Medical marijuana businesses have been officially banned by the city of Longmont.
Ingrid Bakke, a Boulder County Judge, sided with the city which tried to ban dispensaries back in May, 9News reports. The nearly three month delay in enforcing the ban was partially due to dispensaries failed attempt to force a ballot referendum on the issue and then a restraining order against the city, issued by Bakke, earlier this month.
According to the Longmont Times Call, Bakke was sympathetic to the marijuana business owners saying, “I very much sympathize with you, but you are very much victims of developing law that even to this day is in a very gray area.” Some of the small businesses in Longmont had even developed their own custom strains of pot for their customers, which will now have to be let go.
More cities in Colorado continue to vote on whether their city should allow medical marijuana dispensaries. The Denver Post reports that Fort Collins is the latest city that will get a ballot measure in November for its citizens to vote on.
Meanwhile, pot activists are aiming for full legalization of marijuana in Colorado and their efforts are already underway. Supporters of legal recreational-use pot in the state need approximately 86,000 signatures, The Denver Post reported in July. If the amendment were to get approval by voters, pot would be legal in the entire state, in small quantities, for adults aged 21 and over starting as early as 2013.
The efforts of these Colorado pot activists are part of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act which, if passed, makes the personal use, possession and limited home-growing of marijuana legal for adults aged 21 and older. It establishes a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol is currently. The act also would allow for the cultivation, procesing, and sale of industrial hemp.
However, even a state law might face an intense battle federally with the July ruling by the federal government that marijuana has no accepted medical use and should remain in the same class of drgs as heroin, The Huffington Post reported.