Grand Junction and Castle Rock Ban Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
Two more Colorado municipalities have banned medical marijuana dispensaries from operating within city limits. Both the city of Grand Junction and city of Castle Rock have decided that medical marijuana dispensaries are no longer welcome.The tide seems to be turning since Colorado House Bill HB 10 1284 sponsored by Chris Romer and Nancy Spence was passed.
This bill was a clear and obvious assault on Colorado Constitutional rights as defined in amendment 20. HB 1284 explicitly gave cities the power to enforce an outright ban on medical marijuana dispensaries and thus safe access to quality medicine for Colorado patients.
Before Chris Romer waged his anti-constitutional crusade on medical cannabis, the constitution was holding up extremely well. Many will remember that Centennial was one of the first cities to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. One of these dispensaries, CannaMart and their attorney Rob Corry fired right back at the city of Centennial. The judge in this case was quoted as saying:
"The city of Centennial cannot use the potential violation of a federal law to order a business legally operating under our state constitution to cease and desist its business." It was also refreshing that he stated that the city's actions violated the owners' and patients' constitutional rights which he called "an irreparable injury to all of us."
CannaMart and Rob Corry Sue City of Centennial
Many involved in the Colorado medical marijuana industry at that time rejoiced that the voter approved Constitutional amendment 20 held up just as it should have. It was expected by some that this would eventually be used as case law and that the Centennial case would have been a landmark case in Colorado medical marijuana legislation history.
Then came Chris Romer.
If you are a current medical marijuana patient, you may want to remember the names of the legislators that pushed this unconstitutional bill through. Chris Romer is now running to be the Mayor of Denver. We have already seen exactly what his agenda is, so as voters the time is soon coming to step up to the plate and vote in favor of medical marijuana patient rights. while I doubt he could pull off a complete ban of medical marijuana dispensaries in Denver, you can be sure he will have a few more tricks up his sleeve in his ongoing pursuit towards destroying medical marijuana.
For now, the voters in Grand Junction and Castle Rock have spoken and used the power granted to them by HB 1284.
What are your thoughts?