Voters in unincorporated Douglas County will decide this week whether to allow new medical marijuana businesses into areas such as Highlands Ranch.
Douglas County commissioners chose to put the question to voters, 21 percent of whom are registered Democrats. In other words, it ain’t happening.
This approach should protect the county from lawsuits that might’ve resulted from a non-voter-approved ban. We’ll see whether someone sues the cities of Castle Rock and Parker for blocking pot through town council votes, rather than putting it to the people.
The newly established Douglas County cities of Lone Tree and Castle Pines North are also leaving the issue up to their mostly conservative voters on Nov. 2.
I admit I’m a bit of a hypocrite on this issue. It seems hundreds of doctors and thousands of patients are making hay with weed before voters declare the party’s over.
I admit I don’t really want to see these operations opening in my master-planned community. Partly because they haven’t figured out how to dress up their storefronts. Enough of the neon marijuana leaf glowing in the barred front window. It just looks trashy, like the form of a naked bimbo on the sign of a topless nightclub, or the giant letters “Adult Book Store” on the roof of a porn shop.
According to state figures, the average age of the 31,000 legally registered patients is 40, a suspiciously high 74 percent of whom are male. Gee, do you suppose these guys experimented with weed in their youth, or is my generation of men just that achy and open-minded?
Why not model medical marijuana shops after bright hygienic eye doctor clinics, upscale salons or one of those Cherry Creek boutiques where you get your teeth whitened? Sleek modern furniture and artwork. Clean-cut employees without scads of visible tattoos and body piercings.
Spotless presentation might give cannabis clinics a shot at leasing space alongside the chiropractors and orthodontists of Highlands Ranch, but I believe it’s clear after last February’s federal raid on accused home-grower Chris Bartkowicz that residential-based grow operations and dispensaries are not the way to go.
You can’t blame a guy for trying. Bartkowicz says he believed he was within his legal rights to grow pot. After all, the Highlands Ranch Community Association website says home-based businesses are allowed as long as there is “no external evidence” or “unreasonable inconvenience to neighbors.”
Of course cannabis cultivation wasn’t legal in Colorado when the Highlands Ranch covenants were established. Back then the thought of a home-based business was likely limited to piano lessons and mowing grass, not growing it in our guest rooms.
When the first families settled amongst the prairie dogs and once prevalent pronghorns back in 1981, no one imagined voters would make dispensing medical marijuana a protected pursuit in the year 2000. Our forefathers could not have foreseen such a development; they were too busy thinking about the kind of developments that earn revenue, not reputations. Zoning laws may need to be updated.
There are reportedly some existing medical marijuana businesses operating in unincorporated Douglas County, and they might be happy to have new competitors kept off their turf.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports 1,061 patients in Douglas County have valid registry ID cards. How many shops do we really need to serve these folks? For their sake, I hope no more than the current crop.
After next week, new would-be operators who met the state registration deadline will likely have to aim their sights outside Douglas County. For my children’s sake, I will be grateful to be living among a majority of conservative voters.
Kristen Kidd (kiddstories@gmail.com) is writing a screenplay about Kathryn and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
