County Commissioners do about-face on pot with referred ballot measures

Mesa County may finally be recognizing that Colorado’s new cannabis economy has brought big benefits to towns and counties that have embraced it.

Item #8 on the Mesa County Commissioners’ agenda today is a proposal to refer a measure to the countywide ballot a measure that will give voters a choice to “override” a 2013 ordinance (pdf) that prohibited the cultivation, manufacture, testing and retail sales of cannabis in the unincorporated county, and instead ALLOW such activity.

Agenda Item #9 will refer a related measure to the ballot that would let the County charge an excise tax on the sale or transfer of “unprocessed retail marijuana.”

The measures represent a 180 degree turn from where the county was 8 years ago, and appears to be an effort to start grabbing some of the cash the cannabis industry has been generating throughout the state, that Mesa County has lost out on for so long.

Welcome to 2021. Now we’ll see if voters take advantage of it.

 

  8 comments for “County Commissioners do about-face on pot with referred ballot measures

  1. There’s more dispensaries than Starbucks in CO. So the people want it. Each to their own. Just wish they wouldn’t drive while impaired. I see what you’re saying though.

    • Some people actual use marijuana as medicine! I have a client who has a very complex medical situation and it was actually recommended by a neurologist and is the only thing that alleviates his symptoms. Please educate yourself about THC and CBD before you assume we are a bunch of stupid pot smokers. Mesa County has lost out on millions of dollars of tax revenue that could have been used to better our community since the Colorado voters approved both medical and recreational marijuana, not to mention all of the high paying jobs it could have brought to the valley.

        • And oh by the way, Mabel, marijuana is legal to use in the state of Colorado and many other states. Why do you assume that people use it for pain? There are many medical conditions for using marijuana like, nausea from chemotherapy, depression, sleep disorders, glaucoma anxiety, asthma, and yes, pain. You don’t have to call people stupid for using a totally legal product that gets prescribed by a licensed medical doctor for medical use. The fact that you refer to people legally using marijuana as stupid, shows your ignorance and uneducated views. Do you refer to people who use alcohol as stupid? What about prescription drugs? My guess would be that you don’t.

        • So is anyone who you disagree with “stupid”. That probably means you are the only “unstupid” person on the planet, at least in your eyes.

          • Gene,

            I’m not sure who you are addressing, but you need to ask Mabel and Tina Peters’ Pillow why they are calling people who use marijuana stupid. I was trying to educate them that not everyone who uses marijuana is stupid, just as people who use alcohol or prescription drugs are not all stupid. The point being, why must you call people names, just because you don’t agree with their perspective.

          • Hey there Gene. I was not ‘disagreeing’, I was ‘reporting g’. I was reporting that they are in fact stupid. There is no disagreement. Smoke all you want, just stay off the road, “medical condition” or not, when smoking at all.

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