[420 Girl]

NEWTON COUNTY, MO. - Controversy over a marijuana ordinance helps another write-in candidate smoke the competition.

Cliff Village Mayor Joseph Blundell recently passed an ordinance to legalize the use of medical marijuana.

Blundell was uncontested in Tuesday's election, but write-in candidate Mark Sweet received 14 votes.

Blundell had just four votes.

Mayor declines to resign

In February the mayor of a tiny Joplin suburb said he would stay put, despite calls for his resignation.

A group of Cliff Village residents alleged that a local ordinance legalizing medical marijuana was adopted without a legal mandate.

They believe Mayor Joe Blundell misrepresented the critical vote of one board member.

Mayor Blundell said he had been presented with a petition bearing 18 signatures, calling for his immediate resignation.

Blundell said the ordinance passed on February 1 by a 3-2 vote is strictly symbolic, designed to show grass-roots support for Missouri to legalize medical marijuana as 13 other states have.

Petition-signers contend that Blundell did not have the backing of village officials for the ordinance, and that he was using the community to advance a personal agenda.

Train accident leads to mayor's use of medical marijuana

Joe Blundell told us earlier in the month that it all started when he was run over by a train nine years ago.

"It ground me up pretty good and I got, as a result of that, several screws, three inch titanium screws, drilled into my spinal column," Joseph Blundell said. "It doesn't feel like kittens purring, I mean it hurts like crazy. And the only things the doctors would give me after this accident was morphine, codein, and demorall. All opium-based narcodics."

It wasn't until a friend recommended replacing those drugs with marijuana that Blundell said he was relieved of his pain. He said he has since quit, but now it's turned into a fight for a new right - starting at the city level.

Sheriff says he will still enforce the law

Mayor Blundell met with Cliff Village council members last October to discuss legalizing the medical use of marijuana. Soon after, the motion was up for vote.

"The council, the way we vote on ordinances here, the council actually voted, and it was a close vote, it ended up being 3 to 2, so it just barely passed, but them's the breaks when it comes to democracy," Blundell said.

The ordinance allows someone with a doctor's approval to have a few ounces of marijuana and grow a few plants.

But Cliff Village is still under the patrol of Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland. He said marijuana is illegal in Newton County and the state, and promises to enforce the law everywhere.

"My advice would be to anybody living in Cliff Village, especially those who voted for this that think you can - I think we'll show you that you can't, because you'll go to jail and you will be prosecuted," said Sheriff Copeland.

Mayor Blundell said he expects backlash from his community's new marijuana ordinance.


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