PACHECO: STATE SHOULD TAKE POT DISPENSARY LEAD

The city manager doesn't want medical marijuana sales in residential areas.

Pueblo City Manager Jerry Pacheco says he doesn't want medical
marijuana dispensaries in residential areas and hopes the Legislature
will give some guidance on how to regulate them.

Pacheco spoke to members of Pueblo Rotary Club 43 on Monday to update
the group on the issue. He said the dispensaries became an issue
earlier this year after some people told the city they wanted to open
dispensaries, and open them legally.

Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2000 to make
it legal for patients with chronic conditions to own and grow
marijuana for medical reasons.

But the amendment doesn't address dispensaries, or any other way for
the patients to get their marijuana, Pacheco said.

Pacheco said dispensaries are illegal because they can't be given a
business license and they don't follow zoning rules. Pueblo's City
Council issued a 90-day moratorium on allowing the dispensaries, and
may extend that until July 1.

Pacheco said he hopes the state legislators will address the issue
this spring, making it a state issue or leaving it up to local governments.

The state keeps control of issues determined to be important to the
whole state such as group homes, he said. Local governments can't ban
group homes entirely because they have been deemed matters of state importance.

It's not clear how most local governments would handle the issue.

A recent survey by the Colorado Municipal League, a lobbying
organization for municipal governments, found that of 95 responding cities:

27 have moratoriums.

27 have allowed the dispensaries, regulating and taxing them.

15 have banned dispensaries outright.

Pacheco said the zoning issue is important because he doesn't want to
see dispensaries or marijuana growing businesses located in
residential areas. He said they could attract criminals who want to
buy marijuana or, more importantly, break in and steal it.

The dispensaries can't be governed as drug stores, he said, because
medical marijuana is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration and therefore isn't a legal drug.

Pacheco mentioned a report being circulated by Pueblo Police Chief
Jim Billings that describes California's experience with dispensaries.

Dispensaries are attractive nuisances, Pacheco said. Some California
growers bought and gutted whole houses to be able to grow the plants
inside, doing so in residential areas.

Even if they are kept out of residential neighborhoods, the city
still will need to think hard about where to allow them if that's
necessary, Pacheco said.

"Do you want to see a concentration of these on Union Avenue, or
other tourist areas?" he asked.