MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS HERE TO STAY, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

The City allowed medical marijuana centers to open and operate, then
turned around and banned them.

Centers used the rights afforded them by our system, and now the City
wants to vote them out. Sounds backwards!

The issue we're facing as voters is as confusing as the City's
decision-making process. For most people, they believe that banning
centers means banning medical marijuana; this is untrue.

Medical marijuana is here to stay because over 10 years ago we voted
to allow it. Even with new laws, local municipalities cannot ban
medical marijuana or patients from obtaining it. What the City can
control is the way patients can access medical marijuana. The only
safe option for accessing medical marijuana in our community is
through regulation and tax. Only centers are regulated and pay sales
tax. Centers have hundreds of pages of rules and regulations to
follow, and six enforcement officers to monitor the eight centers that
are operating in GJ.

Whether you believe in medical marijuana or not isn't the issue; it's
which option is better for our community. If it is as dangerous as
everyone is saying, why would we have it in neighborhoods being grown
all over town without any monitoring or regulations? As a mother and
community member, I'm opting for the heavily regulated and taxed
centers and voting against the ordinance.

Cathy Kytola

Grand Junction