[420 Girl]

Colorado Springs Gazette - Grappling with the least-important, most-imitation crisis in years, the El Paso County ( Colo. ) Commission recently voted unanimously to allow medical marijuana sellers to operate in specified commercial zones. Commissioners, some reluctantly, decided to treat marijuana retailers as they do liquor stores, though with less on-site scrutiny.

Colorado voters approved medical marijuana 10 years ago. It's in the state constitution, which trumps local authority. A constitution restricts the powers of government, and the Colorado constitution specifically prohibits government from impeding the sale of medical marijuana. That leaves room only for the reasonable time, place and manner restrictions applied to other businesses. It's really that simple.

County Commissioner Sallie Clark knows some people need marijuana. As a medical assistant years ago in another state, she treated a cancer patient who needed marijuana to avoid destructive hard drugs while coping with pain.

"It was awful, because she was an older woman, and we had to send her out to buy it off the street from a drug dealer," Clark said. "It was demeaning."

Let's not fool ourselves. Some doctors write medical marijuana recommendations for all who seek them, and lots of marijuana retailers are selling primarily to recreational users. Yet nobody can explain how that's a problem. Conversely, it's easy to see how the Colorado constitution solves a serious problem. Eleven years ago, a recreational user could buy only from the criminal street dealer just like Clark's elderly cancer patient. Today, the recreational user can avoid the street thug and buy safely from a retailer who pays sales taxes and obeys existing time, place and manner retail regulations.

In a Gazette news story about the decision, Clark said: "If we wait any longer, we're going to have more problems."

Was Clark referring to social problems, such as traffic danger, raucous parties, crime, or loitering hippie freaks?

"I don't think we've seen a lot of" social problems, Clark said, in response to a question from the Gazette's opinion department. "As far as I know there haven't been any problems."

In fact, county staff members told commissioners that they don't have record of a single complaint about medical marijuana. Not one person has called and asked for regulation. Not one person has called to complain of a problem associated with a buyer or seller.

Clearly, so-called "medical" marijuana has moved Colorado far in the direction of de facto full-scale legalization. Behold, it hasn't caused problems. Nobody cares not the Right, the Left, or the middle. Only those in government see this as a problem to solve. A Gallup poll in October showed a dramatic nationwide increase in acceptance of full legalization of marijuana, and a dramatic decrease in support for continued prohibition. In Western states, a clear majority support full legalization.

While it's a great idea to avoid recreational use of any drug, the biggest societal burden associated with marijuana has been a longstanding practice of politicians using it to grow and empower government. Never has this "crisis" been more clearly a fraud than in Colorado this year.

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