CO: Commercial And Medical Pot Licensing Moratorium Extention May Get New Life

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The November ballot may get a little greener.

The Pueblo County commissioners are proposing a ballot question asking if an existing moratorium on the licensing of any new commercial and medical pot businesses should be extended to 2020.

Another part of the question would ask for a moratorium on commercial pot grow licenses until Jan. 1, 2018.

The current moratorium on sales and medical licenses is set to expire Jan. 1.

“There was such a long line of licenses waiting when the moratorium went into place that a lot of folks didn’t think we had one in place,” Commissioner Terry Hart said Monday.

“We are through that line. The question now is, did we have the maximum effect that we wanted to have? We think we probably didn’t.”

The original moratorium, which first was set in the Pueblo West area and later expanded countywide, was put in place Feb. 10, 2015, Hart said. The county started licensing facilities in 2013.

“We did that to let the industry kind of sort out a little bit and see how the sales were going, particularly with other cities across the state coming online,” Hart said. “And we feel like we really haven’t gotten that full effect.”

Hart said with all of the discussion on the state level going on about how much marijuana people can grow before they are exceeding the essential demand and also the fact that people have been seeing a lot of marijuana grows coming online with lots of licenses outstanding, they are proposing the other moratorium dealing with those issues.

Hart said Commissioner Sal Pace came up with the idea to post the draft resolution including the proposed ballot question on the county website and other outlets in an effort to get it out to the public.

The idea is to allow the community to understand the language.

“When we do these things (moratoriums), we are not fully sure that we are getting comprehension whether the public knows what we are doing, why we are doing it and that sort of thing,” Hart said.

“We have a lot of let’s ask the public kind of questions dealing with marijuana. We’d just like some feedback from residents before we would actually adopt the final question and whether we have it right or not.”

The county has until Sept. 7 to finalize ballot questions.

News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Commercial And Medical Pot Licensing Moratorium Extention May Get New Life
Author: Anthony A. Mestas
Contact: (719) 544-3520
Photo Credit: David McNew
Website: The Pueblo Chieftain