The high cost of vendetta's

Last night I had the misfortune to watch my local government at work.  First and foremost let me be clear.  On the issue at hand I will be discussing I am biased. I am a Medical Marijuana user.  So I won't lie and state I don't have a personal stake in the issue. I very much do. I am a handicapped, Disabled Veteran who for 3 years has enjoyed having the presence of a clean, professional establishment that provides medication for customers who have a Red Card (In Colorado if a doctor has certified your need for Medical Marijuana you are allowed to purchase it at legal dispensaries.) Why did I choose Medical Marijuana over opiates? ( the common treadmill of percocet, vicodin etc abused and ruining a lot of America's middle class today) Well, from research, for my condition of Multiple Sclerosis and other assorted fun disorders, it fit the best in the category of treatment I was looking for.  I wasn't looking for a way to be pain free, I was looking for a way to take enough of the edge off I could sleep at night. I was looking for a way to reduce my stomach pain and still have an appetite, to reduce my spasticity enough that I could function with my children through the day and at night be able to get real rest without the need to "chase my pain" with pill after pill.

In short Medical Marijuana has given me back a portion of my life I needed to function normally.  Sadly, even with all the support across the medical community, the stigma of the 60's taint upon the MMJ cause will not be removed.  Last night Dacono, the City I lived in, met for yet another meeting regarding this issue in their town.  They have 3 profitable dispensaries, that are clean, functional, supply a wide client base and count for a little over 3% of the tax revenue of Dacono. Yet certain members of the City Council for whatever reason feel the stigma of these businesses go against what they want Dacono's image to be.  An image they claim they work hard to cultivate. So I will let you my fine readers be the judge.

A petition was put forth earlier in the year.  It had almost 500 signatures if I recall, and I was a proponent for it along with another gentleman from Dacono.  It also had a business supported tax incentive for the city in which the business would pay an extra tax to support Dacono having to regulate some portions of the dispensary trade in Dacono (Even though the state has done all the hard work and there is really nothing left to do besides rake in tax revenue and ensure compliance with state standards)  It also was simply to allow a vote of the residents on the issue, not allow the city council to make decisions on such an issue without allowing the people they represent to have a say!

The council took said petition and found a loophole in which to invalidate it saying because it had a TABOR issue on it it was in fact turned in late.  A fact that is partially false, we supplied the petition within the timeframe we were given, it was the city clerks own error that caused it to fall outside the lines.  Not to be daunted a second petition went forth this time garnered well over a 1/4 of the registered voters of Dacono stating yes let there be a special election.  On top of that Amendment 64 passed in our city alone by 53.6% ( A fact the cities Mayor Charles Sigman tried to downplay and Joe Baker the Mayor Pro Tem conveniently chalked up to being weld county not Dacono, Sorry guys your wrong about your own cities statistics, it is fact true)

Amendment 64 is the ballot issue that regulates and essentially legalizes marijuana for recreational use, also allowing for non medical folks to grow their own marijuana for personal use. It passed in Colorado with more votes in fact then any candidate for governor or mayor has ever received in our state.  Nuff said on that!

Instead of put all the facts together and working with the business to at least stave off injuring them further while the citizens decide the issue with the special election now (that thanks to this apparent personal vendetta will cost Dacono's taxpayers around 15,000 dollars in tax revenue) Basically Joe Baker, Charles Sigman and Peggy Randolph as well as Mike Ayres think the fiscally responsible thing to do in light of the support of Marijuana let alone Medical Marijuana is to make these businesses shut their doors on Dec 31st, wait 2-3 months for a special election that with little doubt will show voter support for dispensaries and the revenue they bring in and then expect said businesses after being screwed by the City to move back in again.  I am sorry Council, but I call bullshit on this one.  In no logical frame of mine would any business let you screw them out of what is probably 10,000's of dollars in product (most dispensaries have to grow their own medicine on site as it has different requirements then recreational use marijuana has) Every single plant is tracked,registered and insured as well.  This is not a cheap business, and frankly with having to shut their doors now in their future, these businesses have to scramble. 

Anyone looking at the fact there is a special election looming in the very near future (might I add the lawyers involved even tried to strong arm us into dropping the petition for the election, further proof of dirty workings) would probably with common sense say, let the dispensaries remain open until the election results come in, that way if its positive no one is negatively impacted.  Your patients in the city can still have the convenience of being able to get to the store close to them, the business can still make money and still pay their taxes into the city and the issue can be laid to rest once and for all.  But that isn't how Mr. Sigman and Mr. Baker and Mrs Randolph and Mr. Ayres see it.  Despite their own council members telling them how dumb it is (the council meeting got very heated) they continued following what can only be construed as their own personal agenda.

Quite frankly, I have been to several council meetings now, and the story remains the same for most.  It really appears like and old boys club, with Joe Baker piloting the ship from behind Mayor Sigman.  Forgive me but I fail to see where taking out your personal dislikes plays into serving the will of the people. 

I am highly tempted to start a grassroots effort to find the businesses these so called servants of the people run (which might I add don't seem to be supporting the very city they run and so called love) and get a boycott going.  Let them feel the pinch of "We aren't closing them down we are just telling them they can't do business here"  Like that makes any kind of sense.  That is like telling a farmer you can grow corn, but not in this field. So pull up all your crops and maybe in 3 months you can put them back. 

So this is my take.  Dacono City Council on top of being manipulative (not all of them Steve Bruno, Genvieve Schneider, and Kevin Plain stuck firm in supporting local businesses) and very self serving, really don't give a rats ass what their constituents actually want.  Even with overwhelming support in their own City for recreational marijuana use, which should key them in to the fact that if they will support recreational use and sales, they will most definitely support medicinal use and sales, they refuse to see common sense and still force their agendas. They are fiscally irresponsible forcing a special election to essentially give a death sentence to the 3 businesses that made them lose face by involving local media.  Way to go Dacono. This is 2012 not 1962, no matter how much you want to turn the clocks back. 

Unbelievable.

If you read this and want to send your thoughts the city feel free.

http://www.ci.dacono.co.us/index.aspx?nid=319

This link gives you a way to address the council members directly.  Feel free to light up their emails with your thoughts. 

Thanks for reading
Chris