[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Agenda Item 3H - Marijuana Ordinance and Ballot Measure

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Cowles, Macon

The use of the phrase "recreational marijuana" in the Ballot Issue and in the ordinance that would place the issue on the ballot creates an unnecessary tension in the very language
 we use to speak of legal marijuana use after Amendment 64. We can discuss the nature of this tension tomorrow night, but just consider: people don't talk about recreational alcohol use, or recreational use of prescription drugs. To characterize marijuana as
 "recreational" is a thumb in the eye to some, which is why there follows immediately the promise of an antidote: the City will fund "substance abuse programs including prevention, treatment, education, intervention enforcement and research," all aimed a discouraging
 "recreational" marijuana use. (See packet pdf at p. 107 and 109, or staff memo at p. 3 and p.5),


Recreational vs. medical marijuana



The Ballot Issue and Ordinance would impose a tax only on non-medical marijuana. Does that make sense? Why shouldn't the taxes that are proposed in the staff memo and the ordinance be imposed on marijuana--period--whether the use is recreational, medical,
 social, casual, mystical, experimental or otherwise. So why don't we just use the simple term "marijuana" and ditch the modifier "recreational" in the Ballot Issue, and in the ordinance? True, to do that erases the distinction between medical marijuana and
 all other uses of it, but that is what Amendment 64 does anyway.


I ask the City Attorney's Office: is there any reason why we cannot do this, i.e., remove the word "recreational" before the word "marijuana" in the Ballot Issue and ordinance, IF Council is OK with imposing the additional excise and sales tax on medical
 marijuana too?


Thank you.


Macon Cowles
Boulder City Councilor