On Tuesday the Fort Collins, Colorado City Clerk’s Office confirmed that a citizen initiative to repeal the ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in the city has enough signatures to make the ballot this fall.

“We have certified it,” said acting City Clerk Rita Harris. “We stopped counting after we had verified 4,302 signatures (4,214 were needed), and there are 743 more signature lines that were not checked. I don’t think anything would have changed the outcome.”

“We feel great,” said initiative organizer Kirk Scramstad. “We’re happy that we collected the signatures that we have collected. We feel that shows that here is support for this issue within the city of Fort Collins, and we look forward to giving a larger number of voters a chance to vote on this issue in November.”

Organizers submitted about 9,000 signatures last week, and over half of them were thrown out.

Last year Fort Collins voters decided to ban dispensaries, and the proposed repeal of the ban would still prohibit dispensaries within 1,000 feet of a school or a playground and within 500 feet of a church, childcare center or recreation site. Plus, the number of dispensaries would be limited to one for every 500 registered medical marijuana patients.

If something was being banned that served just about any other group, cries of discrimination would come from everywhere, so why are medical marijuana patients allowed to be discriminated against? Just because they choose a safer form of medicine?

Propaganda about medical cannabis dispensaries still works, which is why it must be fought at every turn. They are not crime magnets but businesses just like any other with valuable merchandise. With good security they can be an asset to any neighborhood, and a great source of tax revenue for any city or town.

Source: http://www.coloradoan.com