County waits a week to deal with medical marijuana moratorium

Work session June 8

Medical marijuana advocates in the county got a momentary glimmer of hope from the Gunnison Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, June 1 when they decided not to extend the moratorium on dispensaries and related operations. Instead, the commissioners voted to put off their decision on extending the moratorium until next week.
County Attorney David Baumgarten told the commissioners that the moratorium they currently have in place will not expire until June 15.
“To ensure you have the appropriate regulations in place, I think you need a decent period of time to digest the law, find out from the citizens if they want these facilities in Gunnison County and then craft regulations,” he said.
Commissioners Jim Starr and Hap Channell will go to a conference of Colorado Counties Incorporated (CCI) this week, where a block of time will be devoted specifically to how the new medical marijuana legislation will impact counties.
County manager Matthew Birnie will also ask leaders of local municipalities what they think about the new legislation.
After medical marijuana advocates attended a meeting last week and told the commissioners that the law would prevent them from applying to open a dispensary or center if they hadn’t applied to local authorities by July 1, Baumgarten and Starr did some research of their own.
“Last Friday we spent two hours and went through the 70 pages line by line and I can’t find [that detail]. I’m not sure anyone can make accurate, complete and coherent sense of this legislation right now,” Baumgarten said. “I can’t make sense of it.”
At the end of a work session on Tuesday, May 25 Baumgarten recommended that the commissioners extend the moratorium until the remaining issues with the legislation are resolved.
“We’re already seeing information trickling in from counties about them continuing a moratorium until legislation gets sorted out and interpreted,” Channell said.
The commissioners will decide whether or not to extend the medical marijuana moratorium and what it will look like after a 2:45 p.m. work session next Tuesday, June 8.