Berthoud voters will be asked this November to shutter all medial marijuana dispensaries within the town — the existing dispensary that opened in late 2009 and a brand new one hoping to debut in coming months.

At the same time, Fort Collins residents may be asked to do just the opposite — reverse a ban on dispensaries that voters enacted in the 2011 general election.

With more voters expected to hit the polls this year because it is a presidential election and a statewide measure to legalize marijuana also on the ballot, marijuana will be a definite hot button in Colorado politics.

“It’s going to be interesting,” said Michele Ballinger, who owns Herb’s Medicinals, Berthoud’s existing medical marijuana dispensary with her husband, Kevin.

Expand or shut down?

A year ago, the Berthoud town council decided to open the possibility of a second medical marijuana dispensary in town and began creating a policy for where it could be located and what guidelines should be in place.

Boulder attorney Loree Feiler, owner of two dispensaries in Boulder County, immediately leased property in the small zone where Berthoud decided to allow dispensaries and waited for the rules to be approved.

Earlier this year, when the town opened for new applications she began the process of seeking approval to open her third Green Tree Medicinals in that property on Second Street.

Her application is in the works.

Meanwhile, the make-up of the town board changed with elections and the husband of one of the new board members, Suzie White, started a grass roots petition to let the citizens decide the medical marijuana dispensary issue instead of elected officials.

“We’re trying to make a statement that this is not what we want here in Berthoud,” said Dwayne White, whose group submitted a petition with 461 signatures to the town board last week asking for an election.

Of those, 413 were verified — more than double the 184 needed — and the board decided to refer the measure to the November ballot. Suzie White abstained from voting.

A safe business or a danger to youth?

White and other fellow citizens began their effort after Berthoud police released a report showing an increase in crime and marijuana problems at the schools with the advent of the dispensaries. Fort Collins issued similar statistics during the election last November, and Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith has advocated against the message medical marijuana dispensaries sends to children.

“We just don’t want it around our kids, our grandkids,” White said. “They’re so susceptible, so vulnerable at the age they get introduced to this, and it just has life-long effects on kids.”

Teenagers’ brains are still developing, and marijuana use can have lasting effects, including an increased risk for addiction, said Deb Roberts, executive director of Alternatives for Youth, a nonprofit in Longmont that serves at-risk youth.

She noted that one high school alone in Longmont saw a 72 percent increase in marijuana incidents when dispensaries were open in the city, and most admitted they got the drug from someone with a medical marijuana card.

The use and access, she said, has decreased with the closure of dispensaries.

“Marijuana hasn’t gone away,” Roberts said. “It’s just much less available.”

Ballinger disputes that kids are getting marijuana from the dispensaries in Berthoud. She said she serves legitimate clients to help them manage debilitating pain.

Without dispensaries, patients would be forced to get their medical marijuana from private caregivers, which are not regulated in the state as dispensaries are, and would be spread throughout neighborhoods.

Anybody over the age of 18 can be a private caregiver and grow five plants per patient without going through background checks, without security.

“We have to be squeaky, squeaky clean,” Ballinger said. “If this passes, it’s going to be horrible for us and our patients.”

Feiler, too, believes dispensaries get a bad rap.

She said more marijuana funneled onto the streets not because of the dispensaries but because the state changed rules that these businesses had to grow most of their own product, forcing their former suppliers to sell on the streets.

Dispensaries, she said, are safer and provide quality medicine at a cheaper price.

She added that legitimate owners welcome the rules and regulations.

“There’s a need and a place for it,” Feiler said.

Both sides said they will share information with voters in the months leading up to the deciding day. But neither the Ballingers nor Feiler will have an official say; they cannot cast ballots because they do not live in town.

Even knowing the risk that voters might ban dispensaries, Feiler is moving forward with her application. The former Florida judge said there is a risk with any new business, and she is willing to take that risk for a service in which she believes.

Although she lives in Boulder, Feiler loves Berthoud and respects the small town politics and what goes into the decisions by the town board.

“By allowing people to have their say, more power to them,” she added.

Maintain or reverse the ban?

Last year, Fort Collins voters banned dispensaries within the city limits by a 53-47 percent margin. Loveland, Longmont, Windsor, Dacono and many other municipalities have also banned dispensaries, while others like Boulder and Denver have not. Voters in Lyons, when asked to ban them in the small town, elected to keep the dispensaries in place.

Within Larimer County, only Berthoud allows them, and one exists in the unincorporated county. And only Berthoud is allowing new applications.

However, those in favor of dispensaries collected 9,000 signatures on a petition to put dispensaries back on the Fort Collins ballot, to ask voters to reverse last year’s decision. The petition should go to the Fort Collins council this month to be referred to the ballot.

Meanwhile, a measure is also on the ballot statewide to legalize marijuana altogether.

“Everyone else is going forward, and Berthoud is going backward,” Ballinger said.

White sees it just the opposite.

Both are anxious to see the voters’ view.

Pamela Dickman can be reached at 669-5050, ext. 526, or pdickman@reporter-herald.com . Follow her on Twitter @pamelalittlebee.