Alamosa citizens will decide whether to put marijuana on Nov. ballot
MMJ businesses estimate they are losing up to $30,000 a week by not having recreational marijuana.
Shanna Hobbs has a good idea how much money she is losing every week, by not selling recreational cannabis in the Alamosa County medical dispensary she manages, High Valley Healing.
“We are probably losing $10,000-$30,000 week, probably more during the tourist season.”
After watching the potential profits leave her store, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She started a petition drive to give citizens the right to vote on whether or not to allow recreational marijuana in the city of Alamosa. Previously, in 2013, Alamosa city council members voted 5–1, prohibiting marijuana retail stores, manufacturing and cultivation.
On Aug. 24, the Alamosa City Council will hold a public hearing to decide whether or not to allow voters to resolve whether dispensaries and other cannabis-related businesses should be allowed in the city.
“We really don’t have a ballot language, yet,” said Alamosa Mayor Josef Lucero. “It’s all pretty nebulous, at this point, we have to wait and see what we hear at the public hearing.”
Mayor Lucero says he would prefer if the matter is settled on the Nov. 8 ballot, instead of a special election, which could cost the city upwards of $5,000 to hold.
“We don’t want to saddle our residents with a special election. So that’s the purpose of holding this special meeting and getting public comment, before we go forward,” he said.
High Valley Healing, owned by Dr. Diane Dunlap, is located between Monte Vista and Alamosa. Opened since 2013, it is one of only two medical dispensaries in the county. Hobbs says she abides by the strict county rules of only being open Monday through Saturday, and closed on all holidays, but she could never grasp why the citizens of Alamosa were never allowed to vote on allowing any dispensaries in the city limits.
“So I went to a work session this summer and they were talking about marijuana and they said, ‘No we aren’t going to vote on it, but if someone brings us a petition, then we have to do it,’ so it lit a fire under me to start a petition drive.”
Canvassing at local farmers’ markets, and at her dispensary, she managed to gather about 200 signatures. While short of the 317 needed to put the matter on a special ballot, it got the attention of the city council, which agreed to hear what the public has to say, in the special agenda meeting.
“I told them I would keep getting signatures, and I wouldn’t stop,” Hobbs said. “So we can go forward with a special election, which will cost the city several thousand dollars, or we can decide this in November.”
At this point, Hobbs doesn’t have a preference to whether either medical or recreational cannabis businesses come to the city of Alamosa, however, based on her own daily interaction with recreational customers, in her medical shop, she sees the advantages of allowing leisure sales.
“Well right now as it stands, I have tons of tourists who come in here and I have to send them 40 miles north to Moffat, or 30 miles south to Antonito, or 20 miles east to Fort Garland, or an hour to Pagosa Springs. That money needs to stay in our community.”
