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The City Council passed City Ordinance 4 (Series 2010) at the June 21, 2010 City Council meeting. Ordinance 4 extends the current moratorium on medical marijuana business in the City of Ouray, and expands the moratorium to prohibit the sale and cultiviation of medical marijuana. Read the Ordinance. Please continue to check this site for periodic updates on the subject. Read details posted previously.
During the August 16th Council meeting, the City Council heard from a number of citizens regarding their position on this matter. In the end, the Council decided that this matter belonged on the November ballot and took action to approve the IGA with the County for the coordinated election. There was discussion about the ballot language and the Council is exploring two ballot questions: 1) whether to allow medical marijuana operations within the City limits, and 2) that if medical marijuana is allowed, as special tax on the business. The City Council will host a special Council meeting on Tuesday, August 24th at 7:00 PM in the Community Center to finalize the ballot language for the election.
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The reasons Herbal Connections' representatives have given for wanting to bring their brand of manufacturing to Ouray are neither impressive nor persuasive. One of them asserted, "You don’t do manufacturing in an urban center." Nonsense, of course you do. That's the best place for manufacturing. Urban center, south of the tracks. Somewhere in Boulder sounds about right.
Another told us that Ouray would benefit through more jobs, and through the occupancy of a now largely vacant warehouse. But a mere twelve jobs is too dear a cost. A building that size could easily support dozens more. And "occupancy" in this case will in fact be "anti-occupancy." The building will be locked up tight and lost to the community. There won't be so much as a sign on it. When fully occupied and operational, the warehouse will appear more abandoned than it does now.
The Plaindealer's editorial writer took another stab at persuasion, suggesting that "all this could position Ouray well to benefit from a booming new industry…." How? The reported benefit to Ouray is $20,000 a year for a permit to operate, which seems both imprudently static and pitifully negligible. The editorial writer went on to crow, "In less than a year… Herbal Connections has grossed over $1 million." Never mind the gross, what's the net? And what difference does it make whether it's a million or a billion if the benefit to Ouray is static and negligible?
None of the reasons given in support of this proposition is any good. All of them could as easily justify a bordello. To summarize, in exchange for permitting an intensive 32-variety, floor-to-ceiling, 24/7, hydroponic marijuana manufacturing mill at the end of town we are offered $20,000 a year, 12 jobs (10 of them entry-level), an abandoned-appearing warehouse, and the unsavory notoriety of trading "Switzerland of America" for "Dope on the Western Slope."
This is a tale of Faustian proportions, as we ponder selling our community's soul for next to nothing. (In case you forgot, Faust is a tragedy.) There are higher and better uses for the Biota warehouse. Open, reasonable and respectable uses, where industry, employment, and revenue will provide a vibrant source of utility, prosperity and pride for the entire community. Pot factory isn't one of them. I urge the City Council to do us all a favor and nix it. No need to put it to a vote of the citizenry. It's a crackpot idea.
S. Baum
Ouray