Grand Junction voters decided Tuesday, April 5, to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. While this reflects the will of our community, it represents a double standard in free enterprise.
Various proceedings have led to this juncture. Last year city council members voted to ban dispensaries after a lengthy debate between caregivers, patients, and displeased citizens. Proponents of the dispensaries formed a petition and successfully challenged city council on the mandate, which would have taken effect January 1. The city moved to ask citizens about the measure during the city’s municipal election.
Personally, I have little problem with the pot shops. Medical marijuana is legal in Colorado, and caregivers should be able to provide it to their patients in whatever ways they see fit. If this is a storefront in a strip mall, who am I to say that it’s wrong?
These stores are a perfect example of the diversity of economic trends. Since its legalization, medical marijuana, much like marijuana in general, generated a demand. Growers, caregivers, and investors saw this as an opportunity for profit, and they surely had a supply. Dispensaries are a cost effective way of selling a product, which consumers wish to purchase.
I don’t want to downplay the impact of marijuana. It is a drug with adverse effects. There has been enough research, enough non-violent offenders sent to jail, and enough years of responsible cannabis use in the United States to prove that cannabis is not any more harmful than a considerable amount of legal products when used responsibly. This is why there has been a constant, growing demand for the substance in our country for a very long time. People need to face the fact that there is a demand for cannabis that no law can control.
Finally, when governmental bodies acted on facts proven by medical research, cannabis for medical use was legalized by several states. Much like pharmaceutical companies and investors, states saw an opportunity for revenue by taxing a product with high demand. This was the beginning of legitimate industry. It started out small, in backrooms not visible to the non-seeking eye. But like any industry recently given the breath of enterprise, of legal protection, it grew.
Grand Junction voters have shown a double standard in their perspective of industry. Oil and gas ventures have also recently flourished near our community, and not all of its effects are positive, but the citizens of Grand Junction are aware that their presence benefits the growth and security of our local economy. Who is to say that pot shops are any different?
The closing of these stores suppresses this industry, and pushes it farther back into the realm of crime and illicit activity. It also returns to back rooms, a secret kind of engagement, and an illusion of prohibition. Some opponents may feel safer, knowing that if they don’t approve of an industry existing in the public eye, they can force it back into secret, like its something to be ashamed of to engage in.
The voters of Grand Junction have worn out and disproven rhetoric hard enough that it has endangered the growth and development of a natural free market in our community. One they will only support if it is socially acceptable by their standards.

ealinko@mesastate.edu