Telluride Daily Planet
By Katie Klingsporn
Associate Editor
Published: Sunday, October 18, 2009 8:10 AM CDT
The Ophir general assembly will consider Tuesday whether it wants to explore the possibility of a town-run medical marijuana dispensary as a means to create some new revenue.
Town Manager Jason Wells said the discussion is very preliminary. The issue was brought up at a previous meeting by a citizen who requested that it be put on the agenda, he said, and discussion will stick to just looking into the feasibility of a municipal dispensary.
“One woman thought it might be a creative means as a revenue stream,” Wells said.
Like Telluride, Ophir has felt the pinch of dwindling real estate transfer taxes over the past year and a half — and since there are no businesses in town, it does not collect sales tax.
With more people moving in, the small town is seeing more demand for services, and it’s preparing for a $500,000 water project. In an effort to create revenue, the town has already has also put a 8 mil property tax hike on the November ballot.
If Ophir did open its own dispensary, it could become the first municipality in the state to sell medical marijuana.
At a Telluride Town Council meeting last week, council member Thom Carnevale suggested that Telluride look into the option. Carnevale said the town could generate much-needed revenues, as well as serve as a model for how a dispensary could be run in town.
In November of 2000, Colorado voters approved Amendment 20, authorizing patients with certain medical ailments to enroll in a state registry and use medical marijuana.
But it wasn’t until this year — after the state eliminated a limit on the number of patients dispensaries could have — that dispensaries began to pop up all over Colorado.
Ophir to discuss town-run dispensary
Mon, 2009-10-19 17:02
Ophir to discuss town-run dispensary
Sat, 2009-11-07 17:47
#1
Ophir nixes pot plan
Telluride Daily Planet
By Ben Fornell
On Wednesday night, the Ophir Town Assembly voted down a proposal to look into bridging the town’s budget gaps by becoming Colorado’s first municipality to run a medical marijuana dispensary.
The measure gained statewide attention — and even national notoriety in pot circles — after Denver Post columnist Susan Greene wrote that Ophir was thinking of using its municipal greenhouse to grow medical marijuana.
The idea stemmed from an off-the-cuff suggestion by a member of the town assembly — a suggestion Town Manager Jason Wells followed up on with basic research into the feasibility of such plan.
Wells thinks Greene was tipped off by someone from Sensible Colorado, a non-profit organization that Wells contacted which advocates the use of medical marijuana.
Since the column came out, Wells has heard from papers all over Colorado plus a blogger from The New York Times, all wondering if Ophir would start selling pot.
Wells told Greene there wasn’t any scoop in Ophir, he said, told her not to bother driving out there. Sue Beresford, a regular at Town Assembly meetings, swears her quotes in The Post were fabricated — Greene had her dreaming that one day her tiny community would be a major source for marijuana.
Wells said he has no idea where Greene got the idea he knew how to grow pot, as she hinted in her column, and several in the town assembly this week balked at the phony portrait of a quaint little mountain hamlet Greene painted.
“We don’t leave our keys in our cars, but we do have guns,” said one incensed local, responding to one of the most-griped assertions in Greene’s article.
Greene did not respond to requests for comment.
And while the notion of a municipal dispensary has set off all manner of wild-eyed optimism among those pushing for legal pot, it was barely even entertained at Wednesday’s meeting before it was unanimously shot down.
“Are we, the town council, going to conduct our business with the aroma of herb wafting over us?” asked Mayor Randy Barnes rhetorically of the assembly, motioning toward the greenhouse attached to the town hall, some 10 feet from where he sat.
Barnes also noted that The New Community Coalition had given the town a subsidy specifically directed at growing vegetables in the space. Any pot plan would be an affront to those monies, he said, not to mention a bad example to the kids playing at the town’s playground a mere “two inches” from the greenhouse, as Barnes put it. He called the column “super crappy.”
One woman half-heartedly espoused the measure, saying that California is exploding with dispensaries, and that under President Obama the federal government has said it won’t prosecute those who grow and distribute marijuana legally under state statutes.
“Things are changing and it seems like kind of an appropriate business from Ophir,” said Allyn Hart before voting against the plan.
Her cohorts were, by and large, massively opposed to any pot growing in their little town.
“I don’t want it in my backyard,” said Matt Williamson, who could literally see the plants from his backyard if the plan had been approved. “I’d like to see people go elsewhere if they want it. There’s a playground right next door, and I don’t want to see people driving from all over the county to get their weed.”
By Ben Fornell
On Wednesday night, the Ophir Town Assembly voted down a proposal to look into bridging the town’s budget gaps by becoming Colorado’s first municipality to run a medical marijuana dispensary.
The measure gained statewide attention — and even national notoriety in pot circles — after Denver Post columnist Susan Greene wrote that Ophir was thinking of using its municipal greenhouse to grow medical marijuana.
The idea stemmed from an off-the-cuff suggestion by a member of the town assembly — a suggestion Town Manager Jason Wells followed up on with basic research into the feasibility of such plan.
Wells thinks Greene was tipped off by someone from Sensible Colorado, a non-profit organization that Wells contacted which advocates the use of medical marijuana.
Since the column came out, Wells has heard from papers all over Colorado plus a blogger from The New York Times, all wondering if Ophir would start selling pot.
Wells told Greene there wasn’t any scoop in Ophir, he said, told her not to bother driving out there. Sue Beresford, a regular at Town Assembly meetings, swears her quotes in The Post were fabricated — Greene had her dreaming that one day her tiny community would be a major source for marijuana.
Wells said he has no idea where Greene got the idea he knew how to grow pot, as she hinted in her column, and several in the town assembly this week balked at the phony portrait of a quaint little mountain hamlet Greene painted.
“We don’t leave our keys in our cars, but we do have guns,” said one incensed local, responding to one of the most-griped assertions in Greene’s article.
Greene did not respond to requests for comment.
And while the notion of a municipal dispensary has set off all manner of wild-eyed optimism among those pushing for legal pot, it was barely even entertained at Wednesday’s meeting before it was unanimously shot down.
“Are we, the town council, going to conduct our business with the aroma of herb wafting over us?” asked Mayor Randy Barnes rhetorically of the assembly, motioning toward the greenhouse attached to the town hall, some 10 feet from where he sat.
Barnes also noted that The New Community Coalition had given the town a subsidy specifically directed at growing vegetables in the space. Any pot plan would be an affront to those monies, he said, not to mention a bad example to the kids playing at the town’s playground a mere “two inches” from the greenhouse, as Barnes put it. He called the column “super crappy.”
One woman half-heartedly espoused the measure, saying that California is exploding with dispensaries, and that under President Obama the federal government has said it won’t prosecute those who grow and distribute marijuana legally under state statutes.
“Things are changing and it seems like kind of an appropriate business from Ophir,” said Allyn Hart before voting against the plan.
Her cohorts were, by and large, massively opposed to any pot growing in their little town.
“I don’t want it in my backyard,” said Matt Williamson, who could literally see the plants from his backyard if the plan had been approved. “I’d like to see people go elsewhere if they want it. There’s a playground right next door, and I don’t want to see people driving from all over the county to get their weed.”