Medical marijuana retailers, look out. You are not paranoid from a contact high. They really are out to get you and will do their best to put you out of business.
Your trade annoys and frightens some of our state's most dedicated, loyal and respected law enforcement professionals. Any doubt of that vanished Wednesday, after the Colorado Springs Police Department conducted warranted searches of seven medical marijuana dispensaries. The raids, which resulted in no immediate arrests, came one day after the Colorado Legislature approved sweeping regulations to the medical marijuana trade that go beyond the type of time, place and manner restrictions that courts permit governments to impose on constitutional rights of individuals. Included in the bill is an unconstitutional provision that would allow cities and counties to forbid medical marijuana dispensaries. Be assured that all city and county officials in Colorado will come under pressure to outlaw dispensaries.
So what can you do, as the drama unfolds? Mostly you can live and do business like the law-abiding, role-model citizens that most of you are. Avoid stupid decisions and mistakes, pay taxes, defend your rights and obey the letter of the law.
Fourth Judicial District Attorney Dan May, whose district includes Colorado Springs and El Paso County, has made no secret of his belief that marijuana dispensaries are illegal – despite clear language in the Colorado Constitution that protects the rights of individuals to acquire and possess medical marijuana. That right necessitates the free commercial trade of medical marijuana.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, like May, has professed his disdain for Coloradans' constitutional right to buy, sell, produce and consume medical marijuana.
Throughout Colorado, prosecutors and top law enforcement officials have expressed concerns and taken actions to impede this right. For their entire lives, marijuana has been an unlawful street drug associated with crime and social degeneracy. They are certainly correct in suggesting that people will abuse medical marijuana, obtaining referrals in order to obtain the drug for recreational use. They are correct in suggesting that widespread abuse of marijuana is not healthy for our culture.
But we already have widespread marijuana abuse, and nothing the law enforcement establishment has tried for the past half-century has done much to curtail it. If anything, Colorado's flourishing medical marijuana trade has taken a business that once prospered in the seedy underbelly of the black market and placed it in the broad daylight of Main Street and strip malls, where sellers pay taxes and obey laws for all to see. That, ironically, is why police were able to conduct seven easy searches Wednesday.
An above-board, regulated, lawful means of obtaining medical marijuana is what a majority of Colorado voters had in mind when they added Amendment 20 to the Constitution 10 years ago. Law enforcement personnel and legislators who seek to eliminate retailers though intimidation or local ordinances will restore the black market.
Just as medical marijuana retailers should obey the law, so should law enforcement officials. They must enforce the Constitution as it is written, not as they wish it were written. In Colorado, it protects the free trade of medical marijuana from government officials who can't stand it.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Colorado Springs Gazette
Author: Wayne Laugesen
Contact: Colorado Springs Gazette
Copyright: 2010 Freedom Communications
Website: Police disrespecting the law
Your trade annoys and frightens some of our state's most dedicated, loyal and respected law enforcement professionals. Any doubt of that vanished Wednesday, after the Colorado Springs Police Department conducted warranted searches of seven medical marijuana dispensaries. The raids, which resulted in no immediate arrests, came one day after the Colorado Legislature approved sweeping regulations to the medical marijuana trade that go beyond the type of time, place and manner restrictions that courts permit governments to impose on constitutional rights of individuals. Included in the bill is an unconstitutional provision that would allow cities and counties to forbid medical marijuana dispensaries. Be assured that all city and county officials in Colorado will come under pressure to outlaw dispensaries.
So what can you do, as the drama unfolds? Mostly you can live and do business like the law-abiding, role-model citizens that most of you are. Avoid stupid decisions and mistakes, pay taxes, defend your rights and obey the letter of the law.
Fourth Judicial District Attorney Dan May, whose district includes Colorado Springs and El Paso County, has made no secret of his belief that marijuana dispensaries are illegal – despite clear language in the Colorado Constitution that protects the rights of individuals to acquire and possess medical marijuana. That right necessitates the free commercial trade of medical marijuana.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, like May, has professed his disdain for Coloradans' constitutional right to buy, sell, produce and consume medical marijuana.
Throughout Colorado, prosecutors and top law enforcement officials have expressed concerns and taken actions to impede this right. For their entire lives, marijuana has been an unlawful street drug associated with crime and social degeneracy. They are certainly correct in suggesting that people will abuse medical marijuana, obtaining referrals in order to obtain the drug for recreational use. They are correct in suggesting that widespread abuse of marijuana is not healthy for our culture.
But we already have widespread marijuana abuse, and nothing the law enforcement establishment has tried for the past half-century has done much to curtail it. If anything, Colorado's flourishing medical marijuana trade has taken a business that once prospered in the seedy underbelly of the black market and placed it in the broad daylight of Main Street and strip malls, where sellers pay taxes and obey laws for all to see. That, ironically, is why police were able to conduct seven easy searches Wednesday.
An above-board, regulated, lawful means of obtaining medical marijuana is what a majority of Colorado voters had in mind when they added Amendment 20 to the Constitution 10 years ago. Law enforcement personnel and legislators who seek to eliminate retailers though intimidation or local ordinances will restore the black market.
Just as medical marijuana retailers should obey the law, so should law enforcement officials. They must enforce the Constitution as it is written, not as they wish it were written. In Colorado, it protects the free trade of medical marijuana from government officials who can't stand it.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Colorado Springs Gazette
Author: Wayne Laugesen
Contact: Colorado Springs Gazette
Copyright: 2010 Freedom Communications
Website: Police disrespecting the law
