Below are the quotes attributed by the Gazette to Mr.House who made a very weak presentation to the city council:

“The vote ran counter to requests from some neighborhood groups and the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, which want voters to decide on a dispensary ban.”

“But allowing marijuana businesses to operate legally in the city, even temporarily, isn’t without critics.
The chamber’s Ernest House said businesses want voters to determine if the city needs a ban.”

“This issue should be brought before voters,” House said.

I catch each of these meetings online and observed the brief presentation made by Mr. House who indicated he was representing the desires of the Chamber membership in this matter. This presentation came following those of others, including the county district attorney who were questioned extensively by council members on the matter of being able to substantiate the numbers being thrown out by Mr. May – - – who could come up with no data to support his views that dispensaries should be banned ougtright in El Paso County.

Mr. House did not expressly state the Chamber was in favor of a ban. However, his placement in the proceedings, directly following those asking for an outright ban — might lead one to believe that was his purpose. But — Mr. House’s presentation was truly a “Diane Sawyer look at us” moment.

What is driving the passionate fervor to ban dispensaries is composed of two parts:

A) A select few who have based their objection on either their moral or religious views they feel should be applied to all residents within the area.

B) Those who are in office supporting this ban feel there is a sufficiently large number of voters in their districts who will re-elect them if they support the ban compared to those who are in favor or allowing regulated dispensaries.

Not at all afraid to reference: Wayne Williams, Dan May, Dave Munger and all of the CONO group along with Darryl Glenn and Sallie Clark.

There being a reasonable way to develop guidelines where the chronically ill might reduce pain and suffering through use of this plant is entirely none of their concern. The primary goal is an attempt to try and win as many votes as possible and they feel this is the best route to re-election.

With several attempts, I have failed to obtain from Mr. Williams any verifiable statistics or data that he has run indicating his actions to date have been based upon the majority of the 70,000-80,000 residents in his district or only upon 1) those he has selected to contact or 2) only those who have contacted him in opposition.

Similarly, before city council, Mr. May was unable, when pressed on his initiated discussion of “emergency room visits to local hospitals” how many of those were related to medical dispensary provided product used to point of overdose. In fact, he was unable to come up with any numbers at all related to the local use of the plant.

With this in mind, it would appear that this small cabal of Northenders, CONO headed by mayoral candidate Dave Munger, the Williams – Clark alliance are, with out any data provided, basing their action in the face of all the local polling which indicates there is support for dispensaries around 60/65 to 35/40.

The net impact appears to be forcing a vote (again) of the people and/or protracted legal battles.

I would encourage all those mentioned above to come out with the data supporting their mission to ban dispensaries completely, the data, surveys, dates and time and methodology.

This is part of the ‘transparency’ so often talked about.

rickwehner@yahoo.com

Thank you