In a recent Daily Post editorial series, some proposed Archuleta County regulations that would have significantly limited, for certain Pagosa residents, the ability to grow marijuana plants in their gardens.
I suggested that some of the proposed regulations appeared to conflict with an amendment made to the Colorado Constitution by the voters ten years ago.
Private marijuana cultivation is not merely ‘legal’ in Colorado — it is actually a protected constitutional right. The ballot language of Amendment 64, approved in November 2012, begins with this wording:
(1) Purpose and findings.
(a) In the interest of the efficient use of law enforcement resources, enhancing revenue for public purposes, and individual freedom, the people of the State of Colorado find and declare that the use of marijuana should be legal for persons twenty-one years of age or older and taxed in a manner similar to alcohol.
In its voter-approved version, Article XVIII, Section 16 of our Constitution guarantees the following protections:
(3) Personal use of marijuana. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the following acts are not unlawful and shall not be an offense under Colorado law or the law of any locality within Colorado or be a basis for seizure or forfeiture of assets under Colorado law for persons twenty-one years of age or older:
(a) Possessing, using, displaying, purchasing, or transporting marijuana accessories or one ounce or less of marijuana.
(b) Possessing, growing, processing, or transporting no more than six marijuana plants, with three or fewer being mature, flowering plants, and possession of the marijuana produced by the plants on the premises where the plants were grown, provided that the growing takes place in an enclosed, locked space, is not conducted openly or publicly, and is not made available for sale…
Some of the proposed Land Use Regulations brought to the Archuleta County Planning Commission last month by County Development Director Pamela Flowers appeared to me (just a journalist, not a lawyer) to violate section (b) of this constitutional right. But the Planning Commission nevertheless voted to recommend the changes.
You can download those proposed changes to the Land Use Regulations here, as recommended by the Planning Commission in March. The proposed changes are shown in ‘red’.
The Planning Commission had not, however, allowed any public comment, from the numerous interested citizens who had attended the meeting, hoping to comment on, or raise questions about, the proposed rules. The audience was instructed to bring any comments to the BOCC’s April 5 meeting.
When the Board of County Commissioners considered the changes on April 5, they opened the floor to public comment. Remarkably enough, nearly everyone who spoke, argued in support of freedom to grow marijuana, and nearly everyone who spoke indicated that they used marijuana, not for recreationally, but as medicine, for either pain relief or to treat depression. Or both.
The consensus from the commissioners on April 5 was that some of the new rules were conflicting with the Constitution and with state laws. Director Flowers was instructed to avoid placing new restrictions into the Land Use Regulations, except for one: that marijuana could be grown only on a property where the grower resided. No growing allowed on vacant lots, in other words.
The latest version of the proposed rules can be downloaded here. This new version will be considered by the County Planning Commission tonight at 6pm, at the County Administration Building, 398 Lewis Street.
If experience serves, no public comment will be allowed.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.