispensaries.

Panelist Ed Bruder, who holds a license, said that the situation
could seem invasive from the patients' side.

"If a cancer patient had to register with the state to get chemo, or
if zoning requirements dictated ... where you could get AIDS
medication, you'd see some discussion," he said.

But while the amendment sets out requirements for the patients,
caregivers are another story. Audience member Mary Aronson of the St.
Vrain Pharmacy noted that her own pharmacy, she said, has to register
with the DEA to provide medications classed as controlled substances.

"We pay a lot in license fees," she told panelist Larry Hill, a
Longmont dispensary owner. "Yet someone can distribute a controlled
substance without all that."

Hill is among those trying to craft regulations for
dispensaries.

Aronson added that many patients had asked if her pharmacy could
provide the drug or what interactions it would have with other medicine.

"I think it's something a pharmacy needs to consider," she said. "I
don't know why the state board isn't talking to pharmacies about it."

One woman said she had seen a teenager walk into a dispensary with
some friends. Call 911, said panelist Jeff Gard, an attorney -- the
only caregiver juveniles can have is their parents.

Since medical marijuana is a constitutional right, Gard said, towns
can't just ban it -- though some are trying. Audience member K. Evan
Rude asked about moratoriums, such as Longmont's; inconvenient, Gard
answered, but not illegal.

"By the time you got to court on a moratorium, the moratorium would
be over," he said.

The final panelist, Detective Tommy Sloan of the Boulder County Drug
Task Force, said Boulder County hasn't seen much in the way of
dispensary-related crime -- one robbery and one burglary so far.

Sloan said he didn't have much emotional attachment to the issue; the
medical use is allowed by law, he said, and most dispensaries are
very cooperative with officers. Still, he said, the gray areas might
require a civil suit "to get a judge to set some boundaries."

"There's no guidance out there from the state," he said.